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.[Recording begins mid song]
Interviewer:And that was Virgil Alfrey on the guitar over there. Where did you
learn that?Leach:Mount Sterling.
Interviewer:Did you learn it from somebody that was playing there or off the
radio or?Leach:I believe the first that I ever heard that tune played was Miles Mackey at
Mount Sterling played that tune. And he didn’t an awful good job at it too.Interviewer:It kind of sounds like a Scott Joplin rag. Do you play any other
rags or [laughs]?Leach:Well, I play kind of a rag my brother wrote.
Interviewer:Well let’s hear it.
Leach:[We ought to do that?]
Alfrey:Well sure. Do anything you want to.
Interviewer:You can do anything you want to.
[1:05---- Plays song and sings the following lyrics:
Hello central give me heaven
Said the honeysuckle to the bee
Well Rip Van Winkle was a lucky guy
In the shade of the old apple tree.
Well hello central give me heaven
When Rueben comes to town
Well how would you like to be the iceman?
Go way back and set down.
Dancing in the moonlight
Bright nights, summer nights in June
Folks are all a humming
Strumming banjos to a Dixie tune.
And then they were a dancing
And prancing around the bales of cotton
In the evening by the moonlight
Down dear old New Orleans.
[fiddle break]
[tape cuts out before song ends]
Leach:I don’t know where I stared now.
[2:50---Plays “Arkansas Traveler” with the following spoken parts within the song]
Oh, say Mister where does this road go?
Well, it don’t go anywhere. It’s always here when I get up of a morning.
[fiddle break]
Say buddy, why don’t you put a roof on the house?
Well, when it’s raining I can’t. When it’s not raining I don’t need it.
[fiddle break]
Say, you got yellow corn.
Yeah, that’s the kind I planted.
[fiddle break]
Why don’t you burn that brush pile?
I’m waiting for the lightening to strike it.
[fiddle break]
Hey, you got any spirits around the house?
Only spirits I know is up there in the cemetery.
[fiddle break]
Hey, bout how far is it to Little Rock?
Well, I don’t know about Little Rock. There’s a biggun’ up there on the hill.
[fiddle break]
So how bout you play the rest of that tune?Well, I don’t know it.
Well, let me play it for you.
[fiddle break]
Get down off the horse.
Son, take that man’s horse to the barn, get him nine ears of corn, half a bail
of hay, mom put the supper on the table. He’s going to stay till I learn this tune. Now play that again.[fiddle break]
That’s the way “Arkansas Traveler” got its name.
[songs ends at 5:25]
Interviewer:I like the way you come down on that low part. You come all the way
down on that string and pull this finger up and make D, don’t you?Leach:Hon, I don’t know what I do. [voices in that background: “Oh you don’t!”].
It just happens that a way.Interviewer:Let me ask you this. Do you read music?
Leach:[Plays note on the fiddle.] Back like that?Interviewer:Um-hmm. When you
come over on this string.Leach:[Plays notes] Yeah.
Interviewer:I like that. I am going to put that in when I play.
Leach:You play a fiddle?
Interviewer:Yeah.
Alfrey:She sure can play.
Leach:Oh my goodness! [many voices talking].
Interviewer:I can’t play as good as Virgil, but I can play some.
Leach:I run right down in here into a hawk’s nest of fiddlers. [All laugh].
Interviewer:I got you, didn’t I?
Leach:Why didn’t you tell me that I was [voices speaking in the background].
Interviewer:I want to know where you learned to play.
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:I want to know where you learned to play the fiddle. Did you learn
to play in Mount Sterling and then move---Leach:At Mount Sterling.
Interviewer:How old were you?
Leach:Oh, about ten years old I think when I first got my fiddle.
Interviewer:Who was showing you how?
Leach:Fellow by the name of Bailey. My dad never did have patience with me.
Interviewer:Is that right?
Leach:J.C. Bailey.
Interviewer:J.C. Bailey.
Leach:And no he was always uh, when they’d have a fiddling contest down there he
was always one of the judges. And he was the one that told me buy, I wanted a fiddle, I thought I did, but he just give me five dollars to get me to quit.Interviewer:[laughs].
Alfrey:Aren’t you going to tell her the rest of it?
Leach:Well, uh,
Alfrey:Tell her the whole story on that fiddling contest now. That’s what she---
Leach:I got a little old fiddle from, you remember that coffee way back, and
they give coupons. And a dollar and a half and fifty coupons, [Arbuckle] Coffee was the name of it. Have you ever heard of that?Interviewer:I’ve heard of getting coupons for coffee, but I didn’t know the name
of it. Arbuckle.Alfrey:Arbuckle was before her time, I’m afraid.
