Multi-instrumentalist Buck Trent is a musical innovator who starred for decades on stage and screen and who contributed to recordings from numerous country music legends.

Born and raised in the Arcadia mill village west of town, Trent was playing on local radio station WORD at age 10. He became a professional musician at age 17, ultimately landing in Nashville in 1959 when he joined Bill Carlisle’s band.

His distinctive banjo style drew the attention of Porter Wagoner, a Grand Ole Opry regular who starred in a syndicated television show. Trent joined Wagoner’s band in 1962, performing on “The Porter Wagoner Show” with an electrified banjo, that he invented that allowed him to access tones normally heard via a steel guitar or electric guitar. He played multiple instruments with Wagoner through 1973, and also performed on many of Dolly Parton’s recordings.

In the 1970s Trent began performing and recording with Roy Clark, and with Clark he won two Country Music Association Awards for best instrumental group. He performed regularly on another television show, “Hee-Haw,” charming audiences with folksy stage patter and instrumental acumen. Later, he performed regular shows at a Branson, Missouri, theater, and he returned to Nashville in 2007 to record with his old friend Wagoner on the highly regarded “Wagonmaster” album.

—Peter Cooper, author, professor, award-winning journalist, and Grammy-nominated artist