Lee Sexton

Stream and download from Bandcamp

Lee Sexton, a revered banjo legend, is a link to the deep past of American music. A retired coal miner born in Letcher County, Kentucky, Lee began playing the banjo at eight. “Whoa Mule” includes everything from a 1952 home recording with fiddler Fernando Lusk to recordings made in 2001, all played with his distinctive two-finger banjo style. In 1959 he recorded for the landmark Smithsonian Folkways release “Mountain Music of Kentucky,” and earned the Governor’s Award in the Arts; it runs in the family, since his uncle Morgan Sexton earned the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Award for his “amazingly pure and unaffected singing and playing style.” Both Morgan and Lee’s son Phil have released work on Appalshop’s record label June Appal Recordings, as well.