After one such trip he told of killing more than one dozen deadly rattlesnakes.
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Going far into the woods in search of ginseng and other roots, Raymond has been known to stay gone for nearly a month. Although some ginseng hunters in the mountains take their sack of “sang” to nearby Asheville, North Carolina, or Knoxville, Tennessee, to sell for more than $200 a pound, Raymond keeps all that he digs.ĭrawing upon lore learned from his mother’s people, he combines the ginseng along with eighteen other roots and herbs to produce a medicine which he takes daily as a tonic. In the fall of the year he still goes hunting ginseng, which has a root that is highly valued for its legendary curing properties. Completely at home deep in the forest, Raymond, the mountain man, knows his way around. His mother’s people taught him the ways of the woods. He did manage to finish the fourth grade, but has never completely mastered reading and writing. Long back roads and winter snows kept Raymond from the one-room school house for most of the year. He’s lived it.īorn near Cherokee, North Carolina, to a Cherokee Indian mother and a father whose duties in the military kept him gone most of the time, Raymond Fairchild grew up in the hard times. This man, who many consider to be the fastest and the best banjo player alive, lays a genuine claim to playing mountain music. The mountains can age you before your time, and Raymond has lived far enough back in the Smoky Mountains to be several generations old by now. They call him “The Old Man of the Mountains.” At the spry age of 42, that makes Raymond Fairchild a rather youthful “old man.” No matter.
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Published in Bluegrass Unlimited in March 1982 Raymond Fairchild.