Roscoe Holcomb

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American singer-songwriter (1912–1981)

title: "Roscoe Holcomb" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1912-births", "1981-deaths", "american-country-guitarists", "american-folk-guitarists", "american-male-guitarists", "american-country-singer-songwriters", "american-folk-singers", "american-country-banjoists", "old-time-musicians", "people-from-perry-county,-kentucky", "musicians-from-appalachia", "20th-century-american-singer-songwriters", "folk-musicians-from-kentucky", "country-musicians-from-kentucky", "singer-songwriters-from-kentucky", "bluegrass-musicians-from-kentucky", "20th-century-american-guitarists", "guitarists-from-kentucky", "20th-century-american-male-musicians", "american-male-singer-songwriters"] description: "American singer-songwriter (1912–1981)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Holcomb" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American singer-songwriter (1912–1981) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]

Field	Value
name	Roscoe Holcomb
image	Roscoe Holcomb 1960s LOC.jpg
caption	Roscoe Holcomb in 1962
image_size
background	solo_singer
birth_name	Roscoe Halcomb
birth_date
birth_place	Daisy, Kentucky, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Perry County, Kentucky, U.S.
instrument	vocals, banjo, guitar, harmonica, fiddle
genre
occupation	Miner, construction worker, farmer, musician
years_active	1958–1978
::

Roscoe Holcomb (born Roscoe Halcomb; September 5, 1912 – February 1, 1981) was an American singer, banjo player, and guitarist from Daisy, Kentucky. A prominent figure in Appalachian folk music, Holcomb was the inspiration for the term "high, lonesome sound", coined by folklorist and friend John Cohen in 1959. It was meant to describe the singing style and vocal timbre of Holcomb. The "high lonesome sound" term is now used to describe bluegrass singing, although Holcomb was not, strictly speaking, a bluegrass performer.

Performance style

Holcomb's repertoire included old-time music, hymns, traditional music and blues ballads. In addition to playing the banjo and guitar, he was a competent harmonica and fiddle player, and sang many of his most memorable songs a cappella. Holcomb stated: "Up till then the blues were only inside me; Blind Lemon was the first to 'let out' the blues."

Holcomb sang in a nasal style informed by the Old Regular Baptist vocal tradition. Bob Dylan, a fan of Holcomb, described his singing as possessing "an untamed sense of control". Dylan was said to be deeply affected by Holcomb's style. He was also admired by the Stanley Brothers and Eric Clapton, who cited Holcomb as his favorite country musician.

Life and career

A coal miner, construction laborer and farmer for much of his life, Holcomb was not recorded until 1959 when he was discovered by folk musicologist John Cohen in Daisy, Kentucky. Cohen spent nearly two decades working with Holcomb but they never quite understood each other. Cohen had actually been the reason for the changing of the spelling of Holcomb's last name from Halcomb on a recording. After which his career as a professional musician was bolstered by the folk revival in the 1960s. He had grown up all around music in Eastern Kentucky, hearing it from family and community but it was never his sole source of income until he was much later in his life. Holcomb gave his last live performance in 1978. Due to what he described as injuries he sustained during his long career as a laborer, Holcomb was eventually unable to work for more than short periods, and his later income came primarily from his music. Suffering from asthma and emphysema as a result of working in coal mines, he died in a nursing home in 1981, at the age of 68.

Discography

Holcomb's discography includes the following albums released on LP during his lifetime:

The Music of Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward, Folkways Records, 1962
The High Lonesome Sound, Folkways Records, 1965
Close to Home, Folkways Records, 1975

The following single-artist compilations have been released since his death:

The High Lonesome Sound, Smithsonian Folkways, 1998
An Untamed Sense of Control, Smithsonian Folkways, 2003

Holcomb's work appears on many multiple-artist compilations, including the following released during his lifetime:

Mountain Music of Kentucky, Folkways Records, 1960 (6 of 29 tracks)
FOTM – Friends of Old Time Music, Folkways Records, 1964 (2 of 16 tracks)
Zabriskie Point (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), MGM Records, 1970 (1 of 11 tracks)
3rd Annual Brandywine Mountain Music Convention – '76 Music of Kentucky, Heritage Records [Virginia], 1977 (2 of 14 tracks)

References

Matthews, Scott L.. (July 27, 2008). "John Cohen in Eastern Kentucky: Documentary Expression and the Image of Roscoe Halcomb During the Folk Revival". Southern Spaces.
(8 June 2015). "Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival". Oxford University Press.
Giles Oakley. (1997). "The Devil's Music". [[Da Capo Press]].
{{AllMusic. album. mw0000019275. ''An Untamed Sense of Control''
Charles K. Wolfe. (5 February 2015). "Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky". [[University Press of Kentucky]].
John Cohen. (2012). "The High & Lonesome Sound: The Legacy of Roscoe Holcomb". Steidl.
{{Discogs artist
{{Discogs master. 592027. Mountain Music of Kentucky
{{Discogs master. 568901. FOTM – Friends of Old Time Music
{{Discogs master. 78667. Zabriskie Point (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
{{Discogs release. 8109578. 3rd Annual Brandywine Mountain Music Convention – '76 Music of Kentucky

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