Transcriber’s Notes:Words or phrases in found brackets represent unclear or
unintelligible portions of the recording. Brackets are also used to provide the reader with helpful background information about the recording. Underlined text within the transcription represents more than one person speaking at the same time.Interviewer 2: I think sometimes it’s good. You really know they’re dead when
you see them that way. No doubt about it.Fraley:Yeah, I just—weddings and funerals [laughs]. Heard them say, “J.P. you
getting married to Annadeene?” I said, “No, no way. I might get a learner’s permit, but I’ll never get married.”Interviewer 2: [Laughs.] Ooh, it’s cool in this breezeway. You got a nice breeze.
Fraley:Yeah, they’s something happened here. Me and ole White Collin working on
this thing, and I had a hemorrhoid operation. I was afraid to move much, you know. I hadn’t been out of the hospital long. Me and him got to work at this thing. Trying to figure out how to do it, and I’d bought all of that rough lumber. There was some of them boards two by eights or whatever it is. Some of them was twenty eight feet long come out of the schoolhouse over in Ashland. But I had a pile of that lumber, and I gave him thousand dollars for the whole pile and I built this and [unintelligible] guy over there. Somehow or another they’s a breeze like all the time—not even moving at all, air just comes up here and it’s just [unintelligible]. I said, “Well, buddy we must have something right here.”Interviewer:You have all these empty tapes.
Fraley:You do, how long, how long is these tapes?
Interviewer:Well, this is three hours worth, but I have some more in the car.
Fraley:I can’t talk no three hours. Somebody said, “J.P. that’d be easy for you.”
Interviewer:[Laughs.]
Fraley:Did you know that to prepare a six minute talk is an ordeal? But you can
sit down and talk to somebody for all day.Interviewer 2: Yeah, isn’t that strange?
Interviewer:It is. It’s an odd thing.
Fraley:A six minute talk, especially when you start into it, it ought to take
you about an hour. Seems like it will never end. Well, well, well you always here at Fiddler’s Grove?Interviewer:Yes, you’ve just been back a day or two. How many years have you
gone down there?Fraley:[Unintelligible.]
Interviewer:We can’t have that without you then, can we?
Fraley:Down there?
Interview:Uh-huh.
Fraley:Oh Lord, that’s my, what I look forward to. The people [Bar Gray] I
didn’t expect him to be back this year.Interviewer:How is he doing? I haven’t seen him since nineteen---
Fraley:Well, he looks better than he did last year because he stopped smoking,
and he said he’d been stopped for about three months. But last year he looked real bad. See he’s, he’s an intermittent smoker. He’d stopped year before last, but last year he was smoking. But you know you just have to power [unintelligible] like he wasn’t getting enough oxygen. But this year---oh he’s back prospecting for gold. He had a little plastic bottle with the gold flakes in it where he’d panned for gold up there in North Carolina. And I told him I’d come down and help him. He said, “Come on.” Which I’m a-going to. I going down there, get out in the woods. Somebody have to come get both of us.Interviewer:[Laughs.]
Fraley:And he hunts rubies. He stays---
Interviewer 2:How do you find rubies?
Fraley:They’re down, I don’t know, he finds them. You know that soil in North
Carolina is kindly like what I call alluvial. Like sand and clay and red, you know. So I guess that’s where it washes out of that stuff, you know.Interviewer 2: And then would you pan for that?
Fraley:Yeah, yeah. Well, what he does he usually gets in ditches and stuff after
it rains [car drives by, Fraley unintelligible]. But I guess Indian artifacts over there is just old hat to them because that’s Indian country around there through Ashville. I think Cherokee I believe.Interviewer:I don’t know what a raw ruby looks like. Is it a---?Fraley:Don’t
look like, just looks like a piece of cheap [unintelligible], cheap glass.Interviewer:Because it’s got to really be cut to be---
Fraley:Oh yeah, like a diamond. Well a diamond is not [unintelligible]. People
just think they are going to shine a light on a big diamond as big as your head and just knock your eye out. But it’s pure carbon. [Clears throat]. I found a petrified snail shell of some kind over there in Sardinia, and I left it. It was about that long, but it looked, just looked like a great big snail shell. The ones we find around here? But it was, it turned into limestone.Interviewer:Hmm.
