William Parsons

Artist Biography

Carter County’s William Parsons is a luthier specializing in mandolins who lives and works in Olive Hill, Kentucky. Luthiery is the craft of making string instruments including guitars and banjos, and in Appalachia, the artists who make the instruments are praised as highly as the artists who play them. Growing up in West Virginia, Parsons first encountered luthiery through his father, a carpenter who built and repaired instruments to supplement his income. Learning to build instruments at the same time he was learning to play them, Parsons became adept at both, receiving acclaim in state, national, and international luthiery competitions by the age of eighteen. Since specializing in the form during his mid-twenties, Parsons has become an eminent figure in the world of hand-crafted mandolins, and has taught courses on bluegrass instruments at the Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music Program at East Tennessee State University and the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music.

A homesteader, Parsons connects his Appalachian heritage to his efforts to live a sustainable, agrarian lifestyle. “It is our hope to create a model by which others in our community, state, and country may live that is environmentally friendly and encourages a strong cultural identity and sense of community,” says Parsons. “One aspect of that lifestyle is the preservation of our traditional, Appalachian art forms.” Teaching his sons the luthiery trade, Parsons intends to use the funds from the Folk and Traditional Arts Master Artist Fellowship to broaden his mentorship by expanding his work-space to accommodate community workshops and other educational opportunities.