Appalachian Figures
Who he was
William “Banjo Bill” Cornett grew up in Knott County and made his name locally as a hard-driving banjo singer with a store just outside Hindman. In 1955 voters sent him to Frankfort. He won a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives for the 74th District, representing Knott and Magoffin, and served in the 1956 and 1958 regular sessions. The Legislative Research Commission’s membership bulletin lists him among the House members for that period.
Contemporaries remembered him as the legislator who carried a banjo as naturally as a bill folder. A wire story filed the night he died called him a “fun-loving, banjo-strumming state representative from the mountains.” He collapsed of a heart attack in Frankfort on January 12, 1960.
A representative with a songbook
Cornett did not leave his music at home. His best known composition, “Old Age Pension Blues,” appears on tape from the years he was active in politics. It also appears as the opening cut on the expanded two-CD edition of Mountain Music of Kentucky, the field recording project that first carried his voice far beyond the head of Troublesome Creek.
John Cohen recorded Cornett in eastern Kentucky in 1959, during the same trip that introduced much of the world to Roscoe Holcomb. In Cohen’s notes, Cornett stands out for turning familiar ballads into something distinctly his through phrasing and drive. The Folkways booklet singles out his versions of “John Henry” and “Old Reuben” as performances that bear his unmistakable stamp.
A later Smithsonian Folkways overview of classic banjo recordings adds a helpful detail. It notes that the first person Cohen recorded on that 1959 trip was Bill Cornett, then a sitting member of the Kentucky legislature from Hindman, known locally for “Old-Age Pension Blues.” That same Smithsonian note traces the later release of Cornett’s home tapes by the Field Recorders’ Collective.
What we can hear
Cohen’s Mountain Music of Kentucky documents Cornett’s repertoire as people at home would have known it. The track list features Cornett on “Old Age Pension Blues,” “Hook and Line,” “John Henry,” “Pretty Polly,” “Old Reuben,” “Born in Old Kentucky,” “Buck Creek Girls,” “Sweet Willie,” and “Cluck Old Hen.” It is rare to see one singer contribute so many sides to a field anthology that also includes church singing, fiddle tunes, and Holcomb’s piercing tenor.
If you want a single doorway into that sound, click “Hook and Line.” Smithsonian Folkways hosts an official audio upload of the performance on its YouTube channel. Hearing Cornett’s right hand pop the fifth string while the melody rocks forward is the quickest way to understand why Cohen pressed record.
Cornett’s singing shows up again on Back Roads to Cold Mountain, a 2004 Smithsonian Folkways compilation assembled after the film’s success sparked new interest in older Appalachian recordings. There he delivers “Look Down That Lonesome Road,” credited with lead vocal and banjo.
The home tapes come out of the drawer
Before Cohen ever arrived with a microphone, Cornett had already started documenting himself. On one tape he announces the date and that he is at home, then begins to “carry on” with the banjo once the house is quiet. Those private reels surfaced decades later and became The Lost Recordings of Banjo Bill Cornett from the Field Recorders’ Collective, produced and annotated by Cohen. The release streams complete on Bandcamp and includes the spoken intro track “Banjo Bill Talks,” along with ballads and banjo pieces that strengthen Cohen’s earlier portrait.
Art Rosenbaum’s review for the Collective fills in context. Cornett said he intended to leave the tapes as a legacy and, on the Legislature side, that he had campaigned with his banjo and even sang on the House floor when pushing for aid to the aged. The review also notes the widely recalled scene in Frankfort after his death, when his banjo sat banked with flowers at his House desk.
Politics and porch time in the same life
Cornett’s public and private lives overlapped in a way that feels very specific to mid-century eastern Kentucky. The Smithsonian “Field Guide to Appalachia” playlist page places Cohen’s 1959 Knott County session one year before Cornett’s death, which means the record we have is both a snapshot of a local style and the end of a life lived at the crossing of courthouse and front porch.
The Library of Congress helps preserve that full picture. The American Folklife Center’s finding aid for the John Cohen Collection lists a “Banjo Bill Cornett recording project,” Cohen’s notes for Mountain Music of Kentucky, and a House resolution entered in tribute to Cornett after his death. These are administrative traces of a musician-legislator who mattered to both communities he inhabited.
What the records show about style
Taken together, the Folkways and FRC sources let us hear Cornett as neighbors did. On the 1959 field tapes he moves easily among frailing, up-picking, and thumb-lead approaches while keeping the melody close to the singing voice. The Cohen notes emphasize that Cornett stamped even well known songs as his own by phrasing above and around the beat. The Bandcamp description for the home tapes underlines the same point in plain language, calling him an “extraordinary singer and banjo player” from Hindman with a “driving east Kentucky banjo style.”
Why he still matters
Cornett’s story carries two threads common to Appalachian history. First is the insistence on documenting and sharing home-grown music, whether through a neighbor’s tape machine or a visiting folklorist. Second is the sense that art and civic work can come from the same place and the same person. It is fitting that the state’s official records and its most important folk-music archive each hold parts of his legacy.
How to listen now
Start with the expanded Mountain Music of Kentucky album page for a tour of the 1959 recordings. It includes full track listings and streaming samples. Then jump to The Lost Recordings of Banjo Bill Cornett for the at-home voice he wanted people to hear later. Round things out with Back Roads to Cold Mountain for “Look Down That Lonesome Road,” which places Cornett inside a wider nineteenth and twentieth century soundscape.
Sources and further reading
John Cohen, Mountain Music of Kentucky, Smithsonian Folkways, album page and track list. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
John Cohen, liner notes to Mountain Music of Kentucky (PDF booklet).
Back Roads to Cold Mountain, Smithsonian Folkways, album page and track info for “Look Down That Lonesome Road.”
FRC 304: The Lost Recordings of Banjo Bill Cornett, Field Recorders’ Collective, streaming album and description. Field Recorders’ Collective
“Bill Cornett — Hook and Line,” official audio on Smithsonian Folkways’ YouTube channel.
John Cohen, Classic Banjo booklet note on Cornett’s 1959 session and legislative service.
Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, John Cohen Collection finding aid, entries referencing the Banjo Bill Cornett project and House tribute.
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, Kentucky General Assembly Membership, 1900–2005, confirming Cornett’s House service for the 74th District.
Contemporary coverage of Cornett’s death in Frankfort, January 12, 1960.
Field Recorders’ Collective, Art Rosenbaum review and background essay for FRC304.
Smithsonian Folkways, “A Field Guide to Appalachia” playlist entry situating the 1959 Knott County recordings.