Gary Eller was born and raised in West Virginia but has lived most of his life in the American West. He has played American roots music since childhood and has played banjo for over fifty years. In 2006 Gary started the Idaho Songs Project, with the primary mission finding, documenting, interpreting and preserving songs written before the radio era (1923) about early Idaho's people, places and events. He has documented over two hundred forgotten early Idaho songs and has published over a dozen topically arranged interpretive booklets with audio CDs based on these songs.Gary Eller Collection on Early Idaho Music, 1864-2012 http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv980376