About

     Raised in Virginia, I am a child of two West Virginia parents from Cabin Creek and Paint Creek and grandson of two lifelong coal miners. My ancestors arrived in modern day West Virginia in the mid-1700s; they were pioneers, fighters, explorers, farmers and eventually even had documented involvement in the West Virginia Mine Wars including the Battle of Blair Mountain. 

     34 years on Earth have taken me far and wide, working on farms in Finland, Norway, California, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia as well as long distance hiking over 2,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, The Long Trail and the Colorado Trail. I have a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from Virginia Commonwealth University and have worked as a craft beer brewer, machinist and farmer, but as it was once said, “a man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” My love of Appalachian folk music, family, culture and instrument building brought me gladly back to the place I love to call home. 

     I build for friends, neighbors but mostly on commission these days. I enjoy using native Appalachian woods, found animal bones and local animal skins as much as I can in order to create a completely authentic Appalachian instrument. I use old sources to inform the appearance of my instruments as well as their design. I began building mountain banjos which are a style of banjo native to Southern Appalachia but have since also incorporated the building of tackhead open back banjos inspired by those instruments of the 1800s. 

     Building these instruments and playing old folk music from the region brings me an immense amount of joy - not only from the joy of the crafts themselves but from the fact that I get to be an active participant and steward of the survival of this culture.


-Zack Danny Kitchen