This is the original web page about Homer Ledford and the Cabin Creek Band.
Homer Ledford and the Cabin Creek Band on Public Radio International's
Michael Feldman's "Whad' Ya Know" National Broadcast, January 22, 2000
Meet the Members of the Cabin Creek Band!
HOMER C. LEDFORD
Leader, organized the band and has kept the band together ever since. Homer is an internationally known dulcimer maker having made 6014 dulcimers plus many guitars, mandolins, banjo and a few violins. He invented the DULCITAR, which along with the dulcimer and fretless mountain banjo are displayed in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
His biography: Dulcimer Maker: The Craft of Homer Ledford written by R. Gerald Alvey, was published by the University of Kentucky Press in 1984. Homer plays 13 different instruments and has been making and playing instruments since his early teens. He is a self employed craftsman -luthier and authorized repairman for the C.F. Martin Guitar Co. and owner of Ledford’s Musical Instruments.
Homer shared the stage with Ricky Skaggs in Louisville, Ky. for the 1991 New Years eve Kentucky Bicentennial Celebration that was shown on 8 television channels. Homer usually plays mandolin with the band, but also plays guitar, fiddle, autoharp and dulcimer among others.
He also sings some bass with the quartet.
"W H E N H E W A S about twelve years old, Homer Ledford made his first fiddle. Later, his brother bought him one, and he taught himself to play listening to the Grand Ole Opry. At eighteen, he attended the John C. Campbell Folk School and started making dulcimers; since then, he has built dulcimers, guitars, banjos, and fiddles. In 1967, Ledford organized a band that became Cabin Creek, a traditional bluegrass band that also plays string band music. Members of Cabin Creek are Homer C. Ledford, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and musical saw; Rollie Carpenter, five-string banjo, guitar, vocals; L.C. Johnson, guitar and vocals; and Pam Case, bass and vocal harmony. Ledford is featured in the book Dulcimer Maker: The Craft of Homer Ledford, by R. Gerald Alvey." (Preceding text courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society).
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L.C. JOHNSON
He started paying guitar at age 14 and became a member of Kentucky Bluegrass Band in 1981. His hobbies include fishing and golfing and likes to arrange music and write songs. Some of his songs are featured on our albums. L.C. is a long-standing member of The Friends of Bluegrass Music Club. He was instrumental in helping form the Irish Bluegrass Music Club of Ireland and he is a life-long member. He plays guitar and sings baritone and soprano. L.C. has been with the band for 14 years.
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PAMELA CASE
Learned to play guitar at about the age of eight. She has played with several bands including The Kentucky Harvest Band and The Wildwood Girls. While with the Wildwood Girls, she played 3 years in Dollywood, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Pam’s hobbies include quilting, cross-stitching and singing with her family gospel group in church. In 1995, she graduated from criminal justice training at Eastern Ky. University and was hired as the first woman policewoman in the town of Irvine, Ky.
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ROLLIE CARPENTER
Born into a musical family, the ninth of eleven children, Rollie learned to play guitar when he was about 5 yrs. old. He played guitar on radio station WLAP in Lexington, Ky in the early 50’s. A former member of the Montgomery County Ramblers and Bluegrass Partners, Rollie has been a member of The Cabin Creek Band for 14 yrs. He is retired from Bundy Tubing Manufacturing Co. where he worked as a tool and die worker. Rollie enjoys his grandchildren and playing gospel music in his church in Mt. Sterling, Ky. Guitar and banjo picker extraordinaire, Rollie sings tenor, baritone and lead.
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MARVIN E. CARROLL
Comes from Rattle Snake Ridge in Carter County, Ky. Now residing in Owingsville, Ky., Marvin started playing at the ripe old age of 8 when his father traded a shotgun for a fiddle. A graduate of Berea College, he served four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War where he received a special commendation for entertaining the troops. He has always loved old time fiddling and after he retired from banking in 1992, Marvin set about trying to play Bluegrass with Southern Harvest, Dust Valley Grass, and now with the Cabin Creek band--and I might add, doing a superb job!
Marvin has won many fiddling contests, but now I’ve learned they won’t let him enter because he is too good! He can only judge the contests now.
Rev 9/6/07