Matokie Slaughter

Who was Matokie Slaughter?

Matokie Worrell Slaughter was an American clawhammer banjo player.

Born in Pulaski, VA to a large musical family, she performed regularly with her family on local radio in the 1940s. She and her sister Virgie also appeared regularly at local fiddler's conventions. She was discovered by the larger old-time music community when some of her recordings appeared on Charles Faurot's clawhammer banjo anthologies during the 1960s. Later, she made many appearances at folk music festivals and workshops throughout the US and formed a band called Matokie Slaughter & The Back Creek Buddies with her sister Virgie and old-time music revivalist Alice Gerrard. The band issue a cassette-only release, Saro, in 1990.

Slaughter is known for her unique, driving style of clawhammer banjo playing, with complex noting and double-noting and featuring both uppicking and downpicking. She also occasionally played fiddle.

During the 1990s, San Francisco artist Margaret Kilgallen began drawing freight train graffiti using the name "Matokie Slaughter" as an homage to the original Matokie Slaughter. A fictionalized version of Matokie Slaughter also figured prominently in many of Kilgallen's non-graffiti artworks.