Carroll Best

Carroll Best is not as well known as some banjo players, thanks to a career that wasn't aimed toward the national spotlight. But the lack of widespread fame is not a true reflection of his talent. The banjoist, whose full name was Hugh Carroll Best Jr., was a founding artisan of finger style banjo playing, or the melodic style. The early stages of his greatly admired technique were inherited from his family in North Carolina. It was a technique, Best was quoted as saying, that was passed down from one generation to another, beginning with his grandmother's mother. His father b...