Charles Wood is a South Carolina banjo player who won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas, in 1999 and again in 2006. He has also won MerleFest, RockyGrass, and state titles in Georgia and South Carolina. He has played with Steve Martin and Earl Scruggs on The Late Show with David Letterman, and he teaches banjo at Clemson University.
Why Wood matters
Wood has won the major banjo contests across the country: Winfield in Kansas, MerleFest in North Carolina, RockyGrass in Colorado, and Ossipee Valley in Maine. He now passes that on as Clemson’s banjo lecturer and through private lessons in upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina.
Life and career
Wood started on piano at 5 and switched to banjo at 15 after hearing Flatt and Scruggs. He studied under Al Osteen and learned from the Flatt and Scruggs album Foggy Mountain Banjo. At 18 he joined the Dixie Bluegrass Boys, led by former Bill Monroe sideman Curtis Blackwell.
He won the Georgia State Banjo Championship in 1992 and MerleFest in 1998, then Winfield in 1999. He played in the Lonesome Road Band, which toured Austria and Germany twice. He won the South Carolina State title at RenoFest in 2004 and RockyGrass in 2005. He placed third at Winfield in 2005 and won it again in 2006. In 2007 he won the Ossipee Valley contest in Maine.
Wood played with Steve Martin’s group at the 2005 New Yorker Festival in New York and on the Letterman show, with Earl Scruggs. He played A Prairie Home Companion in 2007. He has also played in Nitrograss, an Asheville, North Carolina band, and in the Darren Nicholson Band. He taught at a banjo camp in Munich, Germany, in 2009, and he is an applied lecturer in banjo at Clemson University.
Playing style
Wood plays a wide range on the five-string, from traditional bluegrass to classical. His roots are traditional. He names Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, and Flatt and Scruggs as his influences. He told one writer that playing is when he is happiest.
Essential recordings
Wood has released five solo albums, sold through his website.
Somewhere Over the Banjo Banjo Noel Tour de Banjo Halo Over the Banjo Banjology.
Awards and honors
Georgia State Banjo Championship (1992) MerleFest Banjo Contest, first place (1998) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (1999) South Carolina State Banjo Championship, RenoFest (2004) RockyGrass Banjo Contest, first place (2005) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, third place (2005) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2006) Ossipee Valley Banjo Contest, first place (2007).
Watch and listen
Wood tries out a Bramble model banjo at Cedar Mountain Banjos in Brevard, North Carolina.
Wood and Micah Hanks play the Pendleton Fall Harvest Festival in South Carolina in 2012.
What to learn from Wood
Start with the records. Wood learned from Foggy Mountain Banjo and still names Flatt and Scruggs as a main influence. Once the Scruggs base is solid, stretch it, the way Wood takes his banjo from bluegrass to classical.
Sources
Charles Wood bio, charleswoodbanjo.com Charles F. Wood, faculty profile, Clemson University Martin Acevedo legacy bluegrass award for Clemson students, Bluegrass Today (2019) Charles Wood, Pickens County Courier (2014) National banjo champion Charles Wood, John Trout’s Bluegrass World (2009) Charles Wood profile, Pickers Paradise Walnut Valley Festival winners archive, chronological (PDF)
Related players
See the banjo players hub and the bluegrass banjo guide for more pickers. Wood learned from Earl Scruggs records and later played beside him. He has also played with Pete Wernick. Brian Anderson won Winfield in 2005, the year Wood placed third.