Way Down in Alabam: Finding Old-Time Fiddlers and Their Tunes

Event Details

This event is presented by the Oxford Arts Council with support from the Oxford City Council and the Oxford Performing Arts Center.  

Joyce Cauthen is Director Emeritus of the Alabama Folklife Association, a statewide organization that sponsors research, promotion, and preservation of Alabama’s folk culture.  She is also the author of “With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow:  Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama,” published in 1989 by the University of Alabama Press and has served as the producer of numerous recordings of traditional music of Alabama, including “Possum Up a Gum Stump:  Home, Commercial and Field Recordings of Alabama Fiddlers.”  She served as editor of “Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymnbook:  A Primitive Baptist Song Tradition” and produced the accompanying CD.  Her last project was a CD and booklet entitled “Bullfrog Jumped,” which features recordings made across Alabama of children’s folksongs and games in 1947.  She is a graduate of Texas Christian University and has a Master’s degree in English from Purdue University.

In her presentation, the early fiddles of Alabama, the musicians who played them and the popularity of this music in their communities will be discussed.  Use of the banjo, “straws” (a technique in which broom straws or knitting needles were beat on the strings as the fiddler played) and guitar in backing up the fiddle will be demonstrated.  Fiddler Jim Cauthen will demonstrate fiddle tunes that have been specifically mentioned in historical writings, slave narratives, and early newspapers of Alabama.  The program will also feature Dr. Jimmy Triplett, professor at JSU.