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Brandon Ray Kirk

~ This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in my section of Appalachia.

Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: fiddle

Ed Haley Fiddle Contest (2000)

20 Thursday May 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ashland, Ed Haley, Music

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Tags

Appalachia, Ashland, Bobby Taylor, Ed Haley, Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest, fiddle, fiddle contest, fiddling, history, J.P. Fraley, John Harrod, Kentucky, Poage Landing Days

Hatfield-McCoy Feud Radio Spot

16 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Appalachia, Big Sandy River, Elias Hatfield, feuds, fiddle, Floyd Hatfield, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Johnse Hatfield, Kentucky, Randolph McCoy, Roseanna McCoy, Tolbert McCoy, Tug Fork, West Virginia

Randolph McCoy-Floyd Hatfield hog trial…
Romance between Johnse Hatfield and Roseanna McCoy; Ellison Hatfield’s Killing…

Contest for Old-Time Fiddlers, Banjoists, and Guitarists in Huntington (1931)

13 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Appalachia, banjo, fiddle, fiddle contest, fiddling, guitar, history, Huntingon, J.N. Kenny, music, old-time music, The Kenney Music Company, Tri-State Music Festival, West Virginia

Wayne County (WV) News, 7 May 1931

Banjos, Violins, and Accordions (1896)

23 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Music

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accordion, Appalachia, banjo, C.M. Wallace, Cabell County, fiddle, history, Huntington, music, One Price Jeweler, Third Avenue, violin, West Virginia

Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 4 February 1896.

Tom Dula: Trial and Hanging in Statesville, NC (2020)

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Tom Dula

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, Depot Hill, fiddle, fiddler, fiddling, history, Iredell County, North Carolina, photos, Phyllis Kirk, sheriff, Silas Alexander Sharpe, Southern Railway Depot, Statesville, Tom Dooley, Tom Dula, William Wasson

IMG_5581

Iredell County Courthouse, Statesville, NC. The courthouse that hosted Tom Dula’s trial between 1866 and 1868 is gone; this courthouse was built in 1899. 7 January 2020

IMG_5560

Col. Silas Alexander Sharpe House. Spectators here saw Tom Dula ride by from the courthouse to the gallows…supposedly playing a fiddle. 7 January 2020

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Col. Sharpe House. 7 January 2020

IMG_5564

Southern Railway Depot, built c.1911. Tom Dula was taken to a gallows near the original depot at what is called Depot Hill and hanged in 1868. The original depot stood 300 yards to the northeast. 7 January 2020

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Tom Dula was hanged somewhere in this vicinity. Perhaps as many as 3000 spectators attended the hanging. 7 January 2020

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Tom Dula was hanged somewhere in this vicinity. Sheriff William Wasson had never executed anyone prior to Dula. Photo by Mom. 7 January 2020

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Tom Dula was hanged somewhere in this vicinity. For some reason, no historical markers are here to help tourists find the spot. Photo by Mom. 7 January 2020

Whirlwind News 01.19.1923

31 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Whirlwind

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Tags

Anna Brumfield, Appalachia, Belle Adams, Bob Dingess, Dave Dingess, fiddle, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Hollena Dingess, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lula Whitt, Ora Tomblin, singing schools, Weltha Hensley, West Virginia, Whirlwind

A correspondent named “Little Ted” from Whirlwind at Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on January 19, 1923:

Mr. Robert Dingess is conducting a good school on Pond.

Miss Hollena Dingess is enjoying school teaching now. Wonder why?

Suppose the Big 4 Taxi arrives now. Remember, they are acquainted with Harts Creek?

Miss Weltha Hensley made a flying trip to Whirlwind last Friday.

Mr. Robert Dingess calls on Miss Anna Brumfield now.

The singing school is progressing nicely at present.

Harts Creek has a number of mechanics and carpenters. They are completing a cornstalk fiddle at Dave Dingess’.

They are arranging for a millinery store on Trace.

Ora Tomblin was calling on his best friend Sunday.

They are arranging for a party at Mrs. Belle Adams’ school. The air will smell of pumpkin pie then.

Yes, Harts Creeker. “More pud.”

Lula Whitt is some little vamp of this place.

Parkersburg Landing Album (2015)

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ashland, Ed Haley, Music

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Tags

Appalachia, Ashland, blind, Ed Haley, Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest, fiddle, fiddler, fiddling, Kentucky, life, music, Parkersburg Landing, photos, Rounder Records

Parkersburg Landing album, Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest, Ashland, Kentucky, 19 September 2015

Parkersburg Landing album, Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest, Ashland, Kentucky, 19 September 2015

Ed Haley’s Fiddle (2015)

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Music

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ashland, Boyd County, Ed Haley, Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest, fiddle, fiddler, fiddling, history, Kentucky, music, photos

Ed Haley's fiddle on display at the 2015 Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest in Ashland, Kentucky. 19 September 2015

Ed Haley’s fiddle on display at the 2015 Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest in Ashland, Kentucky. 19 September 2015