Interviewer 2: Where I grew up it was Green Bay Wisconsin, which is right kind
of on what’s called Green Bay. When I was a kid my dad would take me out of town along this very long shore, which was all, I believe, limestone, some kind of sedimentary rock. And really for miles there were just millions of fossils.Fraley:In that?
Interviewer 2: In that. And you could just pick them up by the thousands. You
would have to chip them out sometimes. A lot of them were these mollusk like shells, but every once in a while you would find something more exciting. But I remember that.Fraley:It’s a strange thing about that over here at Carter Cave you can find
seashells there. I used to pick them up, bring them home and show them to [Paige] when she was growing up. “Dad where’d you get them?” “Over at Carter Cave.” Not down in the holler, up on the top [unintelligible].Interviewer 2: The fossils were?Fraley:Yeah, well the, some of the rocks, and
maybe some of the rocks around here, let’s see I can show you [unintelligible, sound of footsteps walking away] [Recording turns off].Fraley:[Recorder turned back on, comes in mid-sentence.] to hear that fiddle the
most, you know. And get you [unintelligible], you sit preferably on the front porch because people are not going to enjoy you being in the house while you learn to fiddle. You sit on the front porch, and you sit in the sun and you fiddle, and you fiddle, and you fiddle. Always in the sun, and that makes a shadow. And when the shadow from your elbow wears a hole in the floor, then you can play a little fiddle.[All laugh.]
Interviewer 2: Well, he just talked me out of it!
Fraley:[Sound of fingers plucking fiddle strings] Now don’t you tape anything
yet. [Recorder turns off].Interviewer:Now---
Fraley:What we was talking about, I mean you mentioned the tunes that maybe had
a Mark O’Conner influence.Interviewer:Mmm-hmm.
Fraley:And to me he is Texas style fiddler. I say [Benny Thomalson] to a T. That
is the case. When I hear Mark O’Connor I might as well hear Dick Barret or Benny Thomlson, and Benny Tomolson taught both of them. If you go into the northwest one fiddler you are going to hear about right away is Benny Tomolson, and, well, he was my idol. I mean since he’s a fiddler. But you don’t fiddle like Benny Tomolson. I mean you need go [unintelligible] back to sing like Johnny Cash.Interviewer:Yeah [laughs] same thing.
Fraley:But what is bothering me currently, is the fiddler seemingly, they have
latched on to the Texas style fiddler, or fiddle, and forgotten their own roots or heritage in playing the Kentucky style fiddle. Now when I go on the west cost, here nobody knows about J.P. Fraley, but when we went to Port Townsend everybody had the record and the tunes is tunes that they play. But they was played the way I learned them in east Kentucky. To them they ate it up. It’s like I say putting a different icing on a different cake, you know. They was more concerned about the Appalachian fiddle style then they were their own heritage which was predominantly the western style or Texas fiddle. I mean it’s, it’s that walking away. Well if you listen today seemingly they, they have no self expression is what I am trying to say here. You don’t see the flourishes that you see in the fiddler that he might be happier or shall we say getting with it [unintelligible].Interviewer:You were talking about people just sounding like the record, just
like the record.Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:Well, one time we saw that a fellow had come down from Philadelphia
to your festival, and he knew every song on your record, every tune, and there was a place on his record that he’d worn a little scratch place, and every time he got to that place he had a little bobble [laughs]. I mean he was [laughs]ADFraley:That was [unintelligible].
Interviewer:You know who I’m talking about.
ADFraley:Well, when we went up Philadelphia Spring Festival invited us up. We
had never been up there. And so it was all, everything was all new to us. Well the first thing we heard when we went back to where the lounge was where the performers was “Wild Rose of the Mountain.” And it was this little fellow trying to play it, and then others were trying to play it. And how J.P. and I, well J.P. got to playing. We had just gone over on Friday night; we were going to play on Saturday night. We just, when we got there we went to our motel, and just went over to see what was going on. And[Voice in the background talking to J.P. discuss phone not working and the
clematis flower.] [Recorder turned off.]Interviewer:They are in alphabetical order. “Arkansas Traveler,” do you play that?
