Allen Shelton

Allen Shelton was an American five-string banjo player mostly known for being a member of the bluegrass band Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys since the 1960s. Shelton was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, on July 2, 1936. Shelton started playing the banjo when he was fourteen. His father Troy Shelton was a guitar player mainly, but also played mandolin and banjo. A local musician named Junior Biggs showed him some three-finger style rolls.

Career Shelton played with a wide variety of people throughout several genres in his career. The most notable of them were Jim and Jesse, whom he spent most of his professional career with. He played with Mac Wiseman, and the Country Boys where Mac at the time was working for WRVA the Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond. Playing with Wiseman was Allen's first recording experience. Shelton got his first full-time job as a musician when he was sixteen playing with Jim Eanes; he was the banjo player on most of Eanes' Starday Records recordings. In the 1950s, Allen performed with Hack Johnson and the Tennesseans, and later, with Jim Eanes and Mac Wiseman. Jesse McReynolds is quoted as saying "When Allen Shelton played with us all those years, every time we heard a pedal steel guitar break, we'd try to adapt it to the banjo and to the mandolin, both we just experimented with different things.” His playing was described as "bouncy". Aside from his father, Troy Shelton and banjo player Hubert Davis, which is the bouncy, swing sound everyone talks about when talking about Shelton's playing. However, the feeling of reverence for style was shared mutually between Shelton and Reno. At the beginning of this same interview, Eddie Stubbs refers to a certain situation when Don Reno was asked the question; Besides himself and Earl Scruggs, who is the greatest banjo player? Don Reno answered simply with, "Allen Shelton!".

Legacy In 2018 Allen was inducted in to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

Performed With

Jim Eanes and the Shenandoah Valley Boys, 1952, 1956-1960 Mac Wiseman and the Country Boys, 1953 Hack Johnson and the Tennesseans, 1954-1955 The Farm Hands, 1955-1956 Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys, 1960-1966, 1983-1988 Luke Thompson and the Green Valley Boys, 1968-1969 The Dixie Revelers, 1969-1970

Compositions

“Banjo Bounce” “Bending The Strings” “Dine-e-o” “Shelton Special”