John McCutcheon (photo by Irene Young)
Johnson County, Tennessee, has a lot to celebrate when it comes to the roots of American music. Folklorists have called the 1925 Fiddler’s Convention a watershed event in the history of country music. It was the first of the big conventions, and the biggest names in early country music traveled from far and wide to compete for the $20 gold piece. The Mountain City, Tennessee, community is celebrating the centenary of this historic event all summer.
It starts “fiddlin’ around’ with a public art project in June. Then Labor Day weekend, John McCutcheon releases a tribute album to the 1925 Fiddler’s Convention that includes some of the biggest names in roots music today with a concert during the Long Journey Home Festival. Finally, in October, the Kody Norris Show presents the 100th Mountain City Fiddler’s Convention at Heritage Hall.
The historic 1925 Fiddler’s Convention was held in the auditorium of the old Johnson County High School, which is now Heritage Hall. There was more than $40 in prize money, and the first-place winner took home a $20 gold piece that was put up by the Buster Brown Shoe Company. The high school auditorium was filled to capacity. The floor nearly collapsed under the crowd’s weight, and the nearby courthouse and elementary school were accommodated the overflow. The event took place during the earliest days of broadcast radio, and Tony Alderman of the Hill Billies set up a portable radio station to broadcast the event.
A Who’s Who of early country musicians traveled to Mountain City to compete for the grand prize. Al Hopkins and Tony Alderman of the Hill Billies were there. They had started the band the year before in Galax, Virginia, but it was at the Mountain City Fiddlers Convention that they met up with fiddler, Charlie Bowman from Gray Station for the first time. They were so impressed that they persuaded Bowman to join their band. In 1927 the Hill Billies became the first country musicians to perform in New York City. They were also the first to play for a President of the United States and the first to appear in a movie.
Another contestant was Clarence “Tom” Ashley, a Mountain City native who began his entertainment career in medicine shows a decade earlier. Country music singer and Grand Ole Opry performer Roy Acuff began his musical career with Ashley in a medicine show during the 1920s. Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan both credit Ashley as a major influence on their musical careers.
G.B. Grayson, the nearly blind fiddler from Laurel Bloomery also competed at the convention. Grayson would become one of the most influential fiddlers of the 1920s. He gave the world “Tom Dooley,” “Cluck Old Hen” and “Lee Highway Blues.”
Grayson was one of the contest winners with the song “Cumberland Gap” and Charlie Bowman also took home a prize for his version of “Sally Ann.” The first-prize winner of the convention was “Fiddlin’ Dud” Vance (Dudley Vance) from Bluff City, Tennessee, for his performance of “Twinkle Little Star.” Vance was a recording pioneer then known over a wide area of the Southeast. He was a winner of championship contests in Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma.
The 1925 Fiddlers Convention is celebrated during this year’s Long Journey Home Festival. Musicians are in the studio recording John McCutcheon’s 100-year anniversary tribute album. McCutcheon is joined on this recording by Grammy-winning artists including Old Crow Medicine Show, Molly Tuttle, Bruce Molsky, Tim O’Brien and several others. Proceeds from this album are donated to the Johnson County Center for the Arts, and the album promotes Johnson County’s musical heritage for years to come.
A crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo platform has been created to raise the funds needed to pay their studio fees, cover mixing and mastering, and the printing and distribution of the first 1,000 CDs. Donors get the opportunity to hear the music and get perks like a copy of the CD, concert tickets donated by participating musicians, a private concert with John McCutcheon, and more.
The musicians are all donating their time and talent to create an album that will benefit Johnson County Center for the Arts and tell this community’s unique story for years to come. To learn how to donate, visit www.jocoartcenter.org.
