Chanteur et banjoiste Country US né Edward Windsor Adcock, le 21 juin 1938 à Scottsville (Virginie).

Among the major-league talent emerging from the folk music boom of the late '50s were the Country Gentlemen, a D.C.-based quartet that introduced bluegrass to a generation of city folks and college students, people who had never heard of Flatt & Scruggs or Bill Monroe or the Stanley Brothers. The Gentlemen, in playing the old bluegrass standards but playing them "different," were in a sense the first newgrass group. Eddie Adcock was the band's banjo player and he was a player of distinction — his style was as innovative as Don Reno's. Adcock's considerable talent spread to other stringed instruments when he left The Gentlemen in 1970 and began exploring new musical genres. For the next three decades, Eddie Adcock remained one of the most popular musicians in bluegrass.
Adcock was born and raised in Scottsville, VA. He bought his first banjo as child and began performing with his brother Frank shortly afterward. The duo would sing in local churches and radio stations based in the nearby Charlottesville. In his teens, he played in a band called the James River Playboys and worked at a theater in his hometown, where he had the opportunity to see major country artists of the day, including Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. At the age of 14, he left home after a family crisis and supported himself through semi-professional boxing. For the next seven years, he boxed and played music at nights. A few years later, he began racing cars. As a racer, Adcock racked up 34 straight wins with his car, which he named Mr. Banjo; he also had set two track records at Manassas, VA. Not only did he box and race, he also performed various blue-collar jobs to pay the rent. All the time, he played music at night.
Eddie Adcock didn't begin his professional musical career until 1953, when he joined Smokey Graves & His Blue Star Boys, who had a regular show at a radio station in Crewe, VA. His exposure with Graves led to jobs with other musicians, including Mac Wiseman, Bill Harrell, and Buzz Busby. Between 1953 and 1957, he floated between different bands. Bill Monroe offered a job to Adcock in 1957, and he played with the Blue Grass Boys for a short time — Monroe had to let him go because the band simply wasn't earning enough money to employ him. Adcock returned to working day jobs, but that was short-lived. After he started working in a sheet metal factory, Jim Cox, John Duffey, and Charlie Waller asked him to join their new band, the Country Gentlemen.
the Country Gentlemen became one of the most popular and respected bluegrass bands of the late '50s and '60s, as well as one of the most progressive. They expanded the repertoire of bluegrass bands to include contemporary country, folk, and rock songwriters, most notably Bob Dylan; usually they added this material at the urging of Adcock. the Country Gentlemen rode to popularity in the late '50s as part of the folk boom and continued to be one of the most popular bluegrass/folk bands in the country throughout the '60s.
At the end of the '60s, Adcock began to feel constrained by the Country Gentlemen. He wanted to experiment with different musical genres, which he felt the band wasn't willing to do. Consequently, he quit The Gentlemen and moved to California, where he formed a country-rock band called the Clinton Special. While he performed with the group he used the pseudonym Clinton Codack. The band recorded only one single, "Just as You Are I Love You"/"Blackberry Fence," which was released on MGM Records; the A-side of the single was featured in the 1971 film The Horsemen.
After the Clinton Special fell apart, Adcock headed back east, where he formed another group, II Generation with Bob White, A.L. Wood, Wendy Thatcher, and Jimmy Gaudreau, who used to play with the Country Gentlemen. II Generation's lineup changed frequently during the '70s, but it gelled around 1974 when Martha Hearon joined the group. Hearon played guitar for the band and wrote a good share of its material; she also married Adcock soon after she joined. II Generation was active throughout the '70, releasing a handful of albums on the Rome, Rebel, and CMH labels.
Adcock and Hearon disbanded the group in 1980 and moved to Tennessee, where they formed a trio called Talk of the Town with bassist Missy Raines. In the mid-'80s, Adcock launched a solo career, releasing a series of cassette-only collections on CMH. In the '90s, he began releasing albums on compact disc, as well as performing with an all-star bluegrass outfit called the Masters. After nearly 40 years in the music business, Eddie Adcock remained as popular as he ever was, touring all around the world.

Talents : Singer, Songwriter, Banjo, Guitar

Style musical : Bluegrass

Années en activité :

DISCOGRAPHIE

Albums

1987	LP 12" CMH 6263 (US)		AND TALK OF THE TOWN - Windy Woman / Give This Message To Your Heart / Saturday Night Fish Fry / Renaissance Man / Dreams Are Made To Remember / I'm Walkin' / Baby Let's Play House / A Rose On The Riverbank / The Hotter She Burns / Long Black Veil / Eddie's Matchbox Blues / Up Around The Bend
1988	LP 12" CMH 6265 (US)		EDDIE ADCOCK AND HIS GUITAR - Guitar Echoes / Sun Fall 1988 / Under The Double Eagle / Love Is Blue / Bluegrass Boogie / Sunshine / Theme From Exodus / Sugar Foot Rag / Eddie's Love Theme / Birth Of The Blues / Silver Blue / Guitar Rag / Bump And Jump / Strollin'
1988	LP 12" CMH 9039 (US)		THE ACOUSTIC CONNECTION
1991	CD CMH 6270 (US)		DIXIE FRIED - (The Eddie ADCOCK BAND) - Dixie Fried / Dog / Bootlegger / Tender Lie / Jealous Heart / Midnight Rider / She Used To Love Me A Lot / Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You / Between Fire And Water / Birmingham Bounce / Didn't You / Bluegrass Morning / Will There Ever Be Another / Dixie In My Eye
1992	CD REBEL 1482 (US)		SENSATIONAL TWIN BANJOS - (Eddie ADCOCK - Don RENO) - Bye Bye Blues / Bully Of The Town / Lonesome Road Blues / Banjo Riff / Speedin' West / Turkey In The Straw / Down Yonder / Waltz You Saved For Me / Goodbye Liza Jane / Little Old Cabin In The Lane / Swanee River
01/1995	CD CMH 6272 (US)		TALK TO YOUR HEART - (The Eddie ADCOCK BAND) - Talk to Your Heart / Without You / All I Want Is You / Anything For The Blues / Wrong About You, Right About Me / Cold July / Boy From Arkansas / Your Heart Or Mine / Another Lonesome Morning / After Holding Heaven / He's Taking It Hard / Don't Sweetheart Me / Ed Scales In The Sunset / Too Lonely To Heart The Rain / Call Me The Breeze
06/1996	CD PINECASTLE 1058 (US)		RENAISSANCE MAN - San Antonio Rose / Poopsie Blue / Crazy Blues / Run, May, Run / Lonesome Banjo / Banjo Signal / Wild Swanee Home / Renaissancce Man / Pallet On Your Floor / Mrs. Robinson / Sing Banjo Sing / Mangadang / Dream Concerto / Lost At Sea
05/1998	CD PINECASTLE 1078 (US)		SPIRITED - (Eddie & Martha ADCOCK) - By The Side Of The Road / Open Book / Narrow Road / What Love Can't Do / Spirited / Satisfied Mind / Gonna Get There Soon / Living Water / Don't Do It And It Won' Be On Your Mind / Rainbow / Standing In The Need Of Prayer / Even After Forever
05/2003	CD PINECASTLE 1128 (US)		TWOGRASS - (Eddie & Martha ADCOCK) - Let's  / Something To Be Finding / It's Grand To Have Someone To Love You / Have Thine Own Way / I Am A Pilgrim / Pretty Redwing (inst.) / Nobody's Darling But Mine / Where Will I Shelter My Sheep / I Got Wise / Uncle Joe / (Is This) My Destiny / Gold Watch And Chain

© Rocky Productions 1/02/2005