Gary “Biscuit” Davis is a Tennessee banjo player who has won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas, five times, more than any other player. Steven Moore is next, with three wins. He won his first title in 1979, at 16, and his fifth in 2021. In between, he spent more than 20 years playing for Dolly Parton, much of that time as her band leader.
Why Davis matters
Davis holds the record at the biggest banjo contest in bluegrass. The Walnut Valley Festival called him its first-ever five-time champion in any contest. His wins span 42 years, from 1979 to 2021. The American Banjo Museum put him in its Hall of Fame in 2020.
Life and career
Davis comes from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Jam sessions at a Masonic Lodge there made him want a banjo, and he got one for his 10th birthday. He was Tennessee State Champion by 12 and was playing for pay at 13. In 1979, at 16, he won Winfield for the first time. He has also won the Kentucky State title twice and the Alabama State title four times. In Chattanooga he played in a three-piece band called the Bluegrass Express.
In 1988 he moved to Pigeon Forge to join Jim and Charlie Smith’s Southstar Band at Dollywood as its lead guitar player. The band already had a player nicknamed Cornbread, so they named Davis Biscuit. He won Winfield again that year and played at Dollywood for 12 years. There he rose to become band leader and a record producer for Dolly Parton. He played banjo, acoustic guitar, and lead guitar for her. He has also played the Smoky Mountain Jubilee, the Hee Haw Show, and the Bonnie Lou and Buster Show, and toured Australia, Asia, and Europe.
He won Winfield again in 1996, 2012, and 2021. The contest did not run in 2020. He has performed at Dolly’s Dixie Stampede dinner theater in Pigeon Forge.
Playing style
Davis plays three-finger banjo built on Scruggs style. Those are the methods he teaches at Steve Kaufman’s Kamp. He also plays melodic banjo and borrows from jazz and western swing, and he plays lead guitar. On video he plays standards such as Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Country Boy, and Bill Cheatham.
His main banjo is a Gibson RB-6 reissue that Gibson gave him in 2002 for a Dolly Parton tour. Earl Scruggs signed it when Davis visited him at his home in Nashville.
Influences and legacy
Davis learned Scruggs style first, then Don Reno’s style and some Sonny Osborne. At 14 or 15 he found Tony Trischka’s melodic banjo book and read it for the licks, then turned to Alan Munde. Playing beside a steel guitar player taught him to play full chords to fill out a small band, and that led him to western swing. He names Bob Wills guitarist Eldon Shamblin and jazz guitarist Larry Carlton as influences. He learned jazz tunes from Rusty Holloway, a longtime jazz bass teacher at the University of Tennessee.
Davis gives private banjo and guitar lessons and runs banjo clinics. He teaches the Bluegrass Banjo class in week two of Steve Kaufman’s Kamp.
Essential recordings
Halos & Horns, Dolly Parton (Sugar Hill and Blue Eye, 2002), with Davis on banjo and acoustic guitar.
Awards and honors
Tennessee State Banjo Champion, by age 12 Kentucky State Banjo Champion, two times Alabama State Banjo Champion, four times National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (1979, 1988, 1996, 2012, and 2021) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, second place (1986) American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame, Five-String Performance (2020).
Watch and listen
Davis plays Country Boy at Steve Kaufman’s Kamp.
Davis plays Foggy Mountain Breakdown in Kilworth, Ireland.
The American Banjo Museum’s video for his Hall of Fame induction.
What to learn from Davis
Start young and keep showing up. Davis won his first national title at 16 and his fifth 42 years later. Learn guitar too. He built a long career playing banjo, acoustic guitar, and lead guitar for Dolly Parton. The technique to take is Scruggs-style three-finger picking, the base he teaches from. When you add melodic banjo, read a method book for its ideas, the way Davis read Trischka’s book for licks instead of tunes.
Sources
Walnut Valley Festival winners archive, chronological (PDF) 2021 contest winners, Walnut Valley Festival 2020 Hall of Fame inductees, American Banjo Museum Gary Davis, instructor page, Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp Halos & Horns, Wikipedia Coffee with Tyler: Gary Davis, American Banjo Museum (video interview, 2020) Winfield competition winners for 2021, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the banjo players hub and the bluegrass banjo guide for more pickers. Scott Vestal placed second to Davis at Winfield in 1979. Davis learned from the records of Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, Sonny Osborne, Tony Trischka, and Alan Munde.