Frank Proffitt

{{short description|American musician (1913–1965)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Frank Proffitt | image = Frank Proffitt.png | caption = Proffitt playing a banjo. | image_size =  | birth_name = Frank Noah Proffitt | alias = | birth_place = {{nowrap|Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, U.S.}} | birth_date = June 1, 1913 | death_date = {{Death date and age|1965|11|24|1913|6|1}} | death_place = {{nowrap|Vilas, North Carolina, U.S.}} | origin = | instrument = Banjo, appalachian dulcimer | genre = Folk | occupation = farmer, carpenter, musician | years_active = 1930s–1960s | label = Folkways Records, Folk Legacy | associated_acts = | website = }}

'''Frank Noah Proffitt''' (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965)<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|pages=2007/8}}</ref> was an Appalachian Old-time banjo player and ballad singer known for his role in the preservation and popularization of the folk song "Tom Dooley." He contributed to the documentation of traditional Appalachian music through his work with several folk collectors, and his repertoire and recordings played an influential role in the mid-20th-century American folk revival.<ref name="Grove"/><ref name="strong" />

== Life == Frank Proffitt was born in 1913 in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee,<ref name="LarkinGE" /> to Wiley Proffitt and Rebecca Alice Creed Proffitt. When Frank was nine years old, his family moved to North Carolina and settled in the Beaver Dam community of Watauga County, close to the Tennessee border.<ref name="Grove">{{Cite Grove |last=Winans |first=Robert B. |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.l2214827 |title=Proffitt, Frank |date=2011-10-26 }}</ref>

Proffitt grew up in a musical family, learning ballads and tunes from his parents as well as from his aunts and uncles. His father, a Civil War veteran, was a luthier who built banjos and dulcimers. Frank learned the craft from him and continued making instruments into adulthood, following his father's patterns.<ref name="Folkways">{{Cite web |title=Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina |url=https://folkways.si.edu/frank-proffitt/frank-proffitt-of-reese-north-carolina |access-date=2025-12-09 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}</ref> Proffitt married Bessie Hicks, with whom he had six children.<ref name="Grove"/> The family lived near the house that had belonged to Frank's father. Frank used this space as his workshop for instrument building while he wasn't working as a carpenter or farming tobacco.<ref name="Folkways"/>

== Music == In 1937, folklorist Frank C. Brown of Duke University recorded several of Proffitt’s songs during a field-collecting trip in Watauga County. These recordings were later published in the ''Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore'' by Duke University Press in 1952. The following year, in 1938, Proffitt met folk song collectors Anne and Frank Warner at the home of his father-in-law, Nathan Hicks.<ref name="Grove"/> This encounter began a friendship with the Warners that lasted three decades<ref name="Folkways"/> and resulted in their collecting more than a hundred of Proffitt’s songs, many of which were later published in ''Traditional American Folk Songs from the Frank and Anne Warner Collection'' in 1984. The Warners also shared Proffitt’s repertoire with Alan Lomax, who included a number of these songs—among them the ballad “Tom Dooley”—in his book ''Folksong U.S.A.'' The ballad later gained national popularity when The Kingston Trio recorded it in 1958, using a version they learned from a Frank Warner recording.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040816125911/http://www.folk-legacy.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=15 Folk Legacy, Frank Proffitt bio] Folk Legacy, Retrieved May 5, 2008</ref> Their hit recording is widely credited with helping spark the American folk music revival.<ref name="Grove" />

In 1961, Proffitt recorded a collection of traditional ballads on the album ''Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs'', edited by Warner and issued by Folkways Records. A second set of Proffitt's recordings, ''Frank Proffitt of Reece NC: Traditional Songs and Ballads of Appalachia'', was released in 1962 and included "Tom Dooley."<ref name="strong">{{cite book |last=Strong |first=Martin C. |title=The Great Folk Discography: Pioneers and Early Legends |date=2010 |publisher=Polygon Books |isbn=978-1-84697-141-9 |location=Edinburgh |pages=244}}</ref> Proffitt performed at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120731122934/http://www.folk-legacy.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=66 Frank Profitt Bio] Folk Legacy. Retrieved May 5, 2008</ref> and the 1964 New York World's Fair, recording several more tracks released on the compilation album ''High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina''.<ref name="strong" />

Proffitt died in 1965, aged 52.<ref name="LarkinGE" /> The ''Frank Proffitt Memorial Album'' was released by Folk Legacy Records in 1969, followed by a tribute album, ''Nothing Seems Better to Me: The Music of Frank Proffitt and North Carolina'', issued in 2000.<ref name="strong" />

==Discography== *''Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs'', Folkways Records<ref>[http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=207 Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs], Folkways Records, FW02360 1962 Retrieved on May 6, 2008</ref> *''Frank Proffitt of Reese NC'', Folk-Legacy Records<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040816125911/http://www.folk-legacy.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=15 Frank Proffitt of Reese, NC CD-1 :American Folk Music, Music CD, Traditional Folk Music, Folklore, Sea Shanties, Folk Hymns, Folk Song, Folk Ballads Folk Legacy]</ref> *''Frank Proffitt Memorial Album'', Folk Legacy<ref>[https://archive.today/20120731122934/http://www.folk-legacy.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=66 Frank Proffitt – Memorial Album :American Folk Music, Music CD, Traditional Folk Music, Folklore, Sea Shanties, Folk Hymns, Folk Song, Folk Ballads Folk Legacy]</ref> *''High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina'', Rounder Records<ref name="LarkinGE"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proffitt, Frank}} Category:1913 births Category:1965 deaths Category:People from Johnson County, Tennessee Category:American folk musicians Category:American folk singers Category:American banjoists Category:American folk-song collectors Category:Old-time musicians Category:Music of East Tennessee Category:Music of Johnson County, Tennessee Category:Musicians from Appalachia Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters Category:Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Category:People from Beech Mountain, North Carolina