Biography:Manon Campbell

MANON CAMPBELL. 1890-1987, Line Fork, Hallie, Letcher County, southeast Kentucky, near the border with Virginia, who was from an old established family of Scotch settlers who came to the region in 1809. Campbell's first instrument was a gourd banjo. He learned tunes from his father’s sister, “Viney” Lusk and her son, “Dandy” Lusk and Will Christian (born c. 1872), an older African-American fiddler and a contemporary of Manon's father who had a reputation as a dance fiddler. In 1920 Christian was living in adjacent Knott County, where black banjo player Cullie Williams also resided.