This remembrance is a contribution from Tim Stafford, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter with Blue Highway, and currently Artist in Residence in the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time, and Roots Music program.
This past week, the East Tennessee bluegrass community lost two of its finest. Greg Fields and GC Matlock were good friends of mine, and known and loved by so many in this region; both also loved bluegrass music and did their very best to pass it on to younger generations. And because of that, their legacy will live on.
Harlan Greg Fields, 66, of Greeneville, TN passed away on March 8, 2025. He was born on January 29, 1959 to Alexander Fields and Charlsie Hood-Fields in Kingsport, TN. He graduated from Sullivan West High School and was an alumnus of East Tennessee State University and Tusculum College. He was legally blind from an early age and learned how to play music after an uncle gave four-year-old Greg a guitar, using his ear to find beautiful music—learning what his eyes couldn’t.
I started playing with Greg in a group called The Boys in the Band when I was 19, along with Tom and Audey Ratliff and Frank Wing. He played bass and I played guitar, an instrument I had only picked up seriously a year or two earlier. He was more experienced and had a beautiful singing tone, and as he showed me several times, was a fine guitarist. We learned together, played festivals all over the US in the early ’80s, and generally had a ball. We hadn’t kept up with each other as much as we should have, and the last time I saw him, at the Iris Festival in downtown Greeneville last May, it was really great to catch up a little. What a wonderful guy he was.
Greg worked as an adjunct professor in the bluegrass program at ETSU, teaching old-time and bluegrass guitar, and was well-loved by his many students and bandmates. He is survived by his wife, Mary Anne Ellenburg-Fields; his sister Jennifer Baker; several loving nieces and their children; his son Luke Alexander Fields, daughter-in-law Kayla Anne Fields, and their children Keely Alexis Fields, Kenzie Nichole Fields, and Harlan Arlo Fields; and his daughter Charlsie Katherine Fields and son-in-law Or Hammou. He is preceded in death by his parents Alexander Fields and Charlsie Ruth Hood-Fields and son Jeremiah Shane Fields.
Greg was interred at Harris Memorial Freewill Baptist Church in Camp Creek cemetery in Greeneville, TN on March 12.
And yesterday, Thursday March 13, 2025, we lost one of the finest guitarists I ever heard, East Tennessee legend Gc Matlock. He was a wonderful man first, always with a smile and a helpful word. That’s part of what made him a great teacher, and he inspired generations of younger pickers, including me.
In the 1980s, GC was part of Hard Times, one of the greatest bands to ever come out of this region, with Susie and Jerry Keys, and Keith and Myna Belle Williams. Although I never got to take lessons from him, I was such a fan. His rhythm was full and exact, with biting runs and smooth, powerful leads. He could command a room with that Martin box. When I recorded Bad Reputation on my first solo record, I was so enamored of Hard Times’ version that I got Keith to sing it, and I had to learn Gc’s kickoff and his baritone line. He played with many other bands, including Albert Elliot, George Hazelwood and the Blue Ridge Partners before Hard Times, then later Tennessee Skyline, Matlock and Co., and many others. He mentored so many great players, including Trey Hensley, and many of my students like Miranda Bledsoe. Today’s a sad day. East Tennessee lost a local legend, bluegrass lost one of its finest, and many of us lost a really good friend. Arrangements are incomplete.
RIP Greg and GC, you will truly be missed.