Leach:Well.
Alfrey:But go ahead and tell her the story.
Leach:Goodness gracious I am going to tell how old I am. [All laugh]. So I saved
up coupons and got a hold of a dollar and a half and sent off and got a little ole fiddle. And uh---Interviewer:Was it a little red fiddle?
Leach:Little old----
Interviewer:Red [both talk at the same time].
Leach:Way back then mom would, I would squeak around on that, and she’d run me
to the barn. And after a while she said, “Chelson, come to the house and play it.” Said, “You’ve run all the rats from the barn to the house.” [All laugh]. Said, “Come to the house and squeak that thing and run them back.” So well, anyhow. And I got to playing around and some of the boys thought I was, I think maybe I could have played “My Old Kentucky Home” a little bit, you know. They said, “Oh boy you’re good. You ought to get in that fiddling contest.” They had one at Mount Sterling. I took my fiddle and went up there you know. They let me play, I just don’t know, they let me play about fifteen minutes I think it was, just saw that thing. And I liked to sawed it in two. And you know what? He said, he hit that table with [unintelligible] I walked over, hand me five dollars, be like, boy my heart was just, I just thought I won a fiddling contest. But after it was over he said, “No, you didn’t win a fiddling contest. I give you that five dollars to get you to quit. [All laugh]. “Here’s two dollars. If you’ll tell me what you was trying to play I’ll give you two dollars more.” Well, that’s the way it started.Interviewer:Fiddle contest. [All laugh]. What were you trying to play? Did you
ever learn it?Leach:Hon, I thought I was trying to play “Turkey in the Straw,” but I just
jiggled that fiddle all over [all laugh] all over the place. I don’t even know I got one note in. They thought I was pretty good, had enough nerve to get up in front of an audience and didn’t know nothing. They thought, ole Bailey, thought that was pretty good, and he showed me some on the fiddle, a little bit.Interviewer:This going to be in G.
[Everyone speaking to one another]
Leach:I don’t know one key from the other.
Interviewer:That’s G. [laughs].
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:When you are doing that you are playing in G. When you do that you
are going to be in G unless you take off to D. He’s just tempting Virgil, isn’t he?[
1:00 --- 2:00Plays “Back Home Again in Indiana.”]Interviewer:That was in C. What was that?
Leach:“Back Home Again in Indiana.”
Interviewer:[Laughs].
Leach:Did you know that?
Interviewer:No, I don’t know that tune. Does it have words?
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:Does it have words to it?
Leach:Yeah, [Clem] can sing them for you.
Interviewer:Well, you should sing.
C.Alfrey:Well, I don’t want to sing.
Leach:Why she can too! She’s a good singer. You want to sing it Clem?
C.Alfrey:No, I don’t want to sing it here with her holding that thing.
Interviewer:[Laughs] I got you, don’t I? I’m [King’s X, huh?] I didn’t mean the
King’s X over here. I’ll turn it off if you want to sing.C.Alfrey:No, that’s not necessary.
Leach:Now I guess he’s already played this tune. But he showed me a whole lot
about it, and I have a different way of playing it than he does.Interviewer:What is the tune?
Leach:“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Interviewer:Oh. All right. We’ll have your way and-
[
3:00 ---- 4:00Plays “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”]Interviewer:That’s pretty. Good, I like one.
Leach:Did you like that?
Interviewer:Yeah, I like that. Play any more like that?
Leach:That fellow right there showed me how to do that.
Interviewer:Oh well! The teacher and the student, huh? [Laughs].
Leach:Yes sir. He’s the best in this country. I’ll tell you that. I’ve heard a
lot of fiddlers in my time [voice in the background: “You better quit talking----“]Interviewer:He’s got you well trained [laughs].
Leach:Well, are you going to play a tune for me, mam?
Interviewer:I’ll have to use your fiddle.
Leach:Well, you can sure use it.
[Recording turns off]
Leach:I’ll play this in waltz time.
Interviewer:Sound like you can make anything a waltz.
Leach:“Georgiana Moon.”
Alfrey:Well, that is a waltz.
[
5:00 --- 6:00Plays “Georgiana Moon.”]Interviewer:I like that.
Leach:You like that one?
Interviewer:Umm-hmm.
Leach:Well, “Georgiana Moon” is the name of that. I think it is, isn’t it?
