Fiddler’s Dream is essentially the second volume in Howard Wight Marshall’s epic study of Missouri fiddling. In Play Me Something Quick and Devilish: Old-Time Fiddling in Missouri (2012), he describes the origins and development of traditional dance fiddling in Missouri through roughly 1920. Fiddler’s Dream takes up the narrative and looks at the period roughly 1920-60, when Missouri fiddling moves out of barns and kitchens onto concert and contest stages, radio, and television; and when its primary purpose shifts from dance accompaniment to entertainment and competition.
If Nashville has been the commercial and symbolic center of the country-music world since the 1920s, Missouri was certainly a notable outpost. Local radio stations such as WEW St. Louis, WOS in Jefferson City (which broadcast from the State Capitol dome), and KMBC in Kansas City had their own country-music radio shows featuring local musicians, bands, and folksy entertainers. Missouri had its own pantheon of broadcast fiddlers (Lonnie Robertson of Ozark County being perhaps the best known), and its own circuit of contests run either by radio stations or by local promoters. Some of its leading musical lights even made the trek to Nashville, and worked for extended periods of time with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, and other well-known bands.
As we move into the 1930s, American popular music--and associated fiddling styles--began to evolve considerably; and not surprisingly many Missouri fiddlers moved along with the trends. Western swing--an amalgam of old-time country music and contemporary jazz styles that prominently featured fiddles and fretted instruments--came into full focus in the mid-1930s via the band Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. The same period served as a breeding ground for a parallel hybrid musical form that later took the name “bluegrass.” It began as an outgrowth of the “hillbilly-band” recording scene of the 1920s, but worked in elements of blues, jazz, and shape-note choral singing. Many of the tunes and techniques that developed in tandem with western swing and bluegrass became the bread and butter of some Missouri fiddlers and were passed down through them to later generations. Marshall singles out Larry Ellis of Saline County as a master of the bluegrass idiom, and Warren Helton of Maries County as an indefatigable player of swing tunes.
One interesting sidebar here is the major influence that Missouri players had on the traditional music of the West Coast. In the 1930s and 40s, hard times associated with the Dustbowl and the Second World War triggered a major diaspora of Missourians hoping for improved conditions in California and the Northwest; these initial “pioneers” were later joined by others simply seeking their fortunes. The development of thriving communities of ex-Missourians (and Missouri musicians) in parts of the west ensured that Missouri tunes and playing styles would become a major influence for nearly all fiddlers in these regions.
Although most chapter headings are devoted to general topics such as radio broadcasts, contests, stage shows, and the like, much of the book is devoted to capsule biographies of the many notable fiddlers that Missouri produced during the period in question--most of them unheralded to non-Missourians, or completely unknown outside their home regions. We learn about their origins and early lives, how they got started in music, what kinds of venues they played in, something about their playing styles and some of the tunes in their repertoires, and the general course of their playing careers. To broaden our perspective, the tune versions of some artists are fully transcribed.
As a special treat, each volume of Fiddler’s Dream comes with a companion CD that features cuts by roughly twenty-five artists featured in the volume. There are thirty cuts in all (a few artists are accorded two selections), representing about sixty-five minutes of music. The recording is thoughtfully edited and well-produced, and offers an excellent sense of the breadth and depth of twentieth-century Missouri fiddling (an “index” at the very end of the volume offers detailed annotations for each selection). I strongly suggest that readers who are not already familiar with the subject listen to the CD and become attuned to the sound of the various players before digging into the text. That would be a great way to get a sense of what all the fuss is about!
Fiddler’s Dream is an excellent study of cultural transition--how a musical tradition adapts to changing technological and societal conditions and finds a place for itself within the new order. As such, it should be of considerable interest--not only to those with an interest in traditional fiddling and traditional music--but to those with a general interest in the study of cultural change. And since Marshall leaves us hanging in 1960 with much still to tell about the development of fiddling in his home state, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a third volume in the works.
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[Review length: 802 words • Review posted on April 26, 2018]