Keith and Ruth form the "core" of Boogertown Gap (BTG).  They have been married since 1988 and began playing Old-time music together since their move back to their home in the Great Smoky Mountains.  There they discovered their rich mountain heritage and the joys of keeping an old musical tradition preserved.  Both Keith's and Ruth's family have a long history of family musicians that have played and sung this Old-time music here in East Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Keith began playing electric guitar in a high school band way back in the late 60's, eventually moving over to acoustic guitar in college.  Decades later in 2004 he took up Scruggs style picking on bluegrass banjo and although it was fun, it just didn't touch his soul. Then a friend, Scott Walter, introduced Keith to Old-Time music and Clawhammer style banjo.  Naturally Keith began to learn fiddlin', from Scott as well, and his love for this music continued to expand.  He even plays a little on mandolin now and then.  Keith attended banjo and fiddle classes and has learned and jammed with some of the outstanding Old-Time players while living in Asheville, NC.  To these folks, especially Scott, Keith is grateful for their patience and inspiration for passing on this old traditional music.

Keith's family has been in Sevier County since the late 1700's and is one of the First Families of Tennessee.  There are numerous accounts and recordings of these relatives playing their folk music and singing the ballads all over Boogertown and areas that are now in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  At left are four Trentham brothers, and Keith's cousins, who lived in the Forks of the River community (where Sugarlands Visitor Center is now located) in the early 1900's. Surprising to Keith was once when "old-timing" it around a campfire with Ruth and Scott, at Keith and Ruth's home, his parents began to sing some of the words to the tunes being played!  This music reaches everyone.