Riley Baugus first came to music through his family in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. Riley started playing banjo at 10 years old, on an instrument that he and his father built from some scrap wood. He spent most of his early years honing his skills as a musician, singer and storyteller by spending time with many traditional players from the Blue Ridge Mountains. The core or Riley’s style is the Round Peak tradition of Surry County, NC. His teaching focus is mostly on learning many of the possibilities of the banjo, rather than just learning tunes.
Some of Riley’s projects include the award-winning film, “Cold Mountain”, “Raising Sand”, the multi Grammy winning recording by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, and Willie Nelson’s “Country Music”. Riley spends most of his time either performing, teaching or building his sought after old-time open back five-string banjos.