NC Musicians Mural Trail

The  NC Musician Murals Project  began as a casual arrangement between artist Scott Nurkin and the owner of Pepper’s Pizza in Chapel Hill. Nurkin would create portraits of renowned NC musicians to cover a blank wall in the restaurant in exchange for “free pizza for life”. Today, Nurkin’s murals on nine buildings from the mountains to the Piedmont celebrate the transcendent, influential, and groundbreaking musicians of North Carolina.

John William Coltrane, modern jazz saxophonist and composer, was born in Hamlet, the son of Alice Blair and John W. Coltrane, Sr. By the time of his death, he had achieved international eminence as one of the most talented, and creative figures in the history of jazz. In 1955, Coltrane joined the Miles Davis Quintet, which was to become the outstanding jazz group of its day. With Davis's group, Coltrane first attracted public and critical attention for his distinctive style of saxophone jazz. Coltrane's music, although influenced by many forms, was unique in its development and exploration of sixteenth notes as a rhythmic base for jazz. His superb technical skill on the saxophone enabled him to experiment freely with the broadest improvisation in avant-garde jazz, thus making him a central figure in the field.

Earl Eugene Scruggs was a renowned bluegrass banjo musician from North Carolina. He was born in the Flint Hill community near Shelby, N.C. on January 6, 1924. His father, mother, and four brothers all played musical instruments. By his early teens he was playing local dances. He attended high school in nearby Boiling Springs. In 1939, he played with a group called the Morris Brothers before leaving to look after his mother and work in the textile mills during World War II.

Roberta Flack is a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist renowned for her smooth, "velvety" voice. Born in Black Mountain in Buncombe County on February 10, 1937, she was one of four children of Laron and Irene Flack. Flack was exposed to gospel music from an early age, as Mahalia Jackson sang at another church across the street from her house. Flack’s musical style has been fluid, moving between jazz, folk, soul, R&B, and pop and she has won a total of four Grammys, all between 1972 and 1974. Flack has tended to avoid stylistic definitions, commenting on her reputation as a jazz performer that: “I don’t enjoy being labeled as a jazz musician. I think it’s limiting.” In 2007 she founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in New York City. In 2009, she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

Donald Eugene Gibson was born in Shelby, North Carolina on April 3, 1928. He made his first recordings in 1948 with his group, Sons of the Soil. In 1957, RCA opened Studio B in Nashville. Soon after, Don Gibson came in and during an afternoon session recorded “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “Oh, Lonesome Me.” “Oh Lonesome Me” was number one for eight consecutive weeks on the Billboard country chart in 1958 and was a top ten pop hit. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” became a standard recorded by more than 700 artists, including Ray Charles. Today, the Don Gibson Theatre in Shelby honors the memory of this legendary country artist.