Steel Wheels and Five Strings: A Life Between Banjo and Tractor

Ask thirty-four-year-old North Carolina banjoist and tractor enthusiast Andy Hunt what a 1947 Farmall H and bluegrass have in common, and he'll show you living history.

“Our family farm in Archdale, North Carolina, was bought by my great-great-granddaddy in the early 1900s,” Hunt says.  Hunt also raises cattle, including one named Mabel. “Hereford cows are my favorite breed!”

“I caught classic tractor fever at a very young age. My dad worked as a farrier. He would put me on a saddle, and I would cry, but when he’d put me on the seat of a tractor, I'd sit there and just be as happy as I could be,” Hunt says.

Hunt, who frequently attends tractor shows and is a member of the International Harvester Collectors Club, has his own machine. “I bought a 1947 Farmall H that’s been restored to show quality.”

While forging a bond with the tractor as a youth, Hunt soon found that farming wasn’t the only way to experience rural life. There was also music.

“There was a radio station [on] 101.1 FM in North Carolina. I was between six and nine years old, and on Sunday mornings, they would have bluegrass on the radio,” Hunt says. “We would listen to that station on the way to church.”

One day, his dad played him the song "Orange Blossom Special."

“My dad brought [the] tape, Time Life’s Treasury of Bluegrass home, and the old radio he put it in is actually still hanging in the kitchen.”  

Yes, he was referring to a radio/cassette player that you can attach to the

underside of a cabinet.

He [Andy] wanted to play the banjo. “My mom and dad said they had talked to some people, and heard that it's best to make sure my hands are big enough to hold the instrument and play.”

His first banjo was a Johnson JB-200. “My mom actually still has the original hang tag from when I got it—$209."

"My mom said, 'You're going to banjo lessons today,'" recalls Hunt, who was homeschooled. "I tell people that I told her to pinch me, and she pinched me, and it hurt, so I know it was real." [laughs]

"I feel old sometimes because I can say that the first place I took a banjo lesson has been torn down," says Hunt. He names Smith Whitley Music at the corner of Westchester and Lexington avenues in High Point. "There's a Sheetz station on that corner now."

Today, Hunt is a seasoned musician who is passionate about Ralph Stanley’s traditional banjo style. "A lot of people say that Earl Scruggs is their favorite, but for me, the first [person] that comes to mind… would be Ralph Stanley. Along with him, I would say contemporaries for me would be Don Reno and Raymond Fairchild."

If he had to choose one banjo player to spend the day with, "I'm probably down to Ralph or Raymond Fairchild because I patterned so much after both of them."

He gives credit to Scruggs, "I like Earl's music, he's great, and I'm sure I've picked up some from him, too."

His Own Picking Technique

Hunt mixes bluegrass and old-time Appalachian banjo.

"I've developed a little style I call mountain style. It's a little different. It has a constant drone on the fifth string with the right thumb, and a lot of times I'll play that with no picks," explains Hunt, describing it as a "softer sound."

He continues, "I take a little bit from all the greats that I enjoy listening to... I take a little bit from each one of them and roll it all into one. And that's how I make my own style."

Sharing what he developed with others, “I play in the praise band, Strings of Faith, at our church each week. I have played at nursing homes, tractor shows, auctions, festivals, rodeos, parades, breweries, and on the street corner in Hyden, Kentucky, and other cities in North Carolina.”

Teaching history with bluegrass and antique tractors

“We can't forget where we came from! If there weren't somebody who enjoyed the old ways and the old things, then they would completely die out,” says Hunt. “I’m preserving the history and keeping it fresh in people's minds.”

The biggest gift is the reaction he gets, “I enjoy putting a smile on people’s faces—helping them relive happy times and making their day better.”