Jim Smoak

Jim Smoak is an American bluegrass and country banjo player from Louisiana. Smoak may be the first bluegrass banjoist to have come from that state.Chadbourne.]

Smoak had a difficult time establishing an audience in his home state, so he moved north in the 1950s. Through 1953, he played occasionally with Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys; the following year, he became a permanent member of the band. Later in that decade, Smoak joined Hylo Brown & the Timberliners. Smoak played both bluegrass and country music in the 1960s, and in the 1970s, he published three praised banjo instruction books, some of the first to include standard musical notation and tablature. Smoak recorded "Moonshine Sonata", a solo album with Blue River Records, in 1979.

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References

*Chadbourne, Eugene. "Jim Smoak." [http://www.allmusic.com All Music Guide] . Accessed 2 November 2006.