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SPOTLIGHT
ON THE ARTS - August 2001 by Deanna Mascle Playing by Thumb
This year at the age of 45 he has received the Governor’s Award in the Arts and the National Heritage Fellowship Award. While he is honored to receive these accolades, he is equally glad for the music he plays to be recognized, “I want folks to know that I feel I’m trying to keep alive one of the greatest styles of music ever developed, and want to share it and help get young folks interested the same as Mose inspired me.” Pennington has done his best to help preserve the style made famous by Merle Travis and the recently deceased Chet Atkins, who were in turn inspired by Mose Rager, the man who laid down the foundations of this technique. However, Pennington’s first musical influence was his father. Although his father was a coal miner, he also played rhythm guitar and the fiddle. “From as early back as I can remember we went to people’s houses and he played music with them. I was not allowed to touch an instrument because I was too little, but every now and then, I might catch the case open and strum across the strings, hoping not to get caught.” The urge to strum a hand across guitar strings continued to grow, so Pennington bought his first guitar at the age of nine. It was old and had no strings and had been hanging in a friend’s smokehouse, but he had a dollar from selling eggs and he really wanted his own guitar. It took his father another couple dollars to repair the instrument, but finally Pennington had his wish. His father taught him some chords and simple tunes as well as how to play rhythm to a fiddle. Then on his 11th birthday he started lessons. By junior high he was playing rhythm guitar behind a local fiddle player and was doing some school performances. In high school he learned to pick the banjo and also to fiddle. His guitar playing progressed so that he also taught guitar lessons. By the time he graduated from high school in Hopkins County he was voted Most Talented Boy. Picking
influences He often learned from listening to Chet Atkins and Merle Travis recordings. Then he met their inspiration – Mose Rager. “When he started to pick for us, the guitar literally breathed. I had never heard one guitar have so much good music. I knew I had met the master, and I have never been as impressed as much by anyone in my life since. I knew I had to be like him.” Merle Travis was also a strong influence on his music. When he was only 3 months old Pennington’s parents took him to the ceremony dedicating a monument in Merle Travis’ honor. “It was the only big event like that my folks ever went to that I knew of.” It was in 1979 that Pennington finally got to meet his hero. Merle Travis invited him to sit back stage at Travis’ Louisville concert and even mentioned him on stage. Pennington was crushed when Travis died in 1983, but a few years later he took his family on their first vacation to attend a Merle Travis Weekend in Mt. View, Arkansas. There he won the guitar contest and attended a workshop. He won again the next year in 1987. “It really made a big difference in my life as I now got an interview on the local radio, a newspaper story, and then my first TV interview.” However, it is not the money, the honors, or the recognition that adds the most to his pleasure – it is his audience. “I get my most pleasure out of playing if someone is enjoying what I’m doing.” Strumming
along While music is a major part of his life, there is more. He attended Western Kentucky University’s premed program and graduated from the Kentucky School of Mortuary Science in Louisville. After marrying in 1979, he settled in Princeton to raise the family that will continue the Pennington musical tradition. He and his wife Penny have two children. His son Alonzo was the 1999 National Champion Thumbpicker, the 1999 Home of the Legends International Thumbpicking Champ, and the 1999 Home of the Legends Open Style Guitar Champ. His daughter Rosebud also plays fiddle, guitar and piano and is a very good singer. “Both kids performed with me in 1996 for the Smithsonian’s Folk Festival in Washington, for over 1.2 million people.” Turning the
page “My career is
turning out somewhat like what I dreamed it would, only
at times I don’t get to play enough. I love it, and
have always felt since a very small boy, that performing
for folks is what I was really intended for.” Deanna Mascle is a
staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2001, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content is
copyright 2001, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Eddie
Pennington may be surprised at the honors he has received
throughout his career, but he is not surprised that he is
still a musician after a career that has spanned four
decades. That is because Eddie Pennington knows he was
born to be a musician – and not just any kind
of musician – a thumbpicker.