MUSIC
BLUEGRASS
and other fans,” she says. “So as a result, we have a tremendous amount of friends [who] are musicians too. I can’t complain. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful ride.” Last year on May 22, Thomas “Tommy” Shelton Edwards died from complications due to pancreatic cancer. Cindy looks back at his long life and shares how she has navigated life without Tommy.
REMEMBERING TOMMY EDWARDS
SELF-TAUGHT
G R I E F, L O V E A N D
BY ANNA-RHESA VERSOLA
ABOVE Tommy squeezes Cindy in front of their restored Victorian home in Pittsboro. BELOW Longhaired Tommy plays his guitar with his bandmates. 68
CHATHAM MAGAZINE
T
he first time Cindy Edwards heard bluegrass music was on a night in 1976 when she went with friends to Cat’s Cradle to hear Tommy Edwards and The Bluegrass Experience. “I loved it,” Cindy says. “I just have never really heard it [before]. I was big into rock ’n’ roll, you know, during the ’70s and ’80s. All those great bands. But I just got right into it [bluegrass] … because it had such a great beat and wonderful stories.” Cindy, who grew up in western Pennsylvania, moved to North Carolina in 1975 to find a job using her biochemistry degree from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She landed a Burroughs Wellcome-funded position with a research scientist at Duke University. At the time, Tommy was going out with a co-worker of Cindy’s, but months later he began dating Cindy. They married in 1978, and Cindy immersed herself in Tommy’s world filled with art, history and music. Tommy regularly played at local venues like Bynum Front Porch in Bynum, Carolina Brewery and The City Tap in Pittsboro, Roost Beer Garden in Fearrington Village and The Blue Note Grill in Durham. “[The Bluegrass Experience] would go play concerts and shows, and I would go. That was great fun meeting all the people
SUMMER 2022
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 20, 1945, Tommy was only a few months old when his family moved to Siler City. When he was a teenager, he pulled a discarded 1930s Gibson banjo from a neighbor’s trash can and taught himself to play by watching Earl Scruggs use a threefinger roll technique on the “The Flatt and Scruggs Grand Ole Opry Show.” He later switched to guitar and could play the mandolin as well. In 1970, Tommy’s guitar skills won him a world championship trophy at the 46th annual Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention in Union Grove, North Carolina. He won again the following year – the same year he founded his band, The Bluegrass Experience, which has played together for more than 50 years. In 1972, Tommy returned to Union Grove with his group, and they brought home the world championship for best bluegrass band. Off stage, Tommy shared his love for traditional old-time music with listeners of 103.1 WLHC-FM in Sanford, where he hosted a two-hour weekly broadcast, “Bluegrass Saturday Night,” for 16 years. His lifelong dedication to preserving the state’s musical heritage was recognized by the North Caroliniana Society and The Order of the Long Leaf Pine Society, the latter being one of the state’s highest honors.
SHARING MUSIC Cindy says her husband’s biggest impact on others was his ability to mentor people.