MARC PRUETT
ARTIST Biography
Marc Reagan Pruett – musician, songwriter and alumnus of Western Carolina University – you have earned your reputation as on of the great masters of the five-string banjo throughout a stage and recording career that has spanned more than four decades.
Growing up in Haywood County, you acquired an intense love of bluegrass while listening to the pioneers of that style of music, and you naturally gravitated toward life as an entertainer. You developed your skill with the banjo and gave your first professional performance at 15 years of age.
Your association with Western Carolina began in the fall of 1969, when you enrolled and started work on your bachelor’s degree. As a WCU student, you began performing with James Monroe, son of bluegrass originator Bill Monroe, and that association led to other opportunities to take the stage with many of the genre’s biggest stars, including a show with bluegrass giant Jimmy Martin at Nashville’s most famous showplace, the Grand Ole Opry.
You received your bachelor’s degree in geology in 1974, and the next year you began your close association with Mountain Heritage Day, the university’s annual celebration of mountain culture. You performed at the first Mountain Heritage Day, held in October 1975, and since then you have continued to strongly support the festival with your talents – not for financial compensation or other personal gain – but because of the intense love you possess for the traditional culture of the region.
Your talent and fame continued to grow over the decades as you played your banjo at classic venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center and toured across Europe as part of a cultural exchange associated with this nation’s bicentennial year. In 1995, your friend Ricky Skaggs asked you to join his band, Kentucky Thunder, and you received that most coveted musical honor, the Grammy Award, for your work with Skaggs on the album “Bluegrass Rules.”
Also in the 1990’s, you began to display your considerable talents with the group Whitewater Bluegrass Company, and since 2007, you have performed as a member of Balsam Range, which unites you with four of your fellow Haywood County natives, two of whom also are WCU alumni. Now, with your critically acclaimed stage performances and recordings with Balsam Range, you continue your quest to advance bluegrass music by reaching new fans here at home and all over the world.
Marc Reagan Pruett, your musical accomplishments alone are exemplary and worthy of great acclaim, but let it be noted that during your musical career you truly have been an ambassador with a banjo as you have traveled the world, representing your university, your mountains and your people with outstanding humor, warmth and personality. You have carved your own niche as one of Western North Carolina’s great cultural icons and as a beloved son of the mountains.
In recognition of your many achievements as a professional musician, and in appreciation for your support and love of the traditional culture of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the Board of Trustees of Western Carolina University is pleased to award, and the Chancellor to confer upon you, the Degree of Doctor of Arts, Honoris Causa, at this Commencement Ceremony, May 8, 2010, with all the rights and privileges thereto appertaining.
Upon receiving his honorary degree of Doctor of Arts, Marc Pruett was asked to address the Spring 2010 graduates as well as all those attending the spring Graduation Ceremony at the Liston B. Ramsey Center on the campus of Western Carolina University. Marc’s speech follows in entirety:
Thirty six years ago, I stood excitedly at WCU as a graduating senior. My dreams included a life filled with purpose…a life meeting challenges…and a life rising to the highest positive potential I could envision for myself. The preparation I received here at Western was invaluable toward shaping me as a person, in guiding me through my life’s work, and in helping me find many of the goals I envisioned in my youth.
Why we do what we do in life is not always a mystery. Propensity can often be observed at an early age.
Once, when I was a small boy, I was riding in the car with my Dad and listening to the radio. A song came on by the late Lonnie Irving…one he had written and recorded that was saturated with the emotions of a troubled life. The significance of that moment lives for me in the comment my Dad made when he saw I was moved by the message in that song. He asked me if I liked what I heard. Too overcome to speak…I simply nodded my head affirmatively. Then he said…“Son, that’s country music”. He made that statement with a pride that told me… “We…are county people…and it’s OK to feel those emotions.” Our lives are sprinkled with a few defining moments…and I felt at that moment, whatever country music was would be a part of my life.
When I was a child, my Mother knew I liked country music, and she would let me listen to the radio when I got home from school. I’d have snack…then I would have to do my homework. Back then, the local radio station had a country show they called “The Cornbread Matinee”. I loved it…and I listened. One day…the station featured a band known as Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. That day, the boys played songs like…Earl’s Breakdown…Dim Lights and Thick Smoke…and the Flint Hill Special. It was that day I heard the perfection in Earl Scruggs’ banjo playing. It spoke to me in ways I still find hard to explain. That day…I felt a small voice inside of me say, “That’s part of who you are too.”
Through caring support and thoughtful participation, many people have contributed greatly to any efforts I have made that may be deemed worthy of recognition. Some of those people are here today, and I want to give my heartfelt thank you to my family…for they are the ones who saw the banjo come to the hill, and they are the ones who continue to encourage me to grow…even as they continue to make sacrifices for that to happen.
My mother and father, Ray and Mickey Pruett and my wife Anita have been my most giving supporters through the years. Without their love and understanding, I would never have been this far in my adventure with Appalachian Heritage music. I love you, and I thank you. As well, to my mother Mickey and to my wife Anita…happy Mother’s Day from your family.
In my gratitude, I cannot let this moment pass without the warmest symbolic hug to my brother, Matthew…and to my children: Elizabeth, Zachary and Callie Marie. As well, let me extend my gratitude to the others in my family of lifetime friends and associates who are here today in my support.
Also, let me express appreciation to my family of this great Western Carolina University…my Alma Mater. In particular, I want to recognize Dr. Billy Ogletree and Dr. John Bardo who were instrumental in spearheading this effort and moving it forward on my behalf. I also would like to recognize the support and friendship of Dr. Scott Philyaw who is Director of the Mountain Heritage Center.
To everyone here, I hope to continue to share enjoyable trails of music with you. In parting…let me offer you my verbal photograph. Remember me through this:
Pray that you are given “passion.” Use it to mold your aptitudes into talent. Grow your talents to the fullest positive expression. And then…share yourself with the world in ways that will give you the most noble of attributes…and that is compassion.”
Thank you.
– Marc Pruett –
Bio source “balsamrange.com”. June 07, 2019.