Alfrey:Um-hmm. Sure is. Yes sir, just about as plain as you can play it.
Leach:Did I do a good job of it?Alfrey:You sure did. She’s a good critic. Ask
her, she’ll tell you if you did a good job on it.Interviewer:I think you did a great job on that one. Do you know any that you
don’t know the names to them? Do you play any tune you don’t happen to know the name to? Just curious.[
7:00 ----- 8:00Plays unnamed song]Leach:Now that’s one I don’t know the name of. [Voice in the background: “You
could take that and make a good one out of it, couldn’t you?”Interviewer:Yeah, we’ve got it don’t we? You do real well on that, Virgil.
Alfrey:Thank you.
Interviewer:He went to D there. It surprised me and you were right on it.
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:Went into a D chord on the B part that surprised me, and he was
right on top of it.Leach:Well, you can take that tune and make something out of it. That’s the way
my father used to play it. But, he done a whole lot better job than I do on it. But, well Dad, I’m doing my best.Interviewer:[Laughs] You’re doing your best. Play another one of his tunes.
Leach:Well, [pause] one of his tunes?
Interviewer:Um-hmm
Leach:Get ready buddy.
Interviewer:[Laughs]
[
9:00 --- 10:00Plays and sings the following lyrics:]I used to a know a farmer
A jolly good ole soul
Who used to do the work around his little country home
He had a only daughter
To win her I did try
And when asked him for her hand
This was his good reply.
[Laughs]
Now treat my daughter kindly, and say you’ll do no harm
And when I died I’ll leave to you
My little house and farm
My horses my cows my sheep my plows
My hogs and little barn
And those little chickens in the garden.
Now I married that little girl
And I promised I’d do no harm
And the old man he passed away and left me with the farm.
The horses, the plows, the sheep, the cows,
The hogs and little barn
And all those little chickens
In the garden.
[Laughs].
[all laugh]
Leach:Every time I sing that I love that boy. Laughing and talking in the background.
C.Alfrey:He sang that to a lady that was stuck on him one night. She thought he
was singing her a love song.[all laugh]
Leach:Don’t you think he plays an awful good accompaniment on that guitar?
Interviewer:He does a super job on that.
Alfrey:Clela taught me. Clela taught me.
C.Alfrey:I did, I could play before I met him.
Alfrey:Sure.
Interviewer:Maybe he was just interested in the guitar.
Leach:They are two of the sweetest people that ever come down the road. I love
them just like brothers and sisters. You just can’t beat them any way.Interviewer:We think the same thing.
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:We think the same thing.
Leach:Yeah, they are just swell. I tell you, I love them so much. And I am so
glad that they have both been saved and baptized. And one these days we’ll play in the band up above.Interviewer:What are you going to play? What do you think you’ll be playing up
there? [Laughs].Leach:I don’t know. Whatever he says, he’ll let me play it. I know that.
C.Alfrey:Play one of those hymns you played in church on night?Leach:Huh?
Calfrey:Play one of those hymns you played in church one night.
[
11:00---26: 47 Plays “Just a Closer Walk With Thee”]Interviewer:That’s pretty. He did a pretty job.
Alfrey:Oh yeah.
Interviewer:Add some things in their to that, yeah.
Leach:Oh, you just make me feel so unnecessary. You know that? [Everyone laughs].
Alfrey:He’s quite a guy.
Leach:Well, that’s about all I know.
Alfrey:No, it’s not by any means all you know. But we’ll do whatever they want
us to do of course.[tape turns off and then back on.]
Interviewer:Play that again.
[
12:00---- Plays practice notes]Leach:Is that thing on down there?Interviewer:Yeah, I put it on.
[Plays practice notes]
Interviewer:Play you’re A. A.
[tuning of fiddles]
[
13:00 --- 14:00Plays unnamed song.]Interviewer:Play that Saint Ann’s.
Leach:“Saint Ann’s Reel?”
Interviewer:You play it different?
[plays practice notes]
15:00 --- 16:00Plays “Saint Ann’s Reel.”Interviewer:Yeah, you’ve got a real pretty version of that.
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:You have a very pretty version of that.
Leach:Well.
Interviewer:You don’t play “Peek-A-Boo Waltz” do you?Leach:Huh?Interviewer:Do
you play “Peek-A-Boo Waltz?”[Leach plays practice notes, which eventually meld into the song]
Leach:“When You and I Were Young” maybe.
Interviewer:Yeah. Do you sing that one?
