Walter Roark

Walter Roark was a banjo player in one of my Dad's bluegrass bands.  The band was Kentucky New Grass or Big Apple Grass, something like that.

Walter was an amazing self-taught musician.  My Dad told me the story of how Walter learned how to play.  Walter's father would leave his banjo sitting in the corner and when he would leave he would tell young Walter to not touch it.  Needless to say that was an invitation for Walter to dig right in. Walter would pluck and roll on the banjo, replicating the music he would hear on the radio.  But, when Walter's father came home there the banjo sat.  There would be instances where, as Walter played, a string would break and he would have to figure out to re-string the banjo before his father came home.  This was definitely a teaching tool that a father used, knowing his son very well, to invite his son to develop his musical abilities.  

I remember Dad telling me a story where they were running late for a show and Walter was in the back of his big, ugly Dodge.  It had this huge bench seat and Dad said he was going about 70 mph and every time he would take a curve he'd see Walter fly through his rear view mirror.

One time Walter was coming over to my parent's house for practice and my Mom had just cleaned the glass door and Walter ran into that thing 3 times before he realized there was a door there.

When Walter was on stage he could play banjo with the best. But unfortunately  Dad talked about Walter's one real flaw.  If Walter looked into the crowd he would jump time, no matter what.  So, when Dad played music with Walter, everyone in the band would watch Walter as he took his banjo breaks just waiting for him to look up.  They knew that if he looked up during one of his breaks they could jump time with him and nobody would ever know.

Walter is one of those great characters that Bluegrass music has blessed me with.  

I have alot of great memories of him and was happy to have been a small part of his.  

He was a damn good banjo player and not enough in the world like him.