Legend has it, contemporary bluegrass picker Sammy Shelor was introduced to the banjo at age four when his grandfather fashioned him a banjo from an old pressure cooker lid. Soon after, he got a store-bought banjo of his own and he began to frequent fiddle conventions and contests near his home in southwestern Virginia. By the age of ten, Shelor was playing in bands, sticking to traditional Scruggs-style picking at a time when many young banjo players were experimenting with more progressive melodic and chromatic styles.
At the age of 19, he earned a full-time job with a professional bluegrass band, the Richmond, VA-based the Heights of Grass, which eventually evolved into the Virginia Squires featuring Rickie and Ronnie Simpkins in 1983. After the breakup of the Squires, Shelor joined the Lonesome River Band in September of 1990.
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