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Doc Roberts,
born in 1898 in Madison County, Kentucky,
learned much of his style and repertoire from the great black
musician Owen Walker, who was
born in 1857!
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 Charles
Ernest Moody of the Georgia Yellow Hammers
traded a shotgun for his
first fiddle. In addition to being a member to
one of the greatest string bands of north Georgia, Moody may
also be attributed for his original composition still popular
today, "Drifting Too Far from the Shore",
which he wrote in 1924.
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 Mumford
Bean, from Itawamba County in northeastern
Mississippi, was only twelve years old
when he recorded two cuts, "Flow Rain Waltz"
and "Slow Time Waltz" for Okeh in 1928 as
Mumford Bean
And His Itawambians! |
 Benjamin
Wade Ward, born on October
15, 1892 in Independence, Virginia was an avid fox hunter,
farmer, banjo picker and fiddler. His playing for public events
began in 1919 when Wade was 26. Playing with local fiddler
Van Edwards and Van Edward's son, Earl Edwards,
on guitar, they called themselves the Buck Mountain Band.
They got their band name after playing at an event that involved
the obligatory selling of a man's property near Buck
Mountain.
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Fiddler Daniel Huggins Williams,
guitarist Cloet  Hamman,
cellist Henry Bogan, an unknown second guitarist, and tenor
banjo player John Munnerlyn gave birth to the graceful
yet encompassing style of the East
Texas Serenaders. The Serenaders' immortal
sound may be attributed in part to Bogan's three
string cello and Munnerlyn's steady chordal rhythm
on tenor. The tenor banjo was so
vital to the Serenader's that they brought in Shorty Lester
when Munnerlyn was unavailable for their final recording session
in 1937. |
 Alabamian
fiddler Joe Lee
was a mentor to both Lowe Stokes and Clayton McMichen
and Lowe said that Joe was the best old
time fiddler he ever heard! However, Joe could
never do well at the contests as he would always get too nervous
and play poorly! |
Local tradition
in Surry County, North Carolina and surrounding counties
made it very difficult for any gentlemen who was not native
to a county to court the local women. Apparently, locals
would hurl rocks at any threatening
gentleman to scare him off, a sort of territorial
courting ritual!
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 At
a young age of 16, Arthur
Smith married a a young lassie who also was a
guitar player.They began playing for square dances and she would
sell chickens there, which financed
his first fiddle!
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When Pope's
Arkansas Mountaineers were brought into the recording
studio in 1928, they had only played together
only about a week before laying down eight
impeccable sides for Victor Records, of which "George
Washington "
and "Jawbone"
were original compositions! |
Ernest
"Pop" Stoneman, with supporting casts
of Eck  Dunford,
Kahle Brewer, Emmet Lundy, Fields Ward,
Irma Frost, Frank and Oscar Jenkins, Hattie
Stoneman, and others, recorded over
200 tracks for Victor,
Okeh, Gennet, Edison, and ARC
in his career!
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In Avery's Creek township,
in western North Carolina, in 1948, Fiddlin'
 Bill
Hensley, then seventy-five-years of age, was
accused of second degree murder of a man that had come to
his house to purchase liquor. The
Avery Citizen on Feb 19. 1948 quoted
his explanation just before he was convicted
of second degree murder:
"He
said he was goin' to kill me and grabbed me, and we went
to the floor. He was on top of we and beatin' me about the
head and face. As we scuffed around and got closer to the
gunrack, this man pulled my pistol out of the holster and
began shootin' around' my head. I kept dodgin', fust one
way a, then t'other, and every time he shot, I thought the
next one would kill shore. I kept strugglin' and I was bad
scared. Finally, I managed to get out from under him enough
to reach up and grab my shotgun, which was on the same rack
about the holster, and I pushed him away toward the chair,
and when he saw me pullin' the gun from the rack he lunged
at me and I fired gun about level, afore I got it up to
my shoulder, and he fell back in the chair. I shot in self-defense
. . . . I'm sorry. . . . "
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