This Appalachian fiddler ranged far and wide with his activities, performing and recording with many different groups in equally widespread sections of the United States, perhaps inevitably leading to an undeserved amount of obscurity in a scene where staying in one region and building an empire there was always more the norm. Mayo was from a musical family and is said to have begun playing the banjo at an age when the instrument itself stood taller than he did. In the manner of many old-time pickers he learned his way through the entire family of stringed instruments common to Appalachian music, including guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. He began playing professionally on the latter instrument; his first paying gig was at the age of 17, in the Bailey Brothers band based out of Rome, GA.

The Mayo resumé practically sounds like the sounds of someone reading off the spines in a fat home bluegrass and hardcore country collection: he worked with the Sauceman Brothers, the Webster Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Faron Young, the Stanley Brothers, and the Moore Napier band. The multi-instrumentalist put down roots in Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Tennessee, becoming part of the scenes in each of these areas during an era when bluegrass was a newly developing genre and each regional scene had its own strong identity. He was part of the regular cast of live music broadcasts such as Farm and Fun Time from Bristol, VA; the Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport; Wheeling, WV's old-time radio haven WWVA; the Cas Walker of Knoxville; and the enjoyable Barrel of Fun broadcast over WJHL in Johnson City, TN.

In terms of recordings, perhaps Mayo's finest hours were his periods with the Stanley Brothers. His activities with this legendary old-time and bluegrass group began in the recording studio even before he joined the group's touring lineup. He was approached by Carter Stanley to play fiddle on some recordings which wound up including one of the first, and some bluegrass scholars think the best, version of the warhorse instrumental Orange Blossom Special. Old Time Songs, a fascinating collection that consumers can get only from Ralph Stanley himself at his autograph table, was recorded after hours in a radio station in 1956, the musicians given the instructions only to come up with material that was outside of the group's usual commercial repertoire. Another of his most enjoyable recordings was the tune Radio Boogie, one of several singles cut in the early '50s for the regional Kingsport label as part of a cooperative band featuring guitarist and vocalist L.C. Smith, an important figure from the very early days of bluegrass. Like much material from this time, the tune was cut in a radio station rather than a recording studio. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi