Photo: Charles Mims
Lloyd Wright is known for his skills on the mountain dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and bass.
He began playing the mountain dulcimer at age 12 in 1994 after he and his Texas family made a chance visit to the Ozark Folk Center and The Dulcimer Shoppe in Mountain View, Arkansas. It did not take long for the entire family to become hooked. Within the next twelve months, Lloyd was competing in his first mountain dulcimer competition in Glen Rose, Texas. He won first place in 1999 while still in high school, after taking second place in 1998. He won the National Mountain Dulcimer Contest championship in Winfield, Kansas in 2000 at the Walnut Valley Festival, and took second place recently in 2022.
He has led banjo workshops at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and mandolin workshops at the Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week. His album with Pipp Gillette, called Pipp Gillette with Lloyd Wright, was released fall 2018. He has performed regularly with Pipp since then.
Lloyd puts on The Old Mill Music Festival in Kennard, Texas, where he hosts a wide array of artists every November, and is active in the Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival each March (held in Palestine, Texas). He, his wife April, and their son Elijah are enthusiastic and well-loved performers in East Texas and beyond.
