Rhonda Gouge of Ledger.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced this past week that six traditional artists from across the state, including Ledger’s Rhonda Gouge, will receive North Carolina Heritage Awards in May for their contributions to the state’s cultural vitality.
Gouge, a gospel and bluegrass musician, will be joined by muralist Cornelio Campos, basket maker Neal Thomas, fiddler Richard Bowman, basket maker Louise Goings and carver Butch Goings.
Gouge lives in Ledger, where she has been teaching music for more than 50 years. Her earliest musical mentor was fiddle and banjo player Oscar “Red” Wilson, her great-uncle by marriage, who received a Heritage Award in 2003.
He taught her the traditional fiddle tunes of the area and helped her with her first recording, which was done in his home studio. Gouge worked with Wilson for many years as a recording session musician, a member of his band, the Toe River Valley Boys and performing with him as a duo in churches and at community functions.
Although Gouge worked full-time at a local factory for almost two decades, she continued to teach an increasing number of students and remained musically active, playing in church and at community events and recording with and traveling with gospel groups on weekends to events, where she was often a groundbreaking presence as a female musician.
Gouge eventually was able to teach music full-time and went on to work with more than 1,000 students, some of whom would travel for miles to learn from her.
She has spent her life in Ledger, where she has been both an innovator and tradition-bearer of estern North Carolina’s sacred and secular music.