Matokie Slaughter
Matokie Slaughter (1919–1999), born Matokie Worrell, was an American Appalachian old-time clawhammer banjoist and fiddler from Pulaski, Virginia. Raised in a musical farming family, she developed a distinctive banjo technique characterized by an unusual blending of both up-picking and down-picking. During the 1940s, she performed regularly on local radio with the Back Creek Ramblers; because she rarely sang, many radio listeners of the era assumed the powerhouse instrumentalist was a man. Her playing was introduced to a global audience when field collectors captured her music for County Records' seminal Clawhammer Banjo anthology series in the 1960s, leading to decades of national folk festival performances and deep musical mentorship with younger roots revivalists like Alice Gerrard. Later in life, she recorded the collaborative album Saro (1990) alongside Gerrard and her sister, guitarist Virgie Worrell Richardson, as Matokie Slaughter & the Back Creek Buddies. Her artistic legacy even crossed into modern counter-culture, serving as a primary namesake and inspiration for the celebrated San Francisco graffiti and mixed-media artist Margaret Kilgallen.
In the newsletter
- No. 28 January 2002