Dan X. Padgett

Music icon receives state’s highest honor

By Jacob Conley
jconley@thedigitalcourier.com

October 17, 2017

Overflow audience welcomes banjo picker/instructor Padgett

ELLENBORO — Bluegrass and barbecue were the order of the day Saturday at the Ellenboro Elementary School as Bluegrass legend Dan X. Padgett was presented the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine award to cap off the Dan X. Padgett Jamboree.

“It’s the highlight of my career,” Padgett said, of receiving one of North Carolina’s highest civilian awards, presented by the Governor of the State.

“I’ve gotten lots of awards from all over the place, but there is nothing like coming home. There is nowhere I would rather be. This is a special day,” Padgett said.

Padgett certainly has had plenty of awards and honors during his storied career. In addition to the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, Padgett has been honored with the Legends Award, Heritage Award, and many others. In 2009, Padgett was inducted in the Country

Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

“All those awards are great, they really are, but the best thing is getting to hear my students play or when they get an award,” Padgett said. Padgett was born in Ellenboro on Race Path Church Road in 1937 and started playing the banjo when he was nine years old.

“My dad was the one who wanted to be a banjo player, but it was the Depression and he couldn’t afford one,” Padgett remembers. “He found one in Spartanburg for fifty dollars, but it might as well have been five thousand back then, so he started singing in a quartet. He would take me to different radio stations with him and I got to meet lots of different folks. That’s how I got started.”

One of those people he met was Earl Scruggs, who along with Snuffy Jenkins taught him the three fingered pickin’ style. Scruggs lived near Padgett during those days.

“I met Earl when I was 10 and every Saturday he would take me to his house and we would play,” Padgett said. “I met Snuffy a little later and sometimes he would come by and play with us. Those were some good times.” Ironically, music was not Padgett’s first career choice as he studied for three years to become a medical doctor at Wake Forest University.

“After three years the music kept gnawing at me,” Padgett said. “I just had to give it a try.”

So Padgett moved to Nashville where he began a long and illustrious music career. He played with the famed duo Flatt and Scruggs during that time, touring with the Foggy Mountain Boys for a while; along with Andy Griffith, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson and many others. He has also played on stage at the Grand Ole Opry and on numerous radio and TV programs.

“Those were some tough times,” Padgett said. “We would all pile in a Cadillac, six of us, to go do a show, play, and have to be back at WSM (radio) the next day at 7 AM to play live. That’s the biggest difference between now and then. Today everybody has a big tour bus. We didn’t have that back then.”

Today, Padgett enjoys life at a slower pace in Rutherford County and teaches students at his Boiling Springs studio.

“That’s what is so great about Bluegrass music,” he said. “You can just relax and play it sitting on the porch with family and friends.”

That’s exactly what Padgett did on Saturday. After he received his awards, Padgett sat on stage for a jam session with current and former students, playing Flatt and Scruggs hit, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

“I’m going into my 46th year of teaching students,” Padgett said. “I still enjoy it. The biggest piece of advice I can give anybody wanting to learn to play is practice, practice, practice. Practice till you run everybody out of the house and practice some more. I’m happy to see that people still enjoy and want to learn to play this kind of music. That’s what keeps it alive.”

More than 500 people attended the Padgett Jamboree with standing room only as Padgett went on stage to play music with students.

Students as young as 6 years old to seniors who are or have been students of Padgett.

“It was quiet a day and he is so deserving of this,” said Jim Bishop, emcee and among coordinators of the event.

A former music student who lives in Ohio traveled to Ellenboro just to be with Padgett.

Bishop said Padgett spent much of the afternoon signing autographs.

“People couldn’t stay away from him. He is a celebrity,” he added.

Reprinted with permission of The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier

A well-deserved, long overdue jamboree for Padgett

Dan X. Padgett seemed like a celebrity Saturday at Ellenboro Elementary School, surrounded by young friends and older ones seeking autographs and photographs from the music giant.

The banjo-picking icon, who has stood on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry many times and the Ellenboro School stage, has faithfully taught students across Ruth-erford County and Cleveland County for nearly half a century. Many of his students took the opportunity to show up for the music jamboree held in honor of Padgett Saturday.

The grand finale of the afternoon event was having Padgett on stage to pick with as many of his music students that would fit on stage. It was clearly one of his finest moments of the jamboree.

Another highlight came with the Rutherford County Sheriff Chris Francis presented the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award on behalf of Gov. Roy Cooper. The honor is among the most prestigious awards pre¬sented by the Governor of North Carolina, to an individual with a proven record of extraordinary service to the state.

A multi-award winner across the world of bluegrass music, Padgett said no award has thrilled him any more than the awards from his home state.

Padgett grew up in south Rutherford County and became close friends with Earl Scruggs, who developed his own style of picking the 5-string banjo. The two became friends although there was about 10 years difference in their ages, they were close.

He has been on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and for a while toured with his friend, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys.

He rubbed shoulders as a young boy with banjo pioneer at Snuffy Jenkins and often picked at the annual festivals named for Jenkins.

Padgett was described by one jamboree attendee as “a humble” man who never wanted any recognition.

But Saturday the Rutherford County celebrity was honored with his own jamboree and Dan X. Padgett Day.

For a person who has brought so much pleasure to the world of bluegrass music and fine banjo picking, Saturday’s event was long overdue and much deserved.

Reprinted with permission of The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier