Pennington has toured the U.S. twice as one of the Masters of the Steel String Guitar and has performed at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and festivals throughout the U.S. and Western Europe. He has been awarded the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an honorary doctorate from Western Kentucky State University. He is the coroner of Caldwell County, KY.

"Kentucky thumbpicking," a guitar-playing style in which the thumb keeps the rhythm line while the fingers pick out a melody, was made famous by Merle Travis, who in turn credits coal miner Mose Rager as his teacher. A teenaged Eddie Pennington began visiting Rager in Rager's Drakesboro home in 1974. Over the course of the next twelve years, Pennington learned the dazzling yet delicate thumbpicking technique from the master. He continues to play many of Rager's compositions in concert. You can hear a rendition of Cannonball Rag by Eddie here .

If you'd like to support these two masters, you might like to pick up a copy of "Masters of the Steel String Guitar"