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Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Jerry Casstevens Collection #20275, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Frances Cassstevens of Yadkinville, N.C., September 1997 (Acc. 97174).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Amy Davis, April 2001

Encoded by: Amy Davis, April 2001

Updated by James McGlothlin, May 2008; Nancy Kaiser, February 2021

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Banjo music--North Carolina.
• Bluegrass Masters.
• Bluegrass music.
• Bluegrass musicians.
• Casstevens, Jerry, 1933-1990.
• Folk music--North Carolina.
• Musicians--North Carolina.
• Yadkin County (N.C.)--History.
• Yadkin County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

Jerry Casstevens (1933-1990), from Yadkin County, N.C., was a regionally well-known bluegrass banjo player who performed mostly in Yadkin, Surry, Wilkes, and neighboring counties of North Carolina and Virginia. While growing up, Casstevens played guitar for square dances with local old-time musicians and then learned to play banjo after hearing Earl Scruggs in the 1950s. An adept musician, Casstevens mastered many styles of music on the banjo, but preferred bluegrass.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Casstevens won or placed in many contests he entered, including Union Grove and Galax fiddlers' conventions, and appeared on several LPs recorded at those festivals. Casstevens led many different groups during his career, but the Bluegrass Masters, with his son Mike Casstevens, was perhaps his best known and most widely touring group.

Casstevens died in 1990. An annual Jerry Casstevens Memorial Bluegrass Festival has been held in Yadkinville, N.C., since 1995.

Materials relating to the career of musician Jerry Casstevens, a banjo player from Yadkinville, N.C. His wife, Frances Casstevens, who wrote a history of Yadkin County, compiled the material in 1997. Included is Frances's biography of Jerry; a paper by high school student Freddie Mock, who interviewed Casstevens in 1981; and 32 photographs, news clippings, and fliers documenting the Jerry's career. Included is a 1975 Tobacco Road Mountain Music Festival poster from Ronda, N.C. There is also an audio recording of Jerry Casstevens's band, the Bluegrass Masters, with live performances, 1975-1988, recorded at area fiddlers' conventions, theaters, and clubs. The tape was compiled and released by Frances Casstevens in 1996. Notes detailing recording information are also included.

• Audiocassette (FS-20275/4457)
• Notes to audiocassette (SFC Field Notes)
• Poster (OP-20275/1)