Fraley:Yeah, but I’ll have to practice it [both talking at the same time] if I do.
Interviewer:“Apple Blossom?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Acorn Hill Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Ace of Spades?” See, that to me is a Texas tune. Do you associate
that with being a Texas tune?Fraley:Yeah, Benny Tomlson.
Interviewer:“Alfey’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No, I know about it. That’s another northwest tune.
Interviewer:“Angus Campbell.”Fraley:That’s Canadian. No I don’t play it.
Interviewer:Oh, I am going to put Canadian, to see when you identify them.
“Billy in the Low Ground.”Fraley:Well, that’s, that’s everywhere.
Interviewer:That’s everywhere?
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Adrian’s Reel?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Bill Cheatam?”
Fraley:Yup.
Interviewer:“Bully of the Town?”
Fraley:Well, yes.
Interviewer:“Blue Eagle Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Blackberry Blossom?”
Fraley: That’d play two.
Interviewer:You play two of them? Different keys or different versions?
Fraley:No, I play the regional “Blackberry Blossom” and the one that we’re all
familiar with.Interviewer:Regional plus the more recent. Would that be a way to describe
it?Fraley:I’d say,Interviewer:More recent?Fraley:I’d say. Because I heard the one we play now, I
didn’t, it was sort of like the two tunes mixed together.Interviewer:[Unintelligible.]
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Brown Skin Gal?”
Fraley: No, but that’s one of my favorites.
Interviewer:[Laughs] “Bitter Creek?”Fraley:Yeah, I play a version of “Bitter Creek.”
Interviewer:“Bile the Cabbage Down.”
Fraley:[Laughs.] Yeah.
Interviewer:Is that a recent tune?
Fraley:You know, I don’t really know. As far back as I remember “Bile Them
Cabbage Down” was on the Grand Ole Opry.Interviewer:Yeah, it’s, it’s something. “Brickyard Joe.”
Fraley:“Brickyard Joe” and “Martha Campbell” are practically the same tune. I
don’t know if you knew that or not.Interviewer:That’s why I’ve been having trouble.
Fraley:Okay. Because that’s the difference in the a fiddler, an untrained
fiddler and one that’s trained. [In the music] they more precise.Interviewer:Uh-huh. “Cookoo’s Nest.”
Fraley:Huh?Interviewer:“Coo Coo’s Nest.”
Fraley:I, I play one but it’s nothing like what your---
Interviewer:“Coon on a Rail.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:Or “Hog Trough Reel.”
Fraley:[Laughs] No.
Interviewer:“Cherokee Shuffle.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Cotton Baggin’”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Cotton Eyed Joe.”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Crippled Turkey.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Chinese Breakdown.”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Chicken Reel.”
Fraley:Yeah
Interviewer:“Coming Down from Denver.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:See, that’s a Missouri, Mississippi tune. “Cindy.”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Cottage Hill.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Devil’s Dream.”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Dusty Miller?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Dusty’s Hornpipe”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Durang’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:Yeah, interspaced with “Liverpool.”
Interviewer:Oh. “Don’t Let the Deal Go Down.”
Fraley:Probably [laughs.]
Interviewer:“Done Gone.”
Fraley:That’s another one that’s been years I don’t play.
Interviewer:“Durham’s Reel,” doesn’t say, Bull Durham or Durham’s Bull. It’s
just “Durham’s Reel.”Fraley:It was called “Durham’s Bull.” Buddy Durham started that tune. I don’t
know whether you knew it or not.Interviewer:Was he on the radio?
Fraley:Well, he’s another, well, it was on television that I first heard him.
Interviewer:“Fiddler’s Dream?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Forked Deer?”
Fraley:Yeah
Interviewer:“Fisher’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:Ah, a little.
