Roscoe Holcomb

Roscoe Holcomb was the man who inspired the term 'high lonesome sound.' A Kentucky coal miner rooted in Old Regular Baptist singing and eastern Kentucky mountain tradition, his music was a stark, almost violent intersection of lining-out hymns, old-time string music, and the blues. Living and working in a shared regional world where Black and white musical traditions constantly traded tools, he played guitar and banjo with heavy string-bending and rhythmic intensity.