Homer Ledford
Medias Used or Areas of Interest:
Music
|
Born and raised in the Tennessee Mountains, Homer Ledford began making musical instruments at an early age. He made his first dulcimer while attending the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC on a rehabilitation scholarship. Mr Ledford then attended Berea College, transferred to Eastern Ky. University, and received a B.S. degree in l954. For the following ten years he taught industrial arts in Jefferson and Clark Counties. In 1963, he resigned from teaching to become a full time instrument maker. In his life he completed 6014 dulcimers, 476 banjos, 27 mandolins, 26 guitars, 18 ukuleles, 13 dulcitars, 3 dulcijos, 3 dulcibros, 4 violins and one bowed dulcimer. Mr. Ledfords own patented inventions include a dulcitar, a fretless banjo and an appalachian dulcimer.
In addition to creating instruments, Mr. Ledford was also an accomplished Bluegrass musician. Homer Ledford and the Cabin Creek Band has been performing since its founding in 1976. The band has performed as far away as Ecuador, Ireland and Japan, and as locally as the Kentucky Theater in Lexington, opening for such groups as Allison Krauss Bluegrass Band and Bill Monroe. He has entertained the last five governors of Kentucky, and also regularly played for local schools, colleges, nursing homes et c. In 1986, Mr. Ledfords hometown of Winchester, Kentucky created the Homer Ledford Bluegrass Festival in his honor; the festival ran for three consecutive years.
Mr. Ledfords talent has been recognized many times. Kentucky Educational Television did a feature entitled Homer Ledford: Instrument Maker, as well as broadcasting his performances for the governors on live TV. He has had appearances on WSM TV in Nashville, The Bob Brown Show in Cincinnati, and Japans national TV network in a documentary on Bluegrass Masters as part of a series about American Cultures. Eastern Kentucky University produced a short documentary movie about his work and music, and posthumously awarded Mr. Ledford an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree in 2006. Mr. Ledford also shares a more visible marker of renown with such company as Loretta Lynn and Patricia Neal, having been one of the original inductees into the Kentucky Walk of Fame.
|
