What banjoist recorded a number of songs at the "Big Bang" of modern country music?
B. F. Shelton Benjamin Frank Shelton (January 1, 1902 – February 28, 1963) was an American singer and banjoist who recorded a number of songs for Victor Records at the Bristol Sessions in Bristol, Tennessee on July 29, 1927. Shelton traveled from Corbin, Kentucky where he worked as a barber to Bristol for the sessions with gospel singer and preacher Alfred Karnes. Four of the recordings survive today, "Darling Cora", "Pretty Polly", "Oh Molly Dear" and "Cold Penitentiary Blues". He recorded again, under the name Frank Shelton, for Columbia Records at the Johnson City Sessions in Johnson City, Tennessee in October 1928, but the recordings were not issued and have not survived.
BMG movement The Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar (BMG) movement is a music genre based on the family of stringed instruments played with a plectrum, including the banjo, mandolin and guitar. This became popular in the USA in the late 19th century and into the 20th century. It fell from favour in the 1930s but there is still an organised movement in the UK where the "BMG Magazine", founded in 1903, is the country's oldest music periodical still publishing.