In Nashville, I spent several months working with Ed’s music and calling Lawrence Haley with questions and comments. I continued to study every intricate detail of Ed’s fiddling — supplementing it with recently learned facts about his life as well as devoting some attention to his songs. When I called Lawrence with questions about new “discoveries,” he said my visit to Ashland had inspired one of his granddaughters to take up the fiddle. I was very curious about that because of my belief in genetic memory. Who knew what secrets she had locked away inside her DNA? I told him I would bring her one of my fiddles the next time I saw him.

A few months later, I met Lawrence and his family at my show in St. Clairsville, Ohio. It was the first time Lawrence had seen me play on stage and I was ridiculously nervous. He listened intently from backstage and kept his criticisms to a minimum. He said his father played a lot faster than I did and really bragged on how Pop played the fiddle while singing, like with the tune “Black Sheep.”

In a quiet country town not very far away

There lived a rich and aging man whose hair was few and gray.

He had three sons, his only ones, Jack and Tom was sly.

Ted was honest as could be and could not tell a lie.

When we gathered on the bus, I gave Lawrence’s granddaughter one of my fiddles.

“Well I have something to give you, too,” Lawrence said before making a quick trip to his car. He returned with Ed’s fiddle, which he reached to me and said, “We brought something for you. We’re not using it and we know you would appreciate it and know its value.”

I carefully turned Ed Haley’s fiddle over in my hands.

It was a tremendously emotional experience.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked.

Lawrence said he had talked about it with his sons Steve and David and every one agreed it was the right thing to do.

“I discussed it with the kids here,” he said. “David, he kind of showed a little bit of objection but I told him, ‘Well, John’s gonna bring a fiddle up here to Andrea. I just may as well turn loose of this one because it’s just gonna lay here and deteriorate. Why not let John have this one?’ He agreed to it. If anybody would’ve had any objections I think Steve would because his girls are both string instrumentalists. But they didn’t seem to mind too much so you got it and we won’t worry about it anymore.”

I immediately took Ed’s fiddle to my bedroom on the bus, put it in a case and laid it on the bed for safety.