84-Year-Old Bluegrass Pioneer Releases First-Ever Recorded Album!

You might have heard the name "Stamper" associated with bluegrass and old-time music. But, if so, you're most likely thinking of Art Stamper who passed away 10 years ago.

True, Art Stamper was a bluegrass pioneer and Hall-of-Fame honoree. But right along side of Art was his brother, Charlie Stamper, also a bluegrass and old-time fiddler.

While Art was busy performing and recording with the likes of the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Jim & Jesse and the Osborne Brothers, brother Charlie was content to stay closer to home and entertain the folks at local dance halls and jamborees and give music lessons to the kids in the neighborhood.

“I was the first one in the family to play the fiddle and I was the first one to play on the radio. My dad [Hiram Stamper] played fiddle, banjo, and French harp, which is what we called a harmonica. I remember when I was five or six, I would sit on the floor between his legs as he played the fiddle, his big foot keeping time as it hit the boards.”
- Charlie Stamper (Fiddler magazine Vol. 18 No. 4)

Now, for the very first time in his 84 year old life and career, Charlie Stamper has released an album - Glory to the Meeting House.

Charlie Stamper’s Glory to the Meeting House consists of the first recordings ever released by this master Kentucky musician, brother to Bluegrass Hall of Famer Art Stamper, and at 84 years young as spry a fiddle player as Knott County has ever produced.

This album features 29 tracks of solo fiddle, mouth bow, and string band music, representing the finest in the East Kentucky fiddle tradition.

“Charlie & J.D. exhibit the kind of effortless joy that Old Time music is built around. It makes you want to jump up, refill your jar, and shout for them to ‘play another one!’”
– Morgan Jahnig, Old Crow Medicine Show

Indeed, as soon as you hear Charlie sawing away at the first few notes of this record, you’re likely to be transported back to the Stamper family homestead in the hills of Knott County, Kentucky, from which this music came.  Charlie and his music embody this land and its spirit, harkening back to a time when these old familiar tunes played a pivotal role in people’s everyday life.

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