Category Archives: A.C. Overton

A.C. Overton was a banjo player originally from Chatham County, N.C. He learned a two-finger picking style from his father and uncle and played for local square dances as a young man. A.C.’s repertory included fiddle tunes, old-time songs, ballads and hymns. His friendship with bluegrass musician Allen Shelton inspired A.C. to add a third finger to his playing yet he always retained an old-time rhythm. He also developed a way of striking the strings with the back of his thumbpick, an innovative technique that he used to help shape his rhythmic yet lyrical sound. A mechanic by trade, A.C. was skilled in setting up his banjos to produce a fluid, bell-like tone.

Lauchlin Shaw and A.C. Overton

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Mississippi Sawyer, Lauchlin Shaw, A.C. Overton, Wayne Martin, 1990.

A good friend of old-time music and a student of life throughout his own life, Tom Hargrove took this video of Lauchlin Shaw, A.C. Overton and Wayne at the 1990 Raleigh Fiddlers’ Convention. This sterling rendition of “Mississippi Sawyer” features Lauchlin Shaw’s propulsive fiddling and A.C. Overton’s powerful two-fingered banjo picking.

Sponsored by PineCone, the convention itself was the result of Tom’s research on the original Raleigh convention, held at Pullen Park from 1904 to 1914. One of the bright features of the event were concerts by older fiddlers and banjo players from the Piedmont of NC who had learned their music in the early decades of the twentieth century but who were still quite active.