Lena Hughes (1904–1998) was a guitar, fiddle, and banjo player known as an exemplar of the "

parlor music Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a result of ...

" genre. She was born in Missouri and lived in the town of

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...

nearly all of her life. She started playing banjo around the age of nine and by the 1920s was playing at square dances. She performed at folk festivals and other events, often accompanied by her husband, Jake, who played guitar. Their repertoire was the popular music of the 19th century, now often referred to as parlor music. Hughes won first place in some fiddling competitions in the 1960s. Hughes released only a single record during her lifetime, the eponymously titled ''Lena Hughes'' recorded sometime in the 1960s and released in a few hundred copies. Nonetheless, she is considered to be an influential figure in the 20th-century Ozark

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

circuit. The album was re-released in the 1990s under the title ''Queen of the Flat-Top Guitar'' and in 2013 by

Tompkins Square Records Tompkins Square Records is an independent record label producing archival releases of gospel, blues, jazz, and country music. History In 2005, Josh Rosenthal launched Tompkins Square Records in New York City after working 15 years in a variety of ...

. The album liner notes by

John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...

of the group Pentangle note that Hughes's "approach to the guitar—tunings, techniques, harmony—fed directly into the rural styles, ragtime, and blues, and laid the foundations for the music that has gone on to shape the listening of the modern world." A recording of Hughes talking about her history was made by a folklore scholar working for the Smithsonian Institution in the 1970s. Hughes continued performing into her eighties. She died at age 94.

References

American folk musicians American folk guitarists American fingerstyle guitarists Acoustic guitarists Musicians from Missouri 1998 deaths 1904 births 20th-century American musicians American folk musicians Wom American folk musicians American women folk musicians 20th-century American folk musicians {{US-musician-stub