Biography

Terry and Tammy Pierce and the Summertown Bluegrass Reunion. Wailin has known this band for years and has played on several occasions with them. He enjoys jamming with people, such as his friends in the Summertown Bluegrass Reunion, "this is down home bluegrass pickin".

John Rice Irwin and Wailin; John is a friend and the founder/director of the Museum of Appalachia, Wailin performs at this rustic pioneer village in the southern mountains every October during the 5 day authentic Appalachian Homecoming Festival.

Back in 1994, fans of music festivals in the mid-South began to notice a new kid on the scene. He was a wiry, animated, funny crowd-pleasing young man who knew all of the old-time contest favorites like Liberty and Whiskey Before Breakfast, who could hold his own with the best pickers at these contests, and who even knew a couple of chicken song. But he was also different, in a very important way. His instrument was not the fiddle or the banjo or the dulcimer, but the harmonica. Now middle Tennessee has been a hotbed for harmonica players ever since the 1920's when Deford Bailey, Dr. Humphrey Bate, and the Crook Brothers used the instrument to help start up the Grand Ole Opry. And most every festival in the area today still has a harmonica competition. But the kind of music this young man was playing was unlike most of the harmonica music normally heard there. It was cleaner, sharper, more innovative, and incredibly faster than anything else. It might best be described as bluegrass harp, with the rich rapid cascading runs of notes resembling the three finger rolls of Earl Scruggs - only played on an instrument more commonly associated with cowboy laments and sentimental songs. Fans and judges alike have hailed the music of this young man, giving him over a hundred first place awards in his contests. Here's a chance to experience some more of the excitement of this breathtaking new sound - and to meet the man who created it : Wailin Wood.

Wailin's background is as varied as his music. I was born and grew up on a small island at the tip of New Jersey called Cape May. Wailin says, It's an old Victorian town. I moved to Nashville in 1982. He currently makes his home near White Bluff, in a hamlet called Claylick, west of Nashville. When I first started playing the harmonica, the written information was not available. I would listen to anything and everything that had harmonica on it. His early influences included Charlie McCoy, the great Nashville musician, blues player Sonny Terry, and pop stylist Toots Theilemanns. Others included Norton Buffalo, Lee Oscar, and more recently, Lonnie Glossen, DeFord Bailey, Mark Graham, and Pip, Phil, and John Murphy.

Wailin's trophy case soon began to fill up as he got to more and more contests and festivals. He has taken First Place Championships in Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia (six times), Tennessee (six times) and Tennessee Valley (five times). In 1997, he won the National Harmonica Championships (blues) and placed second in the National Harmonica Championship (open). In 1995, he was awarded the Billy Powers Bluegrass Musician of the Year Award.

Reflecting on his projects, Wailin says: Playing bluegrass on an instrument that is not traditionally a bluegrass instrument is a major struggle in itself. I can imagine that's why nobody is doing it. And though Wailin plays in a dozen other genres and styles, he often returns to his bluegrass style - a natural for old-time and bluegrass music festivals.

Biography and Interview by - Dr. Charles Wolfe