Mike Compton is a Grammy and IBMA award-winning artist and is a passionate teacher and advocate for the mandolin. Mandolin Magazine calls him "a certified mandolin icon." Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Compton grew up hearing old-time country music and took up the mandolin as a teenager, drawn to the powerful mix of old-time fiddle stylings, blues influences and pure creativity embodied in Bill Monroe's playing. By the mid-1980's, he was a founding member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band, which quickly became one of the most prominent and admired in bluegrass.

He recorded a half-dozen albums and toured extensively with the legendary John Hartford in the Hartford String Band. Working with producer T-Bone Burnett, Compton performed as a Soggy Bottom Boy on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to 2001's O Brother, Where Art Thou? and on the subsequent Grammy-winning Down from the Mountain soundtrack and tours.

Today, Compton performs widely both solo and in ensembles with guitarist/songwriter/banjo player Joe Newberry, Jumpstead Boys (which includes Peghead Nation Old-Time Fiddle instructor Bruce Molsky), Helen Highwater String Band, and many others. He is an in-demand instructor and runs the popular Monroe Mandolin Camp in addition to teaching at high-profile workshops around the country.

Wearing his signature pressed blue overalls, Compton stuns not by tricks or artifice, but through his singing, his ability to engage a crowd, and through decades of honing his technique into the unique, one-of-a-kind Compton signature mandolin sound.

www.mikecompton.net

• Monroe-Style Mandolin