Josie Cline fiddle

15 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Music, Women's History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Appalachia, fiddle, fiddler, history, Josie Cline, Kentucky, Kermit, music, photos, U.S. South, Warfield, West Virginia

Josie Cline fiddle 1

The fiddle of Josie (Spaulding) Cline, “Lady Champion Fiddler of Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio & West Virginia”

 

John Hartford’s Hands

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in John Hartford

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Tags

banjo, bluegrass music, Brandon Kirk, country music, fiddle, fiddler, history, John Hartford, life, Madison, Marie Hartford, music, Tennessee, writers, writing

Let me try to describe John’s hands. They were very small in every way. He had frail hands as a gentleman might have, with little hair on them. I don’t recall that his fingers were unusually long. His knuckles were slightly larger than his actual fingers, maybe because his fingers were so thin. He kept his fingernails clean and filed smooth with a file. I remember he often filed his nails while on the bus during road trips; sometimes he filed his nails when conversations barely held his interest, half-listening. He absolutely never bit his fingernails. He seldom used his hands for any type of physical work because he didn’t want to risk hurting them; they were, he said, what paid the bills. The skin on his hands was somewhat loose and pale. When you shook his hand, it was very soft, although I’m sure he had slight callouses on the ends of his left hand fingers from playing the fiddle nearly every waking minute of the day. When I first met John at Morrow Library, he shook my hand and insisted that I call him John, not Mr. Hartford. When I later visited his home in Nashville during the summer for weeks or a month, before I had moved to Nashville, he would always shake my hand before I left for West Virginia. I recall at the end of my first trip how he stood in his driveway between his house and the guest house and remarked that we shouldn’t say goodbye because we would see each other again. John did not particularly like goodbyes; he preferred until next times. At the end of his life, upon commencement of his chemotherapy, he would shake very few people’s hand. Due to the chemotherapy, he was particularly concerned about germs. At that time, we shared a laptop and I always took care to clean the keys with alcohol before passing the laptop to him for manuscript review. I did this because I did not want to pass germs and make him ill; he never asked me to do it. Actually, I recall times he told me that it wasn’t necessary, but I did it anyway. Almost always, if he met someone at an event, they would greet him with a handshake, which he had to decline. It was awkward and in a peculiar way I think he enjoyed it. I may be mistaken, but it seems as if he contemplated or did in fact wear gloves for a short time just for handshakes. On a few occasions, he complained about having shaken hands with stout men who nearly crushed his hand; he detested an unnecessarily firm handshake because he said it might affect his ability to play. Later, after I moved to Nashville and visited and stayed many days and nights in his home I observed and he said that one of his favorite things to do was to sit with Marie on the bedroom couch at night and hold her hand while the two of them watched television. These were, of course, private moments and I only intruded if I had a question about the manuscript or a related matter. John’s wrists were small. He never wore a watch on his wrist, preferring instead to keep a pocket watch – usually tucked in his overalls front pocket or in the pocket of his vest, which he nearly always wore. If I remember correctly, his watch was colored gold, not silver. When I think of his hands, I see them holding a fiddle and bow at the dining room table and on stage, I see them moving across a banjo, I see them holding a fork and knife at dinner, I see them placing tiles on a Scrabble board during our games together, I see them holding a glass of red wine late at night during our conversations, I see them holding a book or a magazine at the couch by the fireplace, I see them gripping the wheel of his Cadillac on our way to Piccadilly Cafeteria, I see them pushing PLAY and turning up the volume on his car stereo…

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Feud Poll 1

If you had lived in the Harts Creek community during the 1880s, to which faction of feudists might you have given your loyalty?

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Do you think Milt Haley and Green McCoy committed the ambush on Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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Feud Poll 3

Who do you think organized the ambush of Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

Recent Posts

  • Aracoma Hotel in Logan, WV (1933)
  • James Butcher Survey (1857)
  • Don Chafin’s Deputies (1912-1913)

Ed Haley Poll 1

What do you think caused Ed Haley to lose his sight when he was three years old?

Top Posts & Pages

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© Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com, 1987-2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Tags

Appalachia Ashland Big Creek Big Ugly Creek Blood in West Virginia Brandon Kirk Cabell County cemeteries Chapmanville Charleston civil war coal Confederate Army crime culture Ed Haley Ella Haley Ferrellsburg feud fiddler fiddling genealogy Green McCoy Guyandotte River Harts Harts Creek Hatfield-McCoy Feud history Huntington John Hartford Kentucky Lawrence Haley life Lincoln County Lincoln County Feud Logan Logan Banner Logan County Milt Haley Mingo County music Ohio photos timbering U.S. South Virginia Wayne County West Virginia Whirlwind writing

Blogs I Follow

  • OtterTales
  • Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC
  • Piedmont Trails
  • Truman Capote
  • Appalachian Diaspora

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OtterTales

Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain

Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC

This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.

Piedmont Trails

Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond

Truman Capote

A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century

Appalachian Diaspora

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