Who was Carroll Best, and where does he fit into modern five-string banjo playing? Simply put, Hugh Carroll Best, Jr. was a North Carolina mountain farmer who played the banjo in an intricate melodic style using three-finger technique he learned from his father. He noted, “I grew up playing dances...these old fiddlers would play those hornpipes. So, I just started playing what the fiddle played.” Significantly, Best is arguably the first documented banjo player to articulate the melodic style of banjo playing that was later popularized by players such as Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson, and to some extent Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck.

Joe Wilson of the National Council for the Traditional Arts produced this recording. He notes, “This retrospective compilation of Carroll Best, a founder of melodic banjo style, takes us through decades of his intricate three-finger technique. At once true Appalachian old-time and pure innovation, Carroll Best’s playing represents generations of the fiddle perspective on the American banjo.”

In his notes to the project, essayist Frank Godbey exclaimed that seeing Best in person was, for him, an “eye-opening” experience and proclaimed, “I am certain it will affect you in no less a fashion.” Godbey closes his notes as follows: “Were Carroll here to answer the question, “Say old man, can you play the banjo?” his response would be shy and modest and consistent with Appalachian tradition: “Well, just a little.” But we would know better. Enjoy, then, the music of Carroll Best: an old-time three-finger-style banjo picker of the highest order.”

A 16-page booklet containing appreciations by Frank Godbey and Joe Wilson accompanies the CD plus an extensive array of photographs spanning Best’s career. A generous 36 songs are performed.