The Piney Woods Boys

The Piney Woods Boys are Jim Collier, Wayne Martin, Matt Haney, and Margaret Martin. Friends for upwards of fifty years, each of them can trace their early musical efforts to the inspiring music of the family and community of Doc Watson. Perhaps the heart of that music was the graceful fiddle and banjo of Doc’s father-in-law, Gaither Carlton. “His tunes awaken something in you from long ago,” says Jim Collier. “It’s something that’s part of your genetics. Playing them just sorta brings all that to the surface.”

After decades of individually pursuing musical traditions from old-time fiddle to bluegrass to Cajun to blues, Jim, Wayne, Margaret and Matt formed the Piney Woods Boys to revisit the music of the Watsons. With the passing years, their relation to the music has changed, Wayne says. “As our own music matured, we wanted to present the qualities of the Watsons’ music that included, but also went beyond, the excitement of a flat-picked guitar tune. It is the directness, the spareness, and most of all the feeling, that we hear in their ballads, hymns and old-time fiddle tunes that made us want to return to this music and share it with others.”