William “Billy” Cockman is a North Carolina banjo player who won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas, in 2013. He plays banjo and sings tenor in The Cockman Family, a bluegrass gospel band from Sherrills Ford. He has also won the North Carolina, South Carolina, and MerleFest banjo contests.
Why Cockman matters
Cockman won his contest titles as the banjo player in a family gospel band. That band, The Cockman Family, entered the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame in 2023. He also teaches banjo and guitar and writes songs for the band.
Life and career
Cockman started playing banjo at 11. The Cockman Family began performing in February 1988. The band plays its own bluegrass gospel style, with original songs and arrangements of old gospel songs. It has appeared on the PBS special Maker of the Stars: A Cockman Family Christmas and on The Arthur Smith Show, Now & Then.
Cockman won the North Carolina State Banjo Championship at the Carolina in the Fall Festival in Wilkesboro and the South Carolina State Banjo Championship at RenoFest in Hartsville. He also won the MerleFest banjo contest. At Winfield he placed third in 2012 and won in 2013, the festival’s 42nd year. He placed second at RenoFest in 2016.
He wrote two songs on the band’s album A Letter From Home.
Playing style
Bluegrass Today heard “bright banjo” from Cockman on A Letter From Home, and a 1920s flavor on the song He Lives. WBTV reported that he is known as too humble to admit how good he is. He told them, “There’s a lot of good players out there.”
Essential recordings
Shepherd’s Journey, Billy Cockman, a solo banjo Christmas album Dedicated, The Cockman Family (2011) A Letter From Home, The Cockman Family.
Awards and honors
North Carolina State Banjo Championship, Carolina in the Fall Festival South Carolina State Banjo Championship, RenoFest MerleFest Banjo Championship National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, third place (2012) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2013) RenoFest Banjo Contest, second place (2016) Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, with The Cockman Family (2023).
Watch and listen
Cockman plays Little Rock Getaway at the 2016 RenoFest banjo contest.
Cockman plays When You’re Smiling in a banjo contest.
What to learn from Cockman
Cockman’s main job is backing gospel songs in a family band, and that same banjo won Winfield. Serve the song first. Then learn Little Rock Getaway. Cockman plays it in contests, and Weston Stewart won MerleFest with it.
Sources
The Cockman Family biography Local banjo player wins national championship, WBTV (2013) Mountain Home Music feature, The Cockman Family, High Country Press (2016) The Cockman Family, Wikipedia A Letter From Home review, Bluegrass Today (2020) Walnut Valley Festival winners archive, alphabetical (PDF)
Related players
See the banjo players hub and the bluegrass banjo guide for more pickers. Gary “Biscuit” Davis won Winfield in 2012, the year Cockman placed third. Kyle Tuttle placed third behind Cockman in 2013.