Frank Noah Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

n old time banjoist who preserved the song " Tom Dooley" in the form we know it today and was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the traditional five-string

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

. He was born in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, United States, and was raised in the Reese area of Watauga County, North Carolina, where he worked in a variety of jobs and lived on a farm with his wife and six children. He grew tobacco, worked as a carpenter, and in a spark plug factory.Folk Legacy, Frank Proffitt bio
Folk Legacy, Retrieved May 5, 2008 He was known for his skills as a carpenter and

luthier A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...

; Proffitt's fretless

s and dulcimers were homemade. In 1937, Frank Proffitt met folksong collectors Anne and Frank Warner. Frank Warner was searching for a dulcimer builder and thus began a 30-year friendship and song swapping. Warner collected his songs and shared them with

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...

, who included many, including the ballad "Tom Dooley" that Warner had learned from Proffitt, in his book, ''Folksong U.S.A.''. Proffitt had learned the song from his aunt Nancy Prather, who had in turn learnt it from her mother Edy Adeline (Pardue) Proffitt, who had known both Dula (locally pronounced "Dooley") and Laura Foster.

The Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...

learned "Tom Dooley" from a recording by Warner, and were eventually required by court judgement to acknowledge their debt to Proffitt and pay him royalties for the use of the song. Proffitt recorded "Tom Dooley" and other ballad songs in 1961, on the album ''Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs'', edited by Warner and issued by

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

. A second set of Proffitt's recordings, ''Frank Proffitt of Reece NC: Traditional Songs and Ballads of Appalachia'', was released in 1962, and Proffitt performed at the 1963

Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...

. He also performed at the

1964 New York World's Fair The 1964 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The fair included exhibitions, activ ...

, and recorded several more tracks released on the compilation album '' High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina''. Proffitt died in 1965, aged 52. The ''Frank Proffitt Memorial Album'' was released by Folk Legacy Records in 1969, followed by a tribute album, ''Nothing Seems Better To Me: The Music of Frank Proffitt and North Carolina'', was issued in 2000.

Discography

*''Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs'',

*''Frank Proffitt of Reese NC'', Folk-Legacy Records *''Frank Proffitt Memorial Album'', Folk LegacyFrank Proffitt – Memorial Album :American Folk Music, Music CD, Traditional Folk Music, Folklore, Sea Shanties, Folk Hymns, Folk Song, Folk Ballads Folk Legacy
/ref> *''High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina'',

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts, by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by A ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proffitt, Frank 1913 births 1965 deaths People from Johnson County, Tennessee American folk musicians American folk singers American banjoists American folk-song collectors Old-time musicians Music of East Tennessee Music of Johnson County, Tennessee Musicians from Appalachia 20th-century American singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Tennessee People from Beech Mountain, North Carolina