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John White, master old-time square dance fiddler, lives with his wife Betty
in the north-central Missouri town of Hallsville. John was born in 1936, in
a farmhouse near Ethel in Macon County. He grew up on a farm and attended first
grade at Brush Creek, a one-room school near Ethel, and fifth through eighth
grade at Stalcup, in Linn and Shelby Counties in north Missouri, graduating
from high school at Clarence (Shelby County) in 1955. After service in the Army
and a spot of farming and heavy equipment operating, John took his bachelors
and masters degrees in 1971 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and retired
in 2005 after thirty-three years as an agricultural engineer in the College
of Agriculture.
John’s family are long-time Missourians. The first White in the U.S. came
from England as an indentured servant before the Revolutionary War. One of John’s
ancestors was Isaac White, a member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1804-1806.
Other members of the White family came into Missouri with Daniel Boone shortly
after the Lewis and Clark expedition.
John grew up in a musical family and both of his parents, Von and Lucille,
played the violin. His mother also played five-string banjo, piano, and guitar.
His grandfather, Thurman Fields, was an accomplished fiddler and gave him a
violin John calls “the old red fiddle” as a reward for learning to
play at a very young age. John recalls “He didn’t play very many notes,
but he made the ones that he played work. His style was ninety percent bowing.”
Fields played numerous tunes such as “Rye Whisky” and “Sally
Goodin” in a chorded tuning (AEAE). John’s mother taught him his first
tune, “Little Brown Jug.”
John’s fiddling style developed while playing for square dances, especially
the community dances at the old one-room Lily Dale schoolhouse in Shelby County,
near the White family farm. John says “Lily Dale was a rural, one room
school typical of many that served rural Missouri prior to the late forties
and early fifties. The school was located in southwestern Shelby County in a
farming area south of Clarence, Missouri. After the school was closed due to
consolidation with the Clarence school in the spring of 1953, members of the
local community arranged for the use of the schoolhouse as a meeting place (around
1954). Later, the community purchased the building and rented the lot where
it sat for $10 per month. A wash pan was passed, as needed, to collect money
for rent and electricity. Initially, the schoolhouse was used for community
gatherings and musical jam sessions. The first dance was held on March 31, 1961.
Dances were scheduled in general for the first and third Saturdays of each month.
Dancers included the entire range of family members, grandparents, parents,
children, grandchildren, assorted relatives, and interested community members.
Musicians consisted of whoever showed up and desired to play. The dances were
well attended and the fun, fellowship, and memories created over the years are
immeasurable.”
When he moved to the Columbia area in the 1960s, White met a number of well-known
Little Dixie style fiddlers such as Cleo Persinger, Taylor McBaine, Pete McMahan,
and Cecil Windsor. He also enjoyed listening to records of commercial fiddlers
such as Tommy Jackson. His north Missouri playing style gradually shifted to
accommodate to the prevailing Little Dixie (central Missouri) style, which featured
more “notey” playing, double stops, waltzes, hornpipes, and tunes
in Bb and F. Later, with the advent of young musicians playing Appalachian style
music in the Columbia area, John again accommodated his playing to embrace this
style. He also has had much exposure to the “Texas” and “contest”
styles of fiddling through his frequent judging and competing in fiddle contests.
John characterizes his style of fiddling as “the old home-made shuffle
style,” featuring the kind of accented bowing that is important in providing
a good beat for square dancers. He also plays old-time five-string banjo accompaniment,
in his mother’s north Missouri style which emphasizes brush strokes with
the right hand (and no use of the thumb).
The violin John plays on this CD is a German Stradivari copy labeled “Meinel,”
acquired from Boone County fiddler and luthier Jesse Sims in 1966. The bows
he uses on the recording are ones he acquired from central Missouri fiddlers
Cecil Windsor and Cleo Persinger.
Many of the tunes John White plays on this project, including the two referenced
in the title, were learned from printed sources. He learned to read music while
playing trumpet in high school band. Many “old-time fiddlers” read
music and enjoy picking up new tunes from books, although when played by fiddlers
like White the tunes only faintly resemble the printed versions once they have
been absorbed into the fiddler’s style and repertoire. Some fiddle tunes
that became rare have come back into circulation through John’s fiddling
and the learning of these tunes by younger fiddlers who admire his playing.
This CD uses two different accompaniment ensembles. The first is the kind of
accompaniment that John grew up with at the Lily Dale school dances, and familiar
in north Missouri in his parents’ and grandparents’ generations –
various combinations of piano, guitar, old-time Missouri style banjo, upright
bass, and cello. The ensemble marked “A” on the tune list is comprised
of Kenny Applebee on guitar, Musial Wolfe on piano, Kathy Gordon on bass, and
Howard Marshall on old time banjo. The second ensemble (marked “B”)
is the The Nine Mile Band, a group John formed to play for square dances and
contra dances held in the university town of Columbia, with Jim Ruth on clawhammer
banjo, Amber Gaddy on piano accordion, piano, and button accordion, and David
Cavins on guitar.
1. Nine Miles. John learned this from E.F. Adam, Old Time Fiddler’s
Favorite Barn Dance Tunes (St. Louis, 1927, reissued by Mel Bay, 1977). (B)
2. Dry and Dusty. From R.P. Christeson, The Old-time Fiddler’s Repertory
(Columbia, 1973, 1984). (B)
3. Old Man and Old Woman. John learned this tune from Idaho fiddler Lloyd
Wanzer’s LP Country Fiddlin’. It was popularized in Missouri in the
1960s by Cleo Persinger and Cyril Stinnett after they went to Canadian contests.
