Wade Ward
title: "Wade Ward" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1892-births", "1971-deaths", "american-banjoists", "old-time-musicians", "musicians-from-virginia", "okeh-records-artists", "people-from-grayson-county,-virginia", "appalachian-old-time-fiddlers", "20th-century-american-fiddlers"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Ward" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Wade Ward |
| image | Wade_Ward_1937.jpg |
| caption | Wade Ward in 1937 holding a 5-string banjo |
| background | solo_singer |
| birth_name | Benjamin Wade Ward |
| alias | Uncle Wade |
| birth_place | Independence, Virginia, U.S. |
| birth_date | |
| death_place | Independence, Virginia, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| instrument | Banjo, fiddle |
| genre | Old-time |
| occupation | Farmer |
| years_active | 1919–late 1960s |
| label | Okeh, Folkways, Biograph, FRC |
| associated_acts | Buck Mountain Band, Bog Trotters Band |
| :: |
| name = Wade Ward | image = Wade_Ward_1937.jpg | caption = Wade Ward in 1937 holding a 5-string banjo | background = solo_singer | birth_name = Benjamin Wade Ward | alias = Uncle Wade | birth_place = Independence, Virginia, U.S. | birth_date = | death_place = Independence, Virginia, U.S. | death_date = | instrument = Banjo, fiddle | genre = Old-time | occupation = Farmer | years_active = 1919–late 1960s | label = Okeh, Folkways, Biograph, FRC | associated_acts = Buck Mountain Band, Bog Trotters Band | website = Benjamin Wade Ward, also known as “Uncle Wade,” (1892–1971) was an American old-time music banjo player and fiddler from Independence, Virginia.
| last = Poole | first = Steve | title = Poole & Mason Family | publisher = Rootsweb | date = November 10, 2003 | url = http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=REG&db=:2318581&id=I552857533 | access-date = 2009-05-10}}
He was widely known playing the clawhammer banjo and frequently won the Galax, Virginia Old Time Fiddler's Convention.
| title = Winners | publisher = Old Fiddler's Convention, Galax, Virginia | url = http://www.oldfiddlersconvention.com/winners.htm | access-date = 2009-05-10}}
His instrument, a Gibson RB-11 5-string banjo, is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Along with Kyle Creed, Wade Ward is known for his 'Galax' style of playing the clawhammer banjo.
Biography
Benjamin, "Uncle," Wade Ward was born in Independence Virginia on October 15th, 1892. Ward was an award winning clawhammer banjo player and won first place in the Galax, Virginia Old Time Fiddler's Convention eight times between the years and 1936 and 1968.
Ward began playing the banjo when he was 11 years old. His older brother, Davy Crockett Ward, who was 20 years his senior, taught him the skill. In addition to playing banjo, Ward also played fiddle. In August of 1913, Ward married Lelia Mathews. They had at least two children together before her death in 1951. He remarried in 1954 to Mollie Yates.
Ward began performing in public in 1919, at age 26. His first group, the Buck Mountain Band, included Van Edwards on fiddle and Van's son Earl on guitar. | last = Baycu | first = Ahmet | title = Amazing Facts from the Roots of American Fiddle Music | publisher = HeaHeah | url = http://www.1001tunes.com/AmazingFacts/index.html | access-date = 2009-05-10}}
In 1925, Ward recorded four solo tunes (unreleased) for the Okeh label during a field recording session in Asheville, North Carolina.{{Cite book | last = Laird | first = Ross |author2=Brian Rust | title = Discography of OKeh Records, 1918-1934 |publisher = Praeger Publishers | year = 2004 | location = Westport, CT | pages = 141, 584 | isbn = 978-0-313-31142-0}} In October 1929 he and the Buck Mountain Band recorded four more tunes for Okeh in Richmond, Virginia, two of which were released. | last = Huber | first = Patrick | title = Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South | publisher = UNC Press | year = 2008 | location = Chapel Hill | pages = 297 | url = https://archive.org/details/lintheadstompcre00hube | url-access = registration | quote = wade ward born 1892. | isbn = 978-0-8078-3225-7}}
In addition to playing with the Buck Mountain Boys, Ward was employed by the Parsons Auction Company. He performed for their Saturday sales for 51 years.
In the early 1930s, Ward joined a band called the Ballard Branch Bogtrotters, formed by his older brother Crockett. Ward played banjo, Crockett and his neighbor Alec "Uncle Eck" Dunford played fiddles, Crockett's son Fields played guitar and sang, and the Wards' family doctor W. P. Davis managed the group and occasionally played autoharp. | last = Baycu | first = Ahmet | title = The Bogtrotters | publisher = HeaHeah | url = http://www.1001tunes.com/fiddlers/bogtrotters.html | access-date = 2009-05-10}}
Folklorist John A. Lomax discovered the group in 1937 at the Galax Fiddlers' Convention and recorded them for the Library of Congress. John's son Alan Lomax recorded Wade in 1939, 1941, and again in 1959; nearly 200 recordings of Ward are archived at the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center. Other folklorists including Mike Seeger and Peter Hoover made additional field recordings in the 1950s and 1960s.{{cite web | last = Hoffman | first = John | title = The Peter Hoover Collection | publisher = The Field Recorders' Collective | url = http://www.fieldrecorder.com/docs/collectors/hoover.htm | access-date = 2009-05-17 | archive-date = July 5, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080705015359/http://www.fieldrecorder.com/docs/collectors/hoover.htm | url-status = dead
Despite his musical gifts, Ward made his living as a farmer. He died on May 29th, 1971 in Independence, Virginia, and is buried in the Saddle Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery a few miles west of town. | last = Weaver | first = Jeffrey | title = Saddle Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery | publisher = New River Notes | date = April 2008 | url = http://www.newrivernotes.com/graysoncems/sadcrkcem.htm | access-date = 2009-05-17}}
Discography
::data[format=table]
| 2007 | Wade Ward: Banjo & Fiddle | Field Recorders' Collective | FRC-507 | Recorded 1959–1961 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
- Many other recordings by Wade Ward have been released on compilation albums from Smithsonian Folkways, Biograph, Rounder, County and other labels.
References
References
- "Galax Contest Winners {{!}} Slippery-Hill".
- Bibeau, Sue. (2022-03-28). "Wade Ward » Music of Our Mountains".
- "Google Maps".
- (2013-10-08). "Banjoist Wade Ward To Be Remembered". The Roanoke Star.
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