Banjo with a Bounce

Looking back over the recordings that Jim and Jesse McReynolds made with their band the Virginia Boys, one will notice that there was no lack of talent in the banjo spot.  Take a look at the list on page 34 and you will notice a number of 5-string legends.   Although talent abounds on this list, the name that always pops out in my mind when I think of Jim & Jesse’s music and the banjo is the tall, thin, red-headed picker with the huge grin and bouncy banjo style—Allen Shelton. In August of 2005 Eddie Stubbs interviewed Allen Shelton for the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum’s Oral Histories Project and he opens the interview stating that in the late 1950’s someone asked Don Reno who the best banjo player was, other than himself and Earl Scruggs, and without hesitation Reno replied, “Allen Shelton.”  That is high praise coming from someone of Reno’s stature, but many banjo players since that time have felt the same way. I have my reasons why Shelton’s pl