Premiered on PBS
on October 7, 2004
Check your local listings
for rebroadcasts.

Jake Krack

Jake Krack is a young fiddler from West Virginia who plays old time Appalachian music. He has recorded several CDs and won many honors for his playing.

Jake started playing the fiddle when he was three years old. When Jake was 11, he and his family moved from Indiana to West Virginia so they could be closer to the late master fiddler Melvin Wine, Jake's long-time mentor and friend. In West Virginia, master fiddlers Lester McCumbers and Bobby Taylor have also mentored Jake. Jake has studied with these fiddlers as part of the Augusta Heritage Center Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program.

"When I started learning I made a promise to Melvin, I've now made a promise to Lester and Bobby, that if they teach me, and they've taught me for free, then I will preserve it and keep it going and pass it on to somebody else who's younger," says Jake.

Jake's father makes all of his fiddles - including Jake's first one made out of cardboard. Jake's mom, an old time guitar player, practices and performs with Jake. They play together at festivals and local old time jams where musicians young and old come together to celebrate the unique music of the region. Jake is currently at college, but continues to record and play at festivals.

Old Time Music

Old time is a style of American music that was first played by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled in Appalachia in the 18th and 19th centuries. These settlers combined their traditions with songs and playing styles they learned from African-Americans, and the unique sound of old time music was born.

Because they lived in isolated regions, fiddlers in Appalachian communities developed their own old time playing styles. Before radio and recordings, family members and neighbors taught each other the music and played it for dances and at social and family gatherings.

Old time songs tell stories about family, home, religion and other aspects of traditional rural life in Appalachia. Once the recording era began in the 1920s, many musicians used old time music as the basis for new styles of country music, most notably bluegrass. Old time music is also referred to as old timey music and is sometimes referred to as hillbilly music.

Ever since the folk revival of the 1960s, you can hear musicians playing old time songs from eras past at festivals and performances throughout the country. "One of the reasons people relate to it is because it has roots. It goes back a long way in time," says Gerry Milnes, Folklorist at the Augusta Heritage Center at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia.

Melvin Wine, 1909–2003

Master fiddler Melvin Wine was born in 1909 in rural Braxton County, West Virginia. Melvin had an expansive and unique repertoire of old time songs and bowing techniques particular to central West Virginia. He tutored many young fiddlers in his traditional style of fiddling, including Jake who played with Melvin since he was seven.

As a boy, Melvin learned to play old time fiddle from his father, who learned the music from his own father and grandfather. As a young man, Melvin played with his brother Clarence, a banjo and mandolin player. Melvin and Clarence played at fairs, parties, dances, community gatherings and between reels at movie theaters. In 1930, Melvin married Etta Singleton, a young woman who called square dances and played the banjo and guitar. For much of his life, Melvin worked in the West Virginia coal mines. He was the father of 10 children and 77 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

For a lifetime of preserving a traditional art, Melvin received the first West Virginia Vandalia Award in 1981 and the National Endowment for the Art’s National Heritage Fellowship in 1991.

Bobby Taylor

Bobby Taylor is a fifth-generation West Virginia fiddler who began playing when he was 13. Bobby is well known for his unique old time fiddling style and repertoire—songs and techniques he learned from family members and the legendary players Clark Kessinger and Mike Humphreys. Kessinger and Humpreys lived near Bobby’s hometown in Dunbar, West Virginia.

About Clark Kessinger, Bobby says "With his passing, more talent departed this world than I could imagine. I do my best to keep his memory alive." In 1977, Bobby was named the West Virginia State Fiddle Champion. Today he consults, coordinates, and judges for old time fiddle contests and festivals, where he also often performs and teaches.

Lester McCumbers

Lester McCumbers was born in 1921 in West Virginia's Calhoun County where he still lives today. Lester and his wife Linda come from large musical families with brothers, cousins, children, and ancestors who all played traditional music. Lester started playing guitar at 14 and picked up the fiddle at 20. His father, Henry Franklin McCumbers, made the first fiddle Lester played and, along with other local fiddlers of some renown, taught Lester the traditional style he plays today.

Lester holds his fiddle down on his chest while playing, a style only seen among old Appalachian fiddlers, although it is a tradition that goes back centuries in Europe. He plays in "cross tunings" or the "high key" for about one half of his repertoire. These tunings are a carryover of another ancient tradition, once known as "scordatura" to 16th and 17th century classical violinists of Europe. Today's classical players have completely forgotten their use.