Wayne Benson

This talented mandolinist, who has sometimes been mistaken for a wax figure due to his concentrated, nearly motionless stage presence, was born into a North Carolina family in which playing bluegrass was considered to be in the blood. Initially he played guitar and mandolin just to have something to do at family gatherings, but as a teenager his interest in the smaller stringed axe became quite intense. At 14, while some of his peers were obsessed with their pimples and how to get rid of them, Wayne Benson was thinking about how Bill Monroe had influenced the playing style of ...