Sammy Shelor (Band)

Biography:

Virginia Country Music Hall of Famer, Sammy Shelor is 5-time IBMA Award Winner for Banjo Performer of the Year, 2011 Award Winner for the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass and has received numerous other awards and recognitions during his impressive career and is one of the greatest bluegrass banjoists of our time. Sammy currently leads the Lonesome River Band who have been entertaining audiences for more than 33 years.

When Sammy Shelor joined Lonesome River Band in 1990, he never envisioned himself leading the band only ten years later. Fresh off a six year stint with the popular Virginia Squires, Sam came on board along with Ronnie Bowman and before long, had recorded the landmark LRB CD, "Carrying The Tradition" with Dan Tyminski and Tim Austin. This recording quickly moved the band to headliner status, where they have remained ever since.

His peers in the International Bluegrass Music Association have voted him Banjo Player Of The Year on four separate occasions, and banjo pickers all over the world have studied Sammy’s tab books and instructional DVD from AcuTab.

Sammy got an early start with the banjo, when his grandfather fashioned him a banjo from an old pressure cooker lid when Sam was only four years old. His other grandfather then issued a challenge, promising to buy him a real banjo if the young Shelor would learn to play two songs. Sam met that mark in short order, and with the help of a family devoted both to him and to bluegrass music, he soon found himself entered in contests at fiddler’s conventions near his home in southwestern VA.

By age ten, he was performing in local bands and became a full time professional musician when he graduated from high school, joining The Heights Of Grass at age 19. That band eventually morphed into The Virginia Squires, and brought Sammy into contact with banjo legend Sonny Osborne, who helped shape the young picker’s approach to working as a pro banjo player.

As a testament to Sammy’s prominence and influence in the banjo world, he has his own signature Sammy Shelor banjo fingerpicks, and a signature model banjo produced by Huber Banjos. His influence on amateur and semi-pro pickers can be demonstrated by a casual walk through the parking lots or jam sessions at any bluegrass event, where licks and phrases which Sam has added to the repertoire are heard alongside those contributed by Earl Scruggs and JD Crowe.

Sammy also recorded and performs with country super star Alan Jackson on the “The Bluegrass Album”. They performed at Carnegie Hall, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Station Inn, and more.

Sammy has received a multitude of awards and recognitions during his impressive career including his induction into the 2009 Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame, 2011 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, 5-time winner of the IBMA Banjo Performer of the Year Award, 4-time winner of the SPBGMA Banjo Performer of the Year Award.

Website: http://www.sammyshelor.com/

Links:
Facebook Link for Sammy Shelor

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