ZEPP Country Music, Inc.

P.O. Box 306
4 East Third St.
Wendell, NC 27591-0306
Call Toll Free within USA: 866-365-5189 Local: 919-365-5189 or

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ZEPP Country Music Home Page

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Donald ZEPP

ZEPP started playing guitar in 1958. Later, he decided that he was going to be the Kingston Trio, and formed a 4-person group (math never being his strong suit) with some high school buddies. He decided that the banjo playing of Dave GUARD (of the K3) sounded really cool, so he asked for--and received a 5-string banjo for Christmas in 1961.

Caught up in what Dave Van Ronk called the "Great Folk Scare," there came a night when he heard the Greenbriar boys playing at the 2nd Fret coffee house in Philadelphia, and he vowed then and there to learn to play bluegrass. He then started playing the local coffee house circuit, both with his own group, the Swannanoa Grovemont Roadrunners, and with various pickup bands. In 1964, he began teaching guitar and banjo a couple of nights a week at the Haddonfield (NJ) Conservatory of Music, and soon filled his schedule, teaching every night and all day Saturday.

ZEPP adds:

"After teaching for seven years I had finally gotten myself through undergraduate school, so I set off to grad school and my first love: entomology. After having made my living with an instrument for what seemed then to have been forever, I slid the cases under the bed, and was musically inactive from 1971-1976, while in pursuit of my Ph.D.

"Upon taking a faculty position at Cornell University, I met a bunch of grad students who made music, and was asked to join their band. During my time with this band (Press on Regardless), I played less and less bluegrass style banjo, and more and more clawhammer.

"Influences? Pete SEEGER got me started. SCRUGGS, Bill KEITH, and Bob YELLIN formed the basis for my 3-finger style. I met a man named Dove MENKES who showed me clawhammer and got me going there. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the influences of Mississippi John HURT and Doc WATSON on my guitar playing back in the late '60s."

After having had a two-year-plus waiting list, In October, 2004, I opened another day for lessons, and now teach Wednesday evenings and all day Saturday. I charge $30 per lesson. My payment- and other policies can be viewed with this document.