Frank Lee
As a professional musician, visual artist, and instructor, Frank Lee's passion for traditional music of the rural south has entertained audiences for almost 30 years.
Born in Atlanta, Ga., Frank grew up listening to stories about the exploits of his banjo-playing grandfathers. Tales of Fiddlin' John Carson, and Riley Puckett intrigued him as did stories of scores of other early country and blues greats who recorded in his hometown.
After graduating from high school, Frank broke his femur in an accident. Forced to take it easy while recouperating, Frank's father bought him a second hand banjo to pass the time; little did he know it would be the beginning of a lifelong passion for the instrument. Frank began performing and teaching banjo while he was in art school at the University of Georgia. Frank's musical focus gradually moved more toward the older, more traditional sounds of southern music that were his roots.
In 1992, Frank relocated to the mountains of Western North Carolina, where he began playing for the train goers on the Great Smoky Mountain Railway in Bryson CityFrank recruited fellow musicians from around the country to form the Freight Hoppers, an old-time stringband that toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, experiencing a level of success unheard of for a modern day old-time band. Appearances on Garrison Keiller's " A Prairie Home Companion" combined with tremendous amounts of radio airplay and festival performances fueled the band's popularity, eventually resulting in two critically acclaimed albums that climbed into the top 20 on the Billboard charts for Americana music.
Frank's distinctive arrangements of this mostly forgotten music represents the earliest recorded sources of Southern blues and old-time tunes. With a traditional clawhammer banjo style and a combination of finger-picking and slide guitar, Frank weaves together the common elements between raw country blues and old-time tunes, ballads, and spirituals. And when he's not playing this music, Frank can be found drawing or painting images of the musicians who first recorded it.