These thoughts and pursuits filled many hours of my time. At home, in my studio or on my porch overlooking the Cumberland River, I supplemented what little I knew about Haley’s background with any related material I could find. When I was out on the road in my bus, I kept a small selection of Haley-related reading selections. In The Man With a Bull Tongue Plow (1934), Jesse Stuart (easily the most esteemed eastern Kentucky writer of his time) memorialized Haley as a fictional character named “Blind” Frailey. Stuart watched Haley play in Greenup, Kentucky. “I’ve seen country people reach into their pockets and give him their last nickel or quarter just to hear one more song,” he said. There was this passage in Man With a Bull Tongue Plow:

When old “Blind” Frailey starts his magic fiddle

And a Plum Grove man is there by chance,

You ought to watch this man step out and dance.

Of course he has some patches on his pants

And by his side the old men jig a little

And laugh and listen to the talking fiddle.

“Blind” Frailey stops for resin on his bow

And when he starts to fiddle up he cries:

“‘Girl With the Blue Dress On!’ Boys, let’s go!”

And then coarse shoes like mauls thug on the ground

Until they nearly drown the fiddle sound,

And soon a jolly crowd is gathered there

With the best of drink upon the courthouse square

And talk about dancing and the fiddling there!

The boys give freely to “Blind” Frailey here, – 

Nickels, dimes and quarters that the boys can spare,

The boys pay freely for good drinks of booze,

And they pay dearly for new soles on shoes;

But it is dance and drink these countrymen choose.

And of all days first Mondays are the best

Of each month when the boys come in to rest,

Come in to town to rest and buy and sell –

This day of all the merchants wish them well.

But fiddler Frailey takes the boys by spell,

They dance and let all business go to hell,

Under the maples on the courtyard square,

And all you have to do is venture there

And listen to “Blind” Frailey play the fiddle

Where a crowd is parted under the maple tree

And dancing men step up and down the middle.

      But as much as I was curious about Haley’s life, it was his music that mostly held my attention. I was very interested in his motivation to take up music, as well as to know about his early musical influences. The reason for his playing, I surmised, was connected to his blindness as many blind children have been encouraged take up an instrument throughout history. According to Parkersburg Landing, “a neighbor made him a cornstalk fiddle for a toy [when he was young], but he soon graduated to a full-sized violin. He followed the old-time fiddlers of his vicinity [by] resting the fiddle against his upper arm and chest, supported solely by his left hand.” Who were these fiddlers, I wondered, and what else did they contribute to Haley’s playing?

     From the outset, I also wanted to know how Ed Haley played the way he did. From Parkersburg Landing, I could glean this one hint which served as a source of interest and amusement for me: “Holding the fiddle against his chest allowed Haley to develop an unusual skill, apparently unique to him and a few of his followers. Instead of moving his bow, Ed would often rock the violin body underneath the bow as he played. This device allowed him to execute many difficult transitions from low to high strings as well as facilitating his particular approach to syncopation.”

     I remember sitting in my office trying to replicate that technique and laughing about it.