(A)
4. Mississippi Sawyer. From John’s mother, Lucille White. (B)
5. Hogs in the Tater Patch. From The Old-time Fiddler’s Repertory.
(B)
6. New Five Cent Piece. From Gene Silberberg, Tunes I Learned at the
Tractor Tavern (Seattle, 2002). (A)
7. Silver & Gold Two Step. From The Old-time Fiddler’s Repertory.
(A)
8. Devil Ate a Groundhog. From Tunes I Learned at the Tractor Tavern.
(B)
9. Peek-a-boo Waltz. From Lucille White. (A)
10. Natchez Under the Hill. From The Old-time Fiddler’s Repertory.
(B)
11. Soldier’s Joy. From Lucille White. (A)
12. Arkansas Traveler. From Thurman Fields. (B)
13. That’s My Rabbit, My Dog Caught It. From Stacy Phillips, Traditional
American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1 (Pacific MO, Mel Bay, 1994). (B)
14. Black Eyed Susan. From Thurman Fields and John’s great-uncle,
Elmer Hulet of Bevier, Missouri as well as his great-aunt Beulah (Fields) Finney
of Portland, Oregon. On a visit in Missouri in the late 1940s, Beulah taught
John the B part of the tune. “I got interested in the tune by hearing my
grandpa Fields play it, but Elmer and Beulah showed me how to play it.”
(B)
15. Hi-Lo Schottische. This tune was written by William Ruleson in 1852
as the “Rochester Schottische.” John learned it from Old Time Fiddler’s
Favorite Barn Dance Tunes. (A)
16. White Man. From The Old-time Fiddler’s Repertory. This tune
is attributed to an African-American fiddler in Callaway County. (A)
17. Old Mother Flanagan. From Tunes I Learned at the Tractor Tavern.
(B)
18. Fisher’s Hornpipe. From The Old-time Fiddler’s Repertory.
(B)
19. Sugar in the Gourd. John learned this from his grandfather, Thurman
Fields. (A)
20. Mouse in the Cupboard. This tune is usually called the “Kesh
Jig.” (B)
21. Evansville. From Charlie Dalton of Evansville, Missouri. (B)
22. Little Foot Waltz. From the Tommy Jackson LP Square Dance Festival
Vol. 2. This is the well-known tune “Put Your Little Foot” used for
the Varsovienne dance. (A)
23. My Love is But a Lassie-O. From Ted Taylor, Madison, Missouri. (B)
24. Splish Splash. From Marion Thede’s Fiddle Book, (New York, 1967)
where it is titled “Rabbit in the Grass” or “Soapsuds Splash.”
(B)
25. Little Rabbit. From Greg Baker, The Fiddle Series, Book 1 (Portland
OR, 1985) (B)
26. Be Nobody’s Darling But Mine. From John’s father, Von White.
(A)
27. Turkey in the Straw. From Lucille White. (B)
28. Possum Hunter’s Blues. From Charlie Dalton, Evansville, Missouri.
(A)
Kenny Applebee of Mexico, Missouri is well known throughout the Midwest as
a guitarist, and has appeared at numerous festivals. He teaches guitar and fiddle
at the Bethel Fiddle Camp. He and his wife Norma operate the family grain farm,
and Kenny recently retired from many years as a maintenance mechanic at a fire
clay products company.
Kathy Gordon of Columbia is originally from Evanston, Illinois, where she grew
up performing in the family band. Kathy is also a long-time member of the Columbia
Irish music group, and is a fiddle player and dancer.
Howard Marshall of Columbia and Fulton, originally from Moberly, is a retired
professor of art history at the University of Missouri. From a long line of
musicians, he is an old-time fiddler and banjoist who has appeared on, and produced,
several Voyager CDs.
Musial Wolfe of Boonville is a retired bookkeeper at a Columbia paint and glass
company. His father Lloyd Wolfe played guitar and harmonica and performed over
radio station KFRU in Columbia in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Musial has
been a fixture on the fiddle music scene for several decades, and he also plays
fiddle and guitar.
David Cavins, originally from Moline, Illinois, is a Columbia resident. David
is inspired by the crisp, elegant guitar work of Elvin Campbell, who for many
years backed up Iowa master fiddler Dwight Lamb.
Amber Gaddy is a native Missourian now living in Columbia. She studies the
Danish-style accordion playing of Iowa buttonbox player Dwight Lamb, and is
also an accomplished clawhammer banjoist. Amber and David are frequent performers
in the region and avid pupils of the music of Nebraska fiddler Bob Walters.
Banjoist Jim Ruth of Columbia has been a central figure in the old-time music
scene in Missouri since the 1970s. His ability to adapt clawhammer style to
the wide variety of fiddling found in the Midwest puts him in demand as a dance
player. In addition, Jim plays Irish fiddle. He is employed at Old Standard
Musical Instrument Wood in Millersburg.
Cover: John White with his father at an uncle’s farm near Ethel in 1937, a very hot and dry year for north Missouri farmers, photo by Lucille White. Band photos by Betty White. Lily Dale School photo by John White. Recorded February 2007 by David Cavins. Graphics by Vivian Williams. Produced by Howard Marshall.