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Ted Lundy

Guitarist/banjo picker Ted Lundy was born 26 Jan 1937 in Galax, Virginia into one of the Blue Ridge Mountains' biggest musical clans. He committed suicide 23 June 1980 by jumping from the Delaware Memorial Bridge. He began playing guitar when he was 8; at age 14 he learned the banjo by imitating the new style of Earl Scruggs rather than the traditional clawhammer technique used by his father. At age 15, Lundy appeared on a local radio show. He moved to a bigger station in Bluefield, West Virginia two years later and was soon playing banjo with Jimmy Williams and the Shady Valley Boys. The group later moved to Bristol, Tennessee, where Lundy spent a year. Like many Blue Ridge families during the Depression years, the Lundys came North looking for work and found it in the steel industry in the area where Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware meet. They brought their music with them, of course, and that's one of the main reasons that Cecil Co. MD and Chester Co. PA in particular are such hotbeds of BG and OT music. In 1956, Lundy moved to Wilmington, Delaware. He found not only a day job, but a variety of part-time musical endeavors as well. His first experience occurred with Roma Jackson and the Tennessee Pals. The best known group in which he played was Alex Campbell and Ola Belle and the New River Boys, with whom he recorded a pair of albums on Starday in the early 60’s. About 1962, he founded the Southern Mountain Boys with mandolin player Fred Hannah, guitarist Bob Paisley, and fiddler Jerry Lundy [1942-2001], Ted's third cousin and a grandson of illustrious old-time fiddler Emmett Lundy [1864-1953]. They played in both Delaware and Galax before making their first recording about 1962 on Alex Campbell’s New River label at a time when they were also working as a band for Campbell. They recorded then for Gerd Hadeler’s German firm, the GHP Recording Company [LP released 1972]. Then, when playing in the Galax Fiddlers Convention contest, they were heard by a recording engineer who was doing work for Rounder Records. His enthusiastic recommendation brought them to the attention of Rounder president Ken Irwin, for whom they subsequently recorded 3 classic bluegrass LPs. In 2012, the label "Old Blue" label released the CD: "Ted Lundy & the Southern Mountain Boys" recorded 1962-71 for GHP, Starday & County ---------------------------------------------------- For those with an interest in the Lundy genealogy, Joyce Lundy Miller (widow of Ted Lundy) gave some information to John Lupton, president of The Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music. Some of those information corrects previous misunderstandings: 1) Jerry's father was Everett "Fiddlin' Buck" Lundy, one of 15 children of Emmett Lundy 2) Ted Lundy's father was Charlie Lundy, whose father was Clark Lundy. Joyce believes that Clark and Emmett were cousins. If they were, that would make Ted and Jerry 3rd cousins. 3) Bob and TJ Lundy ("Ted Jr." - formerly of Hotmud Family) are Ted's sons.