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Jerry Spanhanks
was raised in a musical family in Texarkana, AR. and has been playing music
since 1963 from Texas to Minnesota. He started out playing country and
western music, then rock and roll, then bluegrass. While playing country
and western music, he received two awards as champion instrumentalist on
guitar at the Iron World Festival in Northern Minnesota.
As a young boy, he performed
at festivals and occasionally had the chance to jam with people who are
well-known today, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Don Reno, Tony Rice, J.D. Crowe,
and Mike Auldridge. In the late 1970’s, Jerry played rock n’ roll.
He took a vacation from
playing during the 80’s but in “93, Jerry was asked to learn the banjo by a
friend with the intent of teaching the friend after learning the
instrument. This started a love for bluegrass. Jerry was fifth place
winner at the Minnesota Flatpicking contest in 2006. Jerry now plays banjo,
dobro, bass and guitar in the Blue Wolf Bluegrass Band and electric guitar
in the classic country band Blue Wolf Country Grass. The band has two CD’s
to their credit and Jerry is finishing an album on dobro due out in the fall
of 2009.
Jerry teaches guitar, banjo
and
DobroÒ
here at the Homestead
Pickin' Parlor. |
