FRANK WAKEFIELD
- From Emory Gap, Tennessee, near Knoxville. Lives in Upstate New York.
- Full name: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Wakefield.
- Known for his technical virtuosity on the mandolin. Influenced David Grisman and many other mandolin players. One of the first to play jazz on the instrument.
- Learned to play music in rural pentecostal “snake-handling” churches around east Tennessee.
- Grew up on a farm and never went to school. He learned to read and write when he was 28 years old.
- Hidden talent: he can talk backwards.
- 1957, at age 19, moved to Dayton, Ohio and met Red Allen. They formed a group called the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys.
- 1958, worked for a short time with Jimmy Martin.
- 1958, he and Red Allen formed The Kentuckians.
- 1959, briefly worked with the Stanley Brothers.
- 1960, with Red Allen, re-assembled the Kentuckians, this time in Baltimore. Other personnel included banjo players Bill Keith, Don Reno, Bill Emerson, Pete Kuykendall, Eric Weissberg; also fiddlers Chubby Wise, Scott Stoneman, others.
- 1964-68, joined the Greenbriar Boys. While with the Greenbriar Boys, he was seriously injured in an auto accident, putting him in a coma for more than a month.
- He has recorded several albums as a duo with Red Allen.
- 1972, released self titled album (Rounder) and began performing as a solo artist.
- 1978, released “Frank Wakefield and the Good Old Boys” album (Flying Fish).
- 1980, released “End of the Rainbow” album (Bay).
- 1997, released “That Was Now … This is Then” album (Rosewoodl).
- 2000, released “Midnight on the Mandolin” (Patuxent).
- 2011, released Tribute to Bill Monroe
album (Patuxent).
- 2013, released Frank Wakefield, Taylor Baker & Friends
(Patuxent).
- 2024, died at the age of 89.