Bluegrass and Old-Time fiddler Art Stamper dies

Art Stamper instructing students at the 2004 'Fiddle Day' workshop held at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky

Famed Bluegrass and Old-Time fiddler Art Stamper died Sunday night, Jan. 23, 2005 at Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky of complications from throat cancer.

Art had battled the disease for several years, during which time he remained musically active when he was strong enough, especially teaching younger generations of fiddlers at workshops such as Appalshop's Cowan Creek Mountain Music School and Fiddle Day in Kentucky, and the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina.

Stamper was born in 1933 near Hindman (Knott County), Kentucky and began playing fiddle before he reached his teens. His father was legendary mountain fiddler Hiram Stamper, whose own fiddle style contained elements of the earliest documented fiddle styles in America. During his lengthy career, he worked with Bill Monroe, Ralph and Carter Stanley, Bobby and Sonny Osborne, Ray and Melvin Goins, Larry Sparks, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Bill Clifton, and J. D. Crowe.

A licensed cosmetologist, Stamper put his fiddling on the back burner for twenty years to run his own hair salon in Louisville. Art returned to performing and recording in the late 1970s.

The Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America awarded him its best old-time fiddler award for three consecutive years. His most recent release was Wake Up Darlin' Corey, an album of traditional fiddle tunes recorded in February 2004, and released in the fall of 2004. Art was very excited to have seen it released.

He is survived by his wife, Kay Kawaguchi Stamper; daughter, Jennifer Stone; sons, Blake and Blane Stamper; sisters, Julianne Moore and Sue Yarbrough; brothers, Charles, Hiram Jr., and Matt Stamper, and four grandchildren.

Funeral services were held in Shepherdsville, Kentucky on Wednesday, January 26.

We will miss you Art.

Click here to visit Art's website.