Raised in the Piedmont of North Carolina, Kirk Sutphin was born into a rich heritage of old-time music. He studied fiddle at the knees of masters such as Tommy Jarrell and Lonnie Austin, mastering both the Round Peak and Piedmont styles of fiddling, as well as the lilting Virginia fiddle styles of Emmett Lundy and Taylor Kimble.

Kirk's banjo playing has been influenced by the clawhammer styles of Tommy Jarrell, Dix man, Fred Cockerham, and Wade Ward, as well as the three-finger picking styles of Frank Jenkins and Charlie Poole. He has toured both nationally and internationally, including performances at the Alaska Folk Festival, the National Folk Festival, the Chicago Folk Festival, and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and in 1993 he was part of the acclaimed Masters of the Banjo tour, sponsored by the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

[Biography courtesy of the Swannanoa Gathering].

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