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Presley Barker

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Flatpicking phenom from the North Carolina mountains — Doc Watson's tradition in the hands of someone who grew up down the road from it.

Presley Barker is a guitarist from Wilkes County in the North Carolina foothills, an area with deep roots in old-time and bluegrass string band music. He began playing as a young child and drew early attention on the bluegrass contest circuit for his flatpicking, a right-hand-driven style in which fiddle tunes and dance melodies are played as single-note lines on the guitar.

His playing stays close to that traditional repertoire — breakdowns, reels and older country songs — and he has since worked as a bandleader and singer as well as an instrumentalist, performing alongside other players from the same regional tradition.

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