Carlin, Bob, 1953-

Musician, music producer, author, and collector Bob Carlin was born in New York City in 1953. He has authored several books on southern music traditions, African American music, string bands, shape note singing, Primitive Baptist music, banjo music, and other topics, many having to do with the western Piedmont of North Carolina. He has also produced many recordings, including "African American Note Choirs of Alexander County, North Carolina" (2002).

Old-time musician Olin Berrier (1899-1990) and his wife Bessie Berrier (1902-1987); square dance caller and tenor banjo player Leonard Berrier (1921- ); musician Margaret Smith (1923- ); guitar player Larry Beam (1935- ); country singer and guitarist Donna Michael (1954- ); pianist Elva Beck (1926- ); musician Andy Prevette (1941- ); musician John Prevette (1913- ); fiddler and guitarist Phillip Hege (1923- ); musician James Arnold (1921- ); banjo player Ruth Arnold (1918- ); mandolin player Elmer Cooper (1924- ); guitarist Lawrence Cooper (1922- ); Frances Townsend (1929- ); Ruth Deitz (1926- ); fiddler Dean Maines (1929- ); guitarist Tim Maines (1961- ); guitarist David Beck (1925- ); Charles Tussey (1924- ); and Hilda Reid (1915- ), all of Lexington, N.C.; Preston Fulp (1915- ), African-American blues guitarist of Walnut Cove, N.C., and his wife Janie Fulp and daughter Nancy Fulp; Anglo-American fiddler Nolan Johnson (1918- ), of Thomasville, N.C.; guitarist Wilber Scotten (1946- ), of Asheboro, N.C.; Jefrie Waler (1925- ), of Winston-Salem, N.C.; pianist and banjo player Ruth Coffey (1926- ) and guitarist Dale Coffey (1921- ), of Lenoir, N.C.; guitarist Tommy Walker (1925- ), and banjo player Raeford Parker (1925- ), of Asheboro, N.C.; Worth Winslow (1920- ) of Denton, N.C.; guitarist, pianist, and mandolin player Barry Berrier of Durham, N.C.; Oberia Walker (1916- ) and fiddler Mark Walker (1953- ) of Asheboro, N.C.; Jack Lohr (1927- ) of Greensboro, N.C.; and guitar and mandolin player Clayton Everhart (1920- ) of Titusville, Fla., but originally from Lexington, N.C.

Bob Carlin was born 17 March 1953 in New York, New York. Carlin, himself an accomplished banjo player performs and researches minstrel-style banjo music and songs of the mid 1800's. He has also produced and annotated many albums of southern traditional music. Through his work as Visiting Artist at several colleges, Carlin has brought these traditional music forms to a wide range of audiences.

Bob Carlin, musician, music producer, author, and collector, was born in New York City in 1953 to Vivian Fruchtbaum and Benson Carlin. Carlin's mother organized square and folk dances, and his family visited museums and attended concerts including a Pete Seeger concert in New York City. Carlin's family had a collection of folk records, his father played guitar, his mother played piano, and Bob took piano lessons. Eventually, he and his father took banjo lessons together.

The Carlin family later moved to Princeton, N.J., where Marge Seeger led an active folk music society and Roy Bookbinder was Bob Carlin's camp counselor. At this time, Carlin dabbled in radio and was on a small ten-watt radio station playing folk records. In college, Bob continued his interest in radio and began collecting hard-to-find releases and researching the history of songs. He began working with WHYY Radio in the mid 1970s and produced shows for Fresh Air, which later was nationally syndicated. He steadily performed solo and in bands such as the Millstone Valley Boys and later with the Delaware Water Gap.

Carlin's inspiration for collecting music, performing, and making records came from mentors Roy Bookbinder, Pete Seeger, Henry Sapoznik, Charles Wolfe, and Guthrie T. Meade. Carlin has authored several books, including Southern Exposure: The Story of Southern Music in Pictures and Words, American Musical Traditions, Black Music of Two Worlds, and String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont .

Carlin has been awarded grants for many of his research projects. The first in 1988 was funded by the North Carolina Arts Council for the Alamance County museum to research local music and produce a festival. In a project entitled Musical Change in the Western Piedmont, friend and fellow musician Paul Brown helped Carlin work with Olin Berrier, who had a recording machine and knew a number of area players. The Olin family owned about 100 acetate discs and 25-30 reel-to-reel tapes.

Carlin has produced over 50 recordings. He has worked on projects that spotlight old time and roots musicians including Nolan and Dot Johnson, the Spencer Brothers, Larry Davis, and Marvin Gaster. In 2002, he produced a CD of Primitive Baptist shape-note singing entitled, African American Note Choirs of Alexander County, North Carolina . Throughout the development of these projects, Carlin researched and interviewed the musicians and/or their family members.

Bob Carlin plays guitar and is a skilled performer on banjo, adept at the many styles of banjo picking, most notably the claw hammer technique found in southwestern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina. He is married to potter Rachel Smith. They live in Lexington, N.C., with their son Benjamin.