Homer Ledford Radio Program Collection

Homer C. Ledford was an instrument maker and bluegrass musician from Winchester, Kentucky who specialized in making dulcimers, banjos, and mandolins. He was born in Alpine, Tennessee, where he started building instruments at an early age. At age eighteen he became a student at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina and eventually went on to Berea College, and what is now Eastern Kentucky University where he graduated in 1954. Ledford taught industrial arts at George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, Kentucky for several years before becoming a full-time instrument maker and musician. His bluegrass group, the Cabin Creek Band, formed in 1976, was a mainstay at central Kentucky community events and performed more widely at bluegrass festivals across the country and on goodwill visits in Ecuador, Ireland, and Japan. The band's style and repertoire was strongly influenced by such early bluegrass music pioneers as Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, and Red Smiley. Ledford  played mandolin, fiddle, and musical saw. Other long time members included Rollie Carpenter, five-string banjo, guitar; L.C. Johnson, guitar; Marvin Carroll, fiddle; and Pam Case, bass. All sang. The band's Kentucky Traditions radio programs were sponsored by such Winchester / Mount Sterling businesses as Ale-8-One, (soft drink), Pioneer Federal Savings and Loan Bank, and Cole Ford auto dealership. The mood was informal and included subdued comedy that included weekly recounting of quaint, odd, or out of date laws from various parts of the country that were still in effect.