Fred Price

Fred Price claims to have learned to play the fiddle literally before dinner. As the story goes, his father came home one day with a newly purchased fiddle for his son, which he presented him with while supper was being put on the table. By the time the boy sat down to eat, he was already sawing out "The Little Log Cabin in the Lane," sawing being the operative word due to the impossibility of a fiddler developing a good clean sound within moments, even if one accepts this tall-tale of a musical prodigy. At any rate, this Appalachian fiddler was obviously a quick study, learning a great deal of old-time repertoire within months thanks to assistance from a fiddle-playing cousin. In the second World War, Price was stationed both overseas and in the United States. He took over his family's farm upon returing, raising tobacco and corn as well as a large family. In the '60s and '70s, he was a neighbor to guitarist and singer Clint Howard, with whom he appeared on two Folkways volumes of Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. Ashley was the neighborhood old-time music honcho whose house was a pleasant place for a musical get together, and whose career got a bit of a second wind in the '60s due to the folk music revival. An informal band featuring Ashley, Price, Howard, and their sort of well-known neighbor Doc Watson made a series of performances and recordings during this period, including a video taping for Pete Seeger's television series Rainbow Quest. The Price fiddling style is a treasured archive of music from the '20s era of string band recordings. He was highly influenced by bands such as Hopkins' Bucklebusters, the Fruit Jar Drinkers, and the early backup bands of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe. Price's playing features melody lines that are treated to almost constant variations, the rhythms also syncopated with great sophistication. Besides the commercially released recordings featuring this artist, East Tennessee State University has a great deal of material featuring Price and his cohorts in the permanent collections of the Archives of Appalachia. ~ Eugene Chadbourne