The year was 1972. A friend asked me if I wanted to go to the local college, where they were having a music festival. I said sure, and am so happy that I did. This will be a short post, but a personally important one for me.
Tom Flanagan and I were walking around the festival, when we saw a tent marked "The Fraley Family" and Tom lit up. He turned very excited and asked if I'd ever heard J.P. Fraley play his fiddle?
The next period of time, I could not describe adequately. Suffice to say that was the day I knew what a fiddle, placed in the proper hands, could do.
Now, I had grown up hearing fiddle music. My grandma was a fiddler. And Corrine "Trixy" Sanders could play the fiddle, and was getting paid to do so when a young girl in the June Bug band with her brothers. This was in the roaring twenties, and early thirties. A brutal time period in our nation's history. And grandma was playing the clubs in southwestern Missouri. You see, Arkansas was a dry state, and Oklahoma had just become a state, after having been Indian country. So the southwestern corner of Missouri was a bit like the Las Vegas of it's day, filled with saloons.
I had already heard Roger Miller blow my mind by playing the "Orange Blossom Special" on his fiddle, in harmonics! Now anyone who had not seen Roger Miller in person, probably would never have dreamed he was a great musician. The "King of the Road" Miller, was one of the most accomplished fiddlers I've ever seen. And I've seen the good ones.
But old J.P. Fraley could play circles around those folks. In 72, the only time I saw him, he was already an old man. So I have to assume he was born right around the turn of the twentieth century. He was from the Appalachian Mountains, and I believe from Kentucky, but don't hold me to that last part. But Tom Flanagan and I spent what seemed like hours in that tent with J.P. His show was officially over, and we thought we'd missed our opportunity.
But Tom walked up to J.P. and brazenly said he couldn't quit yet! Tom was like that. Very confident and a very good friend. Sadly, we lost touch over the years. But I will always remember Tom, if for nothing else, for introducing me to J.P. And Fraley didn't let us down, no sir! He played and played for what seemed like hours. He said at first that he'd play one more song for us, what did we want to hear. Well, being more ignorant of traditional music than in later years, we both asked for the "Orange Blossom Special." Apparently J.P. didn't get a chance to play that song as often as he would have liked in their show, and he smiled real big when we requested that song. And he cut down on it.
Well, spellbound wouldn't be an adequate adjective to describe my astonishment. Were I a cobra in a basket, my head would have been held high and swaying. Charmed, enthralled, hypnotized, none are adequate. And our smiles must have been just the fuel old J.P. needed, because he began to play and dance.
Now, it was just we three inside the tent, as the flap was closed, but I can imagine the crowd that must have gathered outside, drawn by the enticing music. This old man, at least in our eyes, was hopping about, sawing like crazy, and playing the absolute best fiddle I'd ever heard then, or ever have heard since.
Well, when you reach my age, you start thinking of your past, and evaluating your life. Meeting and hearing J.P. was one of those shining moments you cherish. And that time, when I was eighteen, opened my eyes to what was possible with a musical instrument. Doesn't mean I ever got there, but I knew getting there was possible. Thanks J.P.
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