Leach:
[
17:00 --- 18:00Plays “When You and I Were Young.”][
19:00 ---- 20:00Plays “Martha Campbell.”]Interviewer:“Martha Campbell.”
Leach:“Martha Campbell.”
[Plays practice notes.]
Leach:“New Money.” Not “New Money” but “Whistlin’ Rufus.”
[
21:00 --- 22:00Plays “Whistlin’ Rufus.”]Leach:“Whistlin’ Rufus.” Now what else you want?
Interviewer:You played a couple more that we don’t know the names to. We’ll have
to give them a name.[
23:00 --- 24:00Plays unnamed song]Leach:I don’t know the name to that one.
Interviewer:You’ll have to give it a name.
Leach:You’ll have to do that.
Interviewer:We could call it “Chelson’s Knob.” See, we’re up here on this knob.
Leach:[Laughs].
Interviewer:So we can call it “Chelson’s Knob.” Oh hey, how about “Sport’s Favorite?”
Alfrey:Who?
Leach:Sports Favorite.
Interviewer:“Sport’s Favorite” we could do that. We got a lot of names.
[
25:00--- Plays unnamed song.][
26:00--- 42: 15 Plays unnamed song.]Interviewer:I really like that.
Leach:[Unintelligible].
Interviewer: I really, really do. There’s your phone. Do you want me to run and
get it? It’s rung twice. Oh, we don’t need that.[Sound of recorder being turned off.]
Interviewer:We don’t have a second verse.
[
27:00 --- 28:00Plays unnamed song.]Alfrey:There it is.
Interviewer:You sang.
Leach:Huh?Interviewer:You sang.
Leach:You want me to sing it?
Interviewer: Yeah.
[Leach begins singing, but the first words are unintelligible due to a vehicle
driving by and drowning out his voice].Said the honey suckle to the bee
Well Rip Van Winkle was a lucky guy
In the shade of the old apple tree.
Well hello central give me heaven
When Rueben comes to town
Now how would you like to be the iceman?Go way back and sit down.
Dancing in the moonlight
Bright nights, summer nights in June.
Folks are all a humming
Strumming banjos to a Dixie tune.
And then they were a dancing
And a prancing around the bales of cotton
In the evening, by the moonlight
Down dear old New Orleans.
[Sings fiddle melody]
Leach:There you are!
Interviewer:Okay.
Leach:Oh Lordy! What else?
Interviewer:We have “Whistlin’ Rufus” where you put the other, that nice double
chord in.Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:“Whistlin’ Rufus.” Oh, you like that?
Interviewer:Yeah, I like it.
[
29:00 --- 30:00Plays “Whistlin’ Rufus.”]Leach:Well.
Interviewer:We played [pause, sound of guitar in the background] the one about
the rags.Leach:Rag?
Interviewer:Yeah, we played it for we got here.
Interviewer 2: Five cents for your dirty underwear.
Interviewer:Yeah, that one.
Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:[Laughing] Five cents for your dirty underwear. [Unintelligible]
[
31:00 --- 32:00Plays unnamed song].Leach:Hit a lot of scratches.
Interviewer:I thought that was real good.
Leach:You know that, you play that back and it sound like dog and cat scratching.
Interviewer:[Laughs]
[plays practice notes]
[
33:00 --- 34:00Plays unnamed song.]Leach:That’s a blues.
Interviewer:I like that.
Leach:Do you like blues?
[
35:00 --- 36:00Plays unnamed song.”]Leach:Oh mercy, I tell you, I’m wore out.
Interviewer:Okay, okay. Let’s play that tune one more time.
Leach:What’s that?
Interviewer:The one that I know.
Leach:What is it?
Interviewer:The one we don’t know the name to. [Sport’s Favorite.”]
Leach:What?
[Voices in background: “Sport’s Favorite.”
Interviewer:Here we go! [Laughs]
[
37:00---52: 47 Plays “Sport’s Favorite.”]Interviewer:That’s my new string.
Leach:You want that, got any more tape on it?
Interviewer:Yep.
Leach:I am going to play it real slow so you can---
Interviewer:Do that.
[
38:00 --- 39:00Plays song slowly][Voices talking at the same time, then recording turns off, comes back in mid song]
[
40:00 --- 41:00two fiddles playing song at same time.]Interviewer:Oh, I like your B part on that. I should get the guitar and let you
play through that.Leach:Huh?
Interviewer:Let me get the guitar and let you play through that without, without
my fiddle.[
42:00---Plays song with guitar accompaniment until tape ends][
43:00—recording ends]. 44:00