Art Stamper (October 1, 1933 – November 1, 2005) was an American country, bluegrass fiddler. Art and his music was so well known and so loved in Kentucky music circles that part of State Route 550, in Knott County is named after him, and he is in a mural on the side of the Appalachian Artisan Center in his hometown of Hindman.
He was
born Arthur Stamper in Knott County, Kentucky. Art, like his father Hiram
before him who was an accomplished musician in his own right, was mostly known
for his "Old Timey" or "Appalachian Fiddler" style of play.
But he also was an important part of the development of the Bluegrass style of
music. He first started playing the fiddle around age nine.
By
the age of 16 he had already played with professionals such as Jim McReynolds,
Buster Pack and the Sauceman Brothers. In 1950, he went to Cincinnati and
played the bars there off and on for two years. After that, he worked for the
Stanley Brothers and fiddled on some of their Rich-R-Tone recordings. In 1956,
he moved to Dayton and began playing with the Osborne Brothers and Red Allen.
Stamper played fiddle on their first MGM recording session, which included some
twin fiddling with Tommy Jackson.
For
much of his life, after serving in the Army during the Korean conflict, and
using the GI Bill to learn to be a hairdresser, he worked at his own shop in
Louisville called "The Way of Art." It is said that there were some
fine days there, when musicians would all come in and take turns getting a haircut
while the others played their music, and Art himself would play between
haircuts.
He
was very well liked and respected in the music community, also working with
such greats as Bill Monroe and Jim & Jesse He also did studio work with
George Jones, Emmy Lou Harris, Dwight Yokum, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill &
many more throughout his long, energetic career. In the 1980s, Art was a member
of the Goins Brothers Band. After retirement from a hairdressing career in
Louisville, Stamper played with Larry Sparks and recorded several popular
fiddle albums featuring bluegrass and old-time styles.
Here’s
“Red Apple Rag” from above album.
All the same, a look back at his career does reveal that he was somewhat swept away by the tides of technical one-upmanship that temporarily flooded the bluegrass scene as it moved into the progressive or new-grass stage. His recordings from this period are still loaded with feeling, however, especially when he matches licks with banjo master J.D. Crowe on the superb 1982 County release The Lost Fiddler. Art traveled a lot from show to show and teaching others; a demanding requirement of most musicians that few of the rest of us can truly appreciate. He had a regular residency at the Blackwell Farm Fiddle Camp in Niangua, MO.
His wife Kay, who liked the old-style music, had come to America from Japan in 1981. She was in Arkansas in 1983 and decided to go over to a Bluegrass concert there. One of the players was Art Stamper. They met and were together from that time until his death. Since the '80s, he has also been active as a teacher, including a In 1987 art toured Europe with Bill Clifton and Red Rector and a recording of their concert in Holland was issued in 2023.
He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2000 and began undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the Veterans Hospital in Louisville, KY, and the following year underwent surgery on his throat which involved a tracheostomy. The bluegrass community poured out for a subsequent benefit concert, the lineup of the artists on the roster like flashing one's eyes across the spines of the albums on a bluegrass collector's shelf. His health problems coincided with yet another bloom in his career, as the new millennium also marked the release of one his most praised albums to date, Goodbye Girls, I'm Going to Boston, the title-track a programming favorite on several prominent radio shows devoted to this genre.
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| Art Stamper's last concert with Ralph Stanley 2005 |
He was still able to keep up a schedule of concert appearances from time to time, including bluegrass festivals, as well as reunions of surviving members of the Clinch Mountain Boys, one of strawboss Stanley's main backup aggregations. On January 8, 2005, Stanley was playing with his band in Shepherdsville. Art was very ill, but wanted to go to the show to say goodbye to them. And so he and his wife Kay went, even though it was in stormy weather. Kay told Ralph that Art was there and he asked Art to play. Kay says that he did a great job. Art died from his illness two weeks later on November 1, 2005. After a funeral in Bullitt County, Art was buried in Knott County in the Stamper family cemetery.
His memory is enshrined in the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, recognized by that international museum as a "First Generation Pioneer of Bluegrass." Three time recipient of the International Bluegrass Music Association "Old Time Fiddler of the Year" award, and the "Distinguished Achievement Award" in 2004 at the International Bluegrass Festival.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Bullitt County History.org & AllMusic)
Here’s a video of Art Stamper at Clifftop 2003 taken by Tadashi Maeda. The other fiddler is Mark Simos, the banjo player is Brendan Doyle.