Talk: How Absie Morrison Learned Fiddle Tunes

Collected by Mary Celestia Parler; Transcribed by Neil Byer Absie Morrison Campbell, Ark. November 6, 1854 Reel 216, Item 4 How Absie Morrison Learned Fiddle Tunes MCP: Who taught you these tunes? AM: Why, my father. MCP: And who taught them to him? AM: Why, my grandfather. And my great-grandfather was a fiddler, plumb on down till now. MCP: Can you tell me where they came from? AM: Why, yes, I can tell ye. MCP: Just go on and tell me about them. AM: My great-grandfather's home was in middle Tennessee, no, eastern Tennessee. Hamilton County, Tennessee. He died in eighteen and fifty-seven. He lived to be old. And that was the old home place. My grand­father settled right to the north of this creek in eighteen and forty-two. My daddy was b o m down there after they moved here. MCP: Well, tell me, what's the name of this creek? AM: Sellar Creek. It's the Indian name for it. This used to be an Indian village right here. MCP: It was? AM: Lord, yes. MCP: You ever find any Indian relics here? AM: Oh, I'll say. There're lots of 'em here. Why, they're laying here everywhere yit. Reel 216, Item 4, con't. MCP: AM: MCP: AM: MCP: Well, tell me, was your great-grandfather or your great-great-grandfather in the ... Revolutionary War. He was in Washington's army, served seven years. And he was right there when it was wound up. Oh, that's how he knew all these... Yes, see, this has been handed down from one generation to another. Well, that's really terrific stuff. How about another one of those?Funding for digitization provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Happy Hollow Foundation