Interviewer:“Fire on the Mountain?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Flop-Eared Mule?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Golden Eagle Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Gray Eagle?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Give the Fiddler a Dram?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“High Level Hornpipe.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Hell Among the Yearlings?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Huckleberry Hornpipe?”
Fraley:“Huckleberry Hornpipe” is “Lime Rock.”
Interviewer: Is that right?
Fraley:That’s right.
Interviewer:Okay. “Hell Broke Loose in Georgia.”
Fraley:I don’t, I don’t know. I play a tune “Eighth Days in Georgia.” I mean if
that’s it.Interviewer:Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Fraley:Probably relative, I don’t know.
Interviewer:[Speaking to self] in Georgia
Fraley:Or “Sopping the Gravy,” I mean that’s Georgia fiddling.
Interviewer:I think we’ve got “Sopping the Gravy” here.
Fraley:Well, [unintelligible] Georgia fiddling.
Interviewer:Uh-huh, we’ve got “Sopping the Gravy” over there with the s’s.
“Harrison’s Hornpipe?”Fraley:No, that’s probably Doc, “Doc Harris’s Hornpipe?” No? Harrison, no? I
don’t do many hornpipes.Interviewer:“Hollow Popular.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:[“Howdie’s Hornpipe?”]
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Indian Liver.”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Ida Red.”
Fraley:Yep.
Interviewer:“Indian Creek?”
Fraley:Nope.
Interviewer:“Jack of Diamonds?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Katy Hill?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Leather Britches?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Lightening Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Little Joe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Liberty?”
Fraley:[Laughing.] Yeah.
Interviewer:“Liberty at the Corn Liquor Still.”
Fraley:[Laughs.] I don’t know what the difference is.
Interviewer:[Laughs.] “Legal Tender Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:Sounds like a Civil War piece, doesn’t it? If they named it then.
Fraley:“Legal Tender” that must be “New Money.”
Interviewer:[Laughs] “London’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Lime Rock?” We’ve got same as “Huckleberry.”
Fraley:You remember what I told you about that, “Huckleberry Hornpipe” and “Lime
Rock” the same tune.Interviewer:“Mississippi Sawyer?”
Fraley:Oh, yeah, sort of.
Interviewer:“Marmaduke’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Maple Sugar?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:Hmm. “Martha Campbell?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Miller’s Reel?”
Fraley: Yeah.
Interviewer:In G?
Fraley:Yeah, my version .
Interviewer:[“Money’s ]
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“McMurtrey’s Reel?”
Fraley:No
Interviewer: “New Broom?”
Fraley:Uh, no, no.
Interviewer:You know, you know the
Fraley:You’ve learned the something else. What is it?
Interviewer:They’ve got parenthesis, parenthesis, black man, in parenthesis. in
the woodpile.Fraley:Nigger in the woodpile.
ADFraley:That’s called “Devil in the woodpile.”
Interviewer:[Laughs.]
Fraley:And they say they are proud of their heritage. I doubt it.
Interviewer:“New Money?”
Fraley:“New Money,” yeah.
Interviewer:“Old Joe Clark”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:[laughs] Some of them we can’t help but learn, you know.
[Unintelligible.] “Paddy On the Turnpike?”Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Portsmouth Hornpipe?”
Fraley:Nope.
Interviewer:“Rachel?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:[Both speak at the same time.] What about “Rachel?”
Fraley:That is another tune.
ADFraley:Talking about “Rachel?”
Fraley:No, no, no. It was Kenny Baker that did this, got them all---
Interviewer:Oh yeah, we are seeing, seeing some of his influence down here too. [Unintelligible.]
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Rickett’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Rocky Mountain Goat?”
Fraley:Well, “Rocky Mountain Goat” and “New Richmond” and, wait a minute, what
is the thing I put on the record? [Sings tune]. “Swiss Chalet” or “Mud Fence?”Interviewer:“Mud Fence.”
Fraley:They’re the same; it’s according to whose got the fiddle.
