| Pendleton Vandiver | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Birth Name: | James Pendleton Vandiver |
| Alias: | Uncle Pen |
| Birth Date: | 1869 |
| Death Date: | 1932 |
| Origin: | Butler County, Kentucky, US |
| Occupation: | Old-time music artist and square dance musician |
| Years Active: | 1920s - 1932 |
James Pendleton Vandiver (1869–1932) was a Kentucky fiddler, born there shortly after the American Civil War.[1] He was the uncle to bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, who immortalized him in a song, "Uncle Pen".[2]
Monroe used to hear his uncle playing fiddle on the hilltop where he lived, while Monroe put away his mules at night.[1] He later said that Vandiver was "the fellow that I learned how to play from."[2] Vandiver played fiddle at local square dances and social events, and his nephew backed him up, playing mandolin.[1] Monroe's parents had both died by the time he was 16, and he lived part of the time with his Uncle Pen, in his two-room hilltop house in Rosine, Kentucky.[2] Vandiver had been crippled earlier, and he made some money with his music.[1] Bill Monroe's biographer, Richard D. Smith writes, "Pen gave Bill more: a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones. Sometimes Bill played guitar behind his uncle, sometimes the mandolin."[3]
On September 13, 1973, a monument in honor of Uncle Pen was unveiled by Monroe at the Rosine Cemetery.[4] Another way he honored Penn's memory was to play the part of "Uncle Penn" in Ricky Skaggs' Country Boy music video.