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National Endowment for the Arts Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter, Congressman Morgan Griffith, and 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellow Eddie Bond Griffith at the 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Awards Ceremony on September 26, 2018. Photo by Tom Pich.

Background

Biography of Eddie Bond provided by the National Endowment for the Arts:

Eddie Bond is an Appalachian old time fiddler born into a family of musicians in the mill-town of Fries, in southwest Virginia. Raised by his grandmother, herself a singer and guitar player, Eddie’s paternal and maternal grandparents were prominent musicians who played the traditional music of the Blue Ridge in Grayson County, where such old-time music legends as Henry Whitter, Ernest Stoneman, Kelly Harrell, John Rector, and countless others lived and recorded. Bond’s great uncle, fiddler Leon Hill, had a band with Leak Caudle, an influential guitarist who regularly performed on WPAQ. These familial musical influences meant that Bond began performing at age three, dancing for quarters. He then learned to play the guitar, autoharp, fiddle, and banjo, while absorbing fiddle tunes from all of the old timers who lived in the region around Galax, Virginia. Bond is now the fiddler and lead vocalist for the New Ballard Branch Bogtrotters, which derive their name from the original Bogtrotters, the famous Galax-area band of the 1930s. The original Bogtrotters were first recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress, and were a long-time favorite at the Old Fiddlers’ Convention. This modern version has won the prestigious first-place old-time band prize at the annual Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax eight times and have played at notable festivals including the Chicago Folk Festival, Merlefest, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Bond continues perform as a solo artist and in collaboration with others was a participating artist in the critically acclaimed Music from the Crooked Road tour.

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