Interviewer:[Laughs and speaks unintelligibly] you can call it whatever you want
to. “Ruben’s Ridge?”Fraley:No.
Interviewer:Run, parenthesis, smoke, run.
Fraley:That’s “Run Johnny Run” or “Run Nigger Run” I mean.
Interviewer:Run, parenthesis, black man, run [laughs].
Fraley:I wonder why they are afraid to call themselves black?
ADFraley:Well, they haven’t been the ones that wrote that down.
Fraley:Well, I mean, Lord a mercy, you got to call a spade a spade [laughs, and
then everyone laughs and talks unintelligibly].Interviewer:“Rutlin’s Reel?”
Fraley:Uh, I play a version of it.
Interviewer:You do?
Fraley:“Sally Goodin?”
Interviewer:Yeah.
Fraley:“Sally Johnson?”
Interviewer:That was hard for me to tell the difference according to if I’m in
Texas it’ll be “Sally Johnson.” Uh, uh they’re similar [all speak at the same time.]ADFraley:That’s “Katie Hill” with an e in it.
Fraley:Well, “Sally Johnson” is new; it’s a little different.
Interviewer:It’s an e in it. That’s the best definition I’ve heard that spells
it out. I can’t [Both speak at the same time]Fraley:You ain’t taping this stuff? Oh I hope not. [ADFraley laughs in background].
Interviewer:“Soldier’s Joy?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Sopping the Gravy?”
Fraley:Well, to me “Soppy the Gravy” and [unintelligible] Georgia fiddle, similar.
Interviewer:“Salt Liver?”
ADFraley:I hope not.
Fraley:Well, I have not played it in forever. I did play it.
Interviewer:You used to play it. Is that more of a bluegrassy tune?
Fraley:Well, I mean the way they do it now. I mean especially the bluegrassers,
they picked up on it and they got to putting their slurs and stuff in it, you know and made it a bluegrass tune. Made it too fast.ADFraley:I think it’s an old time tune.
Fraley:It’s an old time tune; well, it’s one of Wilson Douglas’s best tunes,
better tunes [unintelligible].Interviewer:“Sugar in the Gourd.”
Fraley:Yeah.
ADFraley:[Whispers] forgotten all these.
Interviewer:It kind of jars you doesn’t it? They have them alphabetized too, so
we are in the s’s. “ Say Old Man.”Fraley:My version.
Interviewer:“Stony Point?”
Fraley:hmm. That’s “Wild Horse.” I don’t know if you knew that or not.
Interviewer:They’ve got, oh, where is it? Just a minute, I thought they had
“Wild Horse.”Fraley:It’s got three names. “Wild Horse,” Colonel [Prince] “” and “Stony
Point.” It’s all the same tune.Interviewer:What [prince]?
Fraley:Colonel [Prince].
ADFraley:Probably a Colonel [Prince] that played it, and they didn’t know what
else to call it, and called it that.Interviewer:“Saint Ann’s?”
Fraley:Yep.
Interviewer:“Sailor’s Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No
Interviewer:“Still on the Hill?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Snowflake Reel?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Slippery Elm?”
Fraley:[Laughs.] No.
Interviewer:“Waggoner?”
Fraley:A version of it.
Interviewer:“Tom and Jerry?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Twinkle, Twinkle.”
Fraley:Uh, you tell me something. I want to know where you got the name of that.
Interviewer:“Twinkle, Twinkle?” It doesn’t say little star.
Fraley:Well if that’s what it is, it’s little star because twinkle twinkle, then
they dropped the little star off. ‘”Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” is a nursery rhyme. “Little Star” is a Texas fiddle tune.Interviewer:Umm-hmm. “Turkey in the Straw.”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Tugboat?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Waggoner’s Hornpipe?” As opposed to “Waggoner’s.”
Fraley:No, I don’t know.
Interviewer:“Wake Up Susan?”
Fraley:Yeah
Interviewer:[“Waynesburrough Reel?”]
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“When the Cat Came Back.”
Fraley:[ADFraley sings tune, all laugh and talk.]
