Taylor Farley, Jr.

Photographs ©1996 Malcolm J. Wilson

Since the first time he heard Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on a radio broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry when he was growing up in Newport, Taylor Farley, Jr., has been devoted to the five-string banjo. It's something he came by naturally from his father and grandfather, both of whom were recreational pickers. Now he hopes to pass the music on to his own children and their generation of urban Appalachians. "I've opened up shows for Earl Scruggs, I've played with Charlie Daniels, I've played some of the biggest shows that you could ever name. But there'll never be the feeling like the first time that youngun comes in and says 'Hey Dad, this is something you play,' and picks up the banjo. So yeah, it's passed on. I sit and watch him and see the ol' man or my grandpa all the time. Lot a times he’s hitting licks that they did, and he don’t even know it. It’s just weird, where it comes from. Something inside of you, I guess.” 

Perceptions of Home: The Urban Appalachian Spirit ©1996 The Urban Appalachian Council (now Urban Appalachian Community Coalition)

Photographs ©1996 Malcolm J. Wilson; Interviews ©1996 Don Corathers

Photographs digitized by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Genealogy & Local History Department.