David Holt

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Then there's the equally long list, reading almost like a complete roll call of traditional musicians, of people he's performed with on stage, radio, TV, and recordings: Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Chet Atkins, and Doc Watson, for starters.

Tally up the inventory of instruments he plays, banjo, slide guitar, guitar, harmonica, bones, spoons, jaw harp, mouth bow, Jack Daniel's bottle, and even a paper bag, and catalog his numerous recordings, videos, and books. Add in the Grammys he's won — four — and all the major motion pictures he's acted in. Well, okay, that's a short list of one — he appeared as the mandolin-playing village idiot in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Holt is always teaching, passing along this culture he's lived in for so long, and always paying homage to the people he learned from, acknowledging his debt to them. We owe a similar debt to Holt for his part in preserving and passing along a way of life that might otherwise have been forgotten.

David Holt headlines the opening night of the Ark's Twenty-first Annual Storytelling Festival on Friday, February 15.