Interviewer:“West Virginia Hornpipe?”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Whiskey Before Breakfast?”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Whistlin Rufus?”
Fraley:Yeah, a version of it.
Interviewer:“White Horse Breakdown”
Fraley:No.
Interviewer:“Wood Chopper’s Breakdown.”
Fraley:No, well “White Horse Breakdown” is a Canadian hoedown.
Interviewer:Uh, okay [talking as she writes] Ca-na, boy, that French Canadian
stuff is fun to listen to.ADFraley:[Unintelligible.] Goes on and on and on.
Fraley:[The cape] is kindly boring to watch, but I sure love it. I tell you, to
hear it. But not to watch somebody do it.ADFaley:They played out there in Washington til I didn’t think they would ever
quit, and I though the audience would be bored to death. I never heard such applause in my life.Fraley:Oh Lord.
Interviewer:Is that right? They go through the tune over and over?
ADFraley:Over and over again, and just like robots.
Interviewer:Is that right?
ADFraley:The same kind of motions and so forth. No expressions.
Interviewer:We have a tape of a [unintelligible] fiddler.
Fraley:I got, everyone of them would set there with [unintelligible, everyone
speaks at the same time] come down and play.Interviewer:Did they, did they play seated?
Fraley:Yeah, yeah. Just with a piano normally was accompaniment.
Interviewer:No string instruments?
ADFraley and Fraley:No.
Fraley:Well now over at the the jam sessions at night, she would stay over
there, they did a lot of guitar.ADFraley:Somebody had to keep things together.
Fraley:[Unintelligible] me and that other old boy crawled across that playground
of a morning trying to break daylight there wouldn’t have been nobody.ADFraley:If somebody plays to 5:30 in the morning, has to do a workshop at 9:30
in the morning.Interviewer:Did somebody [unintelligible]?
Fraley:Every night buddy.
ADFraley:If I hadn’t had a piano he could prop himself up on I don’t know what
would have happened. [talking and laughing, unintelligible].Fraley:Somebody, I got tickled at them, said “Do you want a drink of liquor?”
Said, “I don’t believe I could stand to take a drink.” Said, “Well you haven’t drank any.” He said, “That’s right.” Said, “I haven’t slept either.” [Laughs].Interviewer:Well, I think it’s going to be interesting when we get all the
fiddlers. If you keep going to Townsend, is that the name of the festival in Washington state?ADFraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:If you keep going to Townsend pretty soon you’ll be learning those
tunes, so you won’t, you won’t be able to keep from--- if you hear them played that many times you’ll come back and be playing them.Fraley:I can do it, but Annadeene jumped on to me. I was a picking up their
technique [all start talking at the same time, two conversations going at once].And I mean it was really bouncing them notes that fiddle, [unintelligible]
George, he came around the tent, and I was watching this guy fiddle. Frank come up. I said, “Frank.” He says, “What?” I said, “You want to buy a fiddle?” He says, “I just busted one.” [Laughs.] tickled me to death. I said, “You did?” He said, “Yes sir.” He said, “That Feller looks like that he’s got a fire started in the grass, and with a stick too little to put it out with.” [Laughs] He’s fighting the fire with that bow. It was pretty. I mean, unbelievable. But they could all do that. There was a guy up there he had real heavy glasses. I mean he was just practically blind even with them. They looked like the bottoms out of Coca-Cola bottles. Them glasses, you know, they was so thick. But now they had imported them in there, but he was a playing. He was sitting up there just a playing away, and this guy we saw at the concert, when he walked in that guy quit [laugh] and wouldn’t play no more. The other guy was I guess probably a violinist. But this guy knowed him, and I asked—what was that guy that coordinated that thing up there?ADFraley:Rick Ferrell.
Fraley:Yeah, I said what happened to him. He said, [laughs], he said he don’t
like him because he plays prettier fiddle than he does. [All laughing]. That’s typical fiddlers, you know.Interviewer:Typical, typical.
