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Fred Cockerham, one of the seven children of Elias and Betty Jane Cockerham, was born on November 3, 1905. Commonly thought of as the banjo accompanist to Tommy Jarrell, Fred was one of the most accomplished of all the Round Peak, North Carolina musicians. He played the fiddle in a more modern style than Tommy Jarrell, but played the fretless banjo in an old clawhammer style much like that of his old mentor, Charley Lowe. Fred was the only one from the Round Peak community to attempt the difficult life of a professional rural musician.
There were two people whose playing so impressed Fred that he felt: "If I couldn't learn to mock them, why I'd just as soon quit." Charlie Lowe's banjo playing was so impressive to Fred that he worked hard to change his "framming" style to be more like the complex double note technique which Charlie used. The other main influence came from the airwaves, from far outside the community. This was the fiddling of Arthur Smith, who was heard over WSM's "Grand Old Opry" show, broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee. Smith, born in Tennessee in 1898, began to play on the "Opry" in 1927. He used a smooth low bow style that was quite different from the older style in which Tommy Jarrell played called "rocking the bow" .
Fred died four months short of his 75th birthday, on July 8, 1980. Fred's banjo was donated, along with Tommy Jarrell's fiddle, to the Smithsonian Institute.
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