Bob Carlin ranked among country music’s finest practitioners of old-time banjo, distinguished by a clawhammer approach that incorporated several personal variations. He also earned recognition as a folk-music scholar who organized multiple field-recording projects, authored and oversaw authoritative documentary albums and radio series devoted to American roots music, and founded the independent imprint CarTunes Records.
Born in New York City, Carlin encountered the banjo at age five during the folk revival when he attended a Pete Seeger concert. While still developing his skills, he studied blues guitar alongside fellow aspiring folk players such as Roy Book Binder. At sixteen he adopted the banjo and soon became the protégé of Hank Sapoznick; the two appeared together on Carlin’s first release, the 1977 album Melodic Clawhammer Banjo. He subsequently trained under the Appalachian masters Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. Carlin and Sapoznick later joined the Delaware Water Gap String Band, whose repertoire encompassed reggae and swing among many other styles.
In 1980 Carlin departed the ensemble to pursue a solo career. He joined the Rounder roster in 1981 and issued Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo, followed by two additional Rounder titles before moving to Merrimac, where he recorded Take Me as I Am in 1990 and Mr. Spaceman in 1992. Between 1983 and 1985 he produced the twelve-part PBS radio documentary Our Musical Heritage as part of an effort to preserve the oldest traditional songs. In 1988 he documented the Library of Congress Banjo Collection and later assembled The Banjo on Folkways, Vols. 1 & 2, released in 1992. He also conducted lectures and workshops while devoting much of the early 1990s to researching an extensive history of the banjo’s role in American music. Recording continued both under his own name and as a sideman; among his collaborators were John Hartford and Dolly Parton. In 2003 Carlin compiled and produced Songs and Ballads of the Bituminous Miners for the Library of Congress.