ADFraley:I wanted to finish telling you about [Glen Giamo]. [Recorder is turned
off and then comes back on quickly] and here these kids had this idea like this, you know. And he said, “Oh, I’d be honored.” So I played the guitar, you know, a few tunes and how we quit. We quit, and I went out to watch the program and was coming back and I passed this boy and another one in the hall and he said, [whispering] “She played my guitar; she played my guitar.” Well then this Glen Giamo he wanted me to, if I would get that guitar, I guess it was that boy got up, same one asked me to be, would I play with him while he played “Wild Rose of the Mountain.” So he felt so good about that, you know. So we got a letter from him when we found out that we were going back up to the next spring festival. He wanted to come to our festival. And it was right, it would, no we were going, someplace up in there, maybe, not Brandywine. Anyhow, we got this letter from him that could he ride back with us to go to you festival. But before he got to that, oh, praise all down through there, you know. And then when he asked, you know, could he ride back with us to come to our festival, I don’t remember just how it was, I was saying “Sure you can, sure you can,” you know. And got down, and had his name and not a sign of an address. Nothing on there. And he showed up that year that you were there, you know. And he didn’t know why he hadn’t heard from us, but he got him a ride down there [all talking]. So I told him that, and he was just floored. He just couldn’t believe he hadn’t put his address. [All laugh]. Well then he came back to Carter Caves a couple of years with his brother, who I found out later had a show, a folk music show in Philadelphia and was quite well thought, but I never did send him anymore invitations because they were the only people we had that were drinking, and they would worry me to death, wanted to know when they could go on, and I would arrange for them to go on, and then they’d disappear. And I’d have to reschedule around them. And then they’d come back, “When are we going to go on?” And they would be drinking real [unintelligible]. So I discouraged them.Fraley:Was that [unintelligible]?
ADFraley:You know we just haven’t had that at our festival [both Fraley and
ADFraley speaking at the same time].Interviewer:Not drinking and then walking out on the stage.
ADFraley:No.
Interviewer:I’ll tell you one thing that’ll cure you from drinking and then
playing is to tape it. You think it sounded so pretty.ADFraley:And he was becoming such a good fiddler. I mean had, he had by this
time gotten Buddy Collin’s record and different ones and was copying everybody. And Ed Haley, he played a lot of Ed Haley’s tunes. It’s hard for anybody to copy. But he was doing it.Interviewer:He was putting a lot of time and energy in to it. You could see from
the way he could, he could, what tickled me is he’d start on side A and he would play through---ADFraley:Play through it.
Interviewer:You could tell that he put that album on and just played along with J.P.
Fraley:That scratch in the record, putting that in there. [All laugh].
Interviewer:Scratch in the record.
Fraley:You’ve heard the story about the rock and roll guitar picker? Boy they’s,
they’s really getting gone, you know, this electric guitar. And somebody he, he almost dropped his guitar, and the neck of it slid down the mic stand, you know, and made this real weird sound. And they's eighteen hippies get up on the stage and said, “Buddy let me see you do that lick again.” [all laugh].Interviewer 2: J.P. Can you sit back further? I am going to move that barrel
back so you are not in front of the [unintelligible].[Background talking.]
ADFraley:That’s what he was trying to do.
Interviewer:Get you in the shade there, wasn’t he?
ADFraley:I tell you when we made that record here, I felt so sorry for Mark
Wilson. He’d sat J.P. just where he wanted him, and the mics just where he wanted them, and every time J.P. would play one he’d scoot that chair. Mark very quietly would go, and after so long a time he finally said, “J.P. have you decided where you want to sit yet?”Fraley:Had me plum against the wall. You know the story about the bellboy and
the hotel, you know, years ago people, everybody chewed tobacco. And this old hillbilly, cowboy or something, chewing. Had them spittoons all bright shiny, you know, and this fellow just spit in the floor, you know. And boy grabbed a spittoon, sat there where he spit. This happened four or five times, finally fellow said, “Listen son.” He said, “If you don’t quit using that dern thing around I’m going to spit in it.” [All laugh] He thought [unintelligible talking, sound of guitar and fiddle being tuned, tested].[
1:00End of sound file] 2:00