Biography
Bennie Fields entered the world on 22 January 1941 in Kermit, Mingo County, West Virginia, where he would later handle guitar and vocals, while his sibling Clancy arrived on 11 February 1950 in the same locale and took up bass fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and vocals. An uncle named Lundy Fields, who played mandolin, sparked Bennie's interest in music, prompting him to launch a singing career at age twelve and assemble his own band by eighteen. Clancy, the youngest among twelve siblings in the Fields family, linked up with his brother in 1968. Two years afterward the Fields Brothers bluegrass ensemble—rounded out by fiddler and dobro player Curtis Beck plus banjoist Dave Clark—captured top honors at a prominent bluegrass festival held in Columbus, Ohio. Their debut album appeared on the Jessup label in 1973, followed the next year by a second release on which Tom Dew supplanted Clark and Orville Dingess added bass. The songs blended original compositions with old-time ballads and bluegrass standards. Strong audience response followed, yet internal disputes prompted the group's dissolution during the mid-1970s. Clancy subsequently performed alongside various ensembles, among them the bluegrass outfit River Bend directed by Dave Evans that also featured their uncle Lundy.
Albums
