Rual Yarbrough

Rual Holt Yarbrough (b. January 13, 1930) is an American five-string banjo player who has been working with some of the most famous bluegrass musicians.

Biography

Yarbrough was born in Lawrence County, Tennessee. He grew up listening to Bill Monroe on the radio and eventually learned to play the banjo. He joined the Dixie Gentlemen consisting of Jake Landers and Hershel Sizemore. They later recorded with fiddler Tommy Jackson. The group split up and Yarbrough found work with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys. He continued working with Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys and Bobby Smith and the Boys From Shiloh. When Yarbrough was performing in Columbus, Ohio with the Boys From Shiloh, he met Monroe who offered him a job with the Bluegrass Boys since his banjo player Vic Jordan had just left. Yarbrough was hired and made his first recordings with Monroe two days later, on March 26, 1969. Between 1969 and 1970 he made 21 recordings with Monroe.

References

• Neil V. Rosenberg, Charles Wolfe, "Bluegrass, Bill Monroe", Bear Family Publications, 1991