Banjo great, Buddy Blackmon passed away on April 29th at the age of 71.
His brother, David shared this Facebook post:
“It saddens my heart to have to tell everybody this, but my older brother Buddy passed away earlier this morning. He had fought a hard fight. He’ll be sorely missed in my heart. He was the one who inspired me to pursue music.”
Buddy was a very talented musician from Athens, Georgia and was well known for his banjo instructional programs on Georgia Public TV (WGTV Channel 8) in the mid 1970’s . These shows were produced by the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. Here is a link to some of Buddy’s broadcast.
Many beginning banjo players would tune into Buddy’s instructional shows as they learned the instrument. I certainly did! Buddy also had a series of banjo Instructional books to complement the TV programs.
Buddy played in Jerry Reed’s band and also was a staff musician on the TV show “Hee-Haw”.
Buddy Blackmon was a major influence for Georgia banjo players from the middle 1970’s and beyond which is evident from all the Facebook post remembrances and condolences.
