After speaking with Maxine, I called Wilson Douglas to ask him about Edden Hammons, regarded by many as a top old-time fiddler in the early part of the century.

“Well now, I’m gonna tell you about Edden Hammons, John,” he said. “Now I heard him fiddle one time in Webster Springs, I believe it was, about ’48 or ’49. And something happened. They broke the concert up and he went home. Now that’s the only time I ever heard him in person, but by god he was one of the best old-time fiddlers in the state. And Burl Hammons, his nephew, I don’t think anybody coulda beat him on the old tunes. And Sherman — they could all play to tell you the truth.”

I asked if Ed knew Hammons.

“Well, I’d say distantly he did,” he said. “He had a lot of Ed Haley’s bow in a way, but he didn’t know the tunes that Ed Haley knew. But now Edden Hammons had a lot of bow power.”

What about Uncle Jack McElwain?

“Yeah, I knew about him, John,” he said. “But now I never heard the man play, but my father said he was a powerful fiddle player. My dad was around him a lot. However, he said he was in no comparison with Edden Hammons.”

I asked Wilson if Ed ever played for dances without any second, and he said, “Well, I seen him play about an hour one time over at Hicks’ and he didn’t need no second. You know, playing the fiddle for a square dance, Haley taught me something there I’ve never forgot: you’ve got to get the fiddle with the rhythm and the fiddle with the caller. You’ve got to get them all in coordination, and Haley done just that.”

In those days, did the caller dance while he called or did he call from the side?

“Well now, they was an old gentlemen — he was a hell of a banjo player — by the name of old man Tom McCune. Now brother, he could call and dance right along with it. He was the best I ever heard. That banjo player that played with Ed Haley, I believe it was Tom Cheneth. Lived down Walker. Him and that Tom McCune I guess, was two of the best in the state that was clawhammer, you know. He lived at what’s called the mouth of Walnut. Then he turned over, I think maybe he lived over in what they call that Nicut country. You know, Ed Haley didn’t have no bad musicians with him.”

Wilson said, “I’ll tell you what, John. Ed Haley would not play a lick if they was somebody else a fiddling. He’d sit there and work his fingers and listen like a fox a listening for a bunch of chickens, you know. By god, he had an ‘awful’ ear. He’d just sit there, and he’d command them sometimes. Sometimes he wouldn’t say nothing. It depended on how he felt, you know?”