BUCK TRENT
- From Spartanburg, South Carolina.
- Real name: Charles Wilburn Trent.
- He is best known as “Mr. Banjo,” a versatile Nashville musician who worked for many years with Porter Wagoner and Roy Clark and was a cast member of the Hee Haw TV Show. He also recorded frequently with Dolly Parton and Marty Stuart.
- He is the inventor of the electric banjo. On many of Porter Wagoner’s records, he made the banjo mimic the sound of a steel guitar by using Scruggs D-tuners on all four tuning pegs.
- 1960-1961, played banjo with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys.
- 1975, 1976, won the CMA Award for Instrumentalist of the Year.
- 1975, recorded an instrumental duet album with Roy Clark called “Pair of Fives” (MCA).
- 1977, released a solo album “Oh Yeah!” (ABC). “Oh Yeah” was his signature catch phrase.
- 1978, recorded a second instrumental duet album with Roy Clark called Banjo Bandits
(MCA).
- 1976, released a solo album called “Bionic Banjo” (ABC).
- 1990, moved to Branson, Missouri where he performed regularly at Baldnobber’s Jamboree and opened for Mickey Gilley. He later began headlining his own morning show called “The Buck Trent Country Music Show” which aired on RFD-TV.
- 2023, he was inducted into the National Banjo Hall of Fame.
- 2023, died at the age of 85.