When Jim Marshall puts his hand to the banjo strings, audiences enjoy a
skill and talent that has been honed over decades of picking. Now 80 years
old, Jim has been making music since he first picked up a guitar when he was
five. Jim learned to play traditional tunes from musicians gathering on his front porch in the summer and fall where they came to join his father, a fiddler, in making music. Surprisingly, fiddle is about the only instrument he doesn’t play. Jim is best known as a banjo player and a songwriter who composes songs about people, places and traditions of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Jim Marshall is very hospitable and often has many musicians join him on Fridays. “I invite everyone I know, and I know a lot of musicians,” says Jim. “I never know who¹s going to show up.” Some days the group may be small, and on others there may be closer to a dozen with assorted fiddlers, guitar pickers, singers, and maybe even another banjo.

“Last year we had folks from England and France who sat in and played with
us,” said Jim. “The other week, there was a fellow from Scotland. We take
‘em from anywhere we can get ‘em,” he laughed. So if you¹re nearby on a
Friday, come on by with your instrument to play and or just enjoy listening
for a spell.