JA-051C (Lee Sexton - WHOA MULE CASSETTE)

Description: Lee Sexton (born 1927) is an American Banjo player from Letcher County, Kentucky. He began playing the banjo at the age of eight and is proficient in the two-finger picking and "drop-thumb" (clawhammer) traditional styles of east Kentucky. He also sings. His Whoa Mule album includes recordings from a 1952 home recording with fiddler Fernando Lusk to recordings made in 2001. Four solo songs also appear on Smithsonian Folkways album Mountain Music of Kentucky. In 1999 Kentucky governor Paul Patton presented Lee with the Governor's Award in the Arts. Lee Sexton and his wife Opal still live on Line Fork, about a hundred yards from his birthplace.

Recordings for the 1988 release JA0059, Whoa Mule!, were recorded and mixed by Doug Dorschug, with help from Martin Newell, Anthony Slone, Mike Slone, Don Mussell, Bill Halcomb, Tom Hansell and Rich Kirby. The release was produced by Doug Dorschug and Rich Kirby. Musicians included Lee Sexton on banjo, Marion Sumner on fiddle, Sonny Houston on guitar, and Phil Sexton on bass. A CD by the same name, Whoa Mule!, was released in 2001 that contains about half of this previous recording.

This audio collection consists of original 1/2-inch recordings, ¼-inch production masters, and ADAT recording.