The Fiddler (1975)

[Music] honey that good Breeze blowing up there feels good doesn't it it sure does your order pull the windows down to keep it from getting so dusty inside no just let the dust goow in there let the dust blow in and let the Cool Breeze blow you know it's been almost as dry this year as it was in 1925 you remember 1925 no I don't how old was he then that's my age yeah I remember 1925 boys dry here didn't rain for 18 months I don't believe it'll stay that dry this time begin to shower around a little every evening if it rains enough them Tomatoes will make the frost maybe we'll have a little gray on we can get a fall Garden planted if it don't rain we'll be no need to plant no Garden well it'll rain one of these days it always has it don't rain we'll just go fiddling it'll be several contest just fall we'll get to go to about another day to work on that and it'll begin to make look like a fiddle I'll make a Prett little scrubble right here with this old knife you ever saw you know I wish that all them years I put in a carpenter if I'd have thought about it I'd have been making fiddles making good money and wouldn't had to labor so hard they' have been too many pidal around then too many piddles yeah you can't get too many years you go be too many pidal around place with the what do you reckon it's going to play when you get it put together I never have made one it didn't play I think some of these days I would make one out of sweet gum and see how it looks you go talking about that fiddling I'm ready to go to town [Music] [Applause] [Music] today oh yeah you know when you was out there in the crowd of hauling and yelling telling them to holling for Brian Houston you holling for Brian Houston and I was had another friend is a hollering for the other fell but they they wound up for making 97 points a piece the first time and then the last it's the wind up uh sleepy made 96 point and he held his 97 you know old Brian Houston did you remember that oh yeah well it suited the crowd real good you know yeah it's always hard you uh of course Brian Houston I thought all along had him beat but it's hard to stand out in the crowd and uh make a decision on P them judges sitting up there you know they watching what's going on and I know who puts the most notes into the tune and [Applause] but I'll tell you a contest I remember it was year before last Bob over here at on the courthouse at aen at the courthouse lawn and we had dig bar Texas shorty [Applause] that was before we had broke down in in in different divisions you see we have some young boys now and girls also that play that make some of these old fers proud you know at they in a different category because they all to beat them and that little Paul meldon is one of them too you know yes he is Paul is one of the best with you know every man's got his own right to believe like he wants to but I've yet to see that man that can beat Texas shorty playing the fiddle well I think Johnny gimble if heed to ever tieing to him Johnny gimble I think could beat well it's been a long time since I heard Johnny but I know he's a good fiddle player you take you take judges like Bob White and cliff Bruner and little red Haze you see them judges you can't fool them on F they all good no difference with them which one it is who it is the music is what they're listening to and you know these FS pick out the hardest Tunes they are Roy so they get more notes in them Brian Houston we all know that he's one of the top fiddle players and uh I've been a playing a fiddle about six years I understand you I tied him no I didn't beat him I tied him out at Dublin and I want to see you tie should have old wood older it is the better it is that's the first thing I'll go to looking for when I go to thinking about building a violin uh what you're looking for in a violin is a tone and uh if you build one out of Greenwood you won't get that sound because the older a violin gets the better it is the old sail ship you know they was they was made out of some of the best wood and uh they would find these old ships you know been sunk some of them under the water and they would go get the wood and uh they study out the Grain in it it's pretty grain the grain has a whole lot to do with it it make take this old wood out of old ships and make the violin so now a lot of times I go around in hunting old cabinet tops and Old Timber out old buildings and things and uh work it down creation of anything is is a beautiful work and uh it really makes you feel good [Music] well when I first met mom I was walking down the streets in turl Texas with a guitar under my arm and with a fiddle player we fixing go to play for a dance and about 9:30 mom said I got to be going home boy that she was going with got up said well told me he said I'll be back at the wall just make yourself at home and I was sitting there talking to his sister I said ain't no use to you making that trip I'm going right by there and I'll walk home so I just got up and got my get on one arm and her but the hand and walked her home and that's the last time here we got to go with her we went together about a year but about the third time I went with her I asked her to marry me then she said well he's during a depression you know and we decided we'd wait a while and see if we can get in a little better shape than it was but we didn't get in no better shape and when we married I borrowed $2.40 from her to buy the license with to get get married and I think it's a pretty good deal I don't know where I ever paid her back or not but mom was a awful beautiful young girl when she was young to me she still is between Sundown and dark is my favorite time of day because that's going to be the favorite time of my life you know it's getting on towards Sundown for me and Mom too I believe when I leave here I'll have a better world to live in than I'm living in now although I call this Paradise Valley here where I live when I go home I'll have a better home than this music has always been a part of the creation seem peculiar to some people but to me there's a song in in the woods I wished I I don't know where I would have wished it or not but if a man could understand what they were singing he they may sing a prettier song than a man does and uh they like people were singing some birds had a fine voice which we'll say Alo and sopran and high tener you hear all that in the woods and even the hudal you know he sangs a baseball everything that makes a sound is music hello always wondered what inspired a man to build the first violin uh you know people like me that build violins we've had that pattern for years but the man build the first one that is like creation when you build a violin you know you're building something that's been a Heritage and uh it's the thing one thing that won't change after you build it if it's a good violin it's going to be that way over the [Music] years another thing I like to think of is uh I read in a book one time it said a man's work follows after him after he leaves here goes on home and I build a violin I think well maybe 100 200 years from now uh somebody be playing that violin and enjoy something that I made while I was here I'm going to play the Arkansas travel on this when I get it made but you never know what you've done till you hear it sound [Music] d b [Music] [Music] [Music] boy I believe I got a good sound I believe I got a good tone in this fiddle [Music] [Music] um [Music] I put the chin rest on and try out my [Music] sounds good never know you put the bow on it [Music] though hey must F player Chinese [Music] [Applause] [Music] breakdown e [Music] [Applause] a poker out of the T hey e [Music] hey are we going to the fitting contest at fairies yeah I never have been known to miss going to FS contest and wasn't too far away boys has going to meet me up there and play with me Roy and Ken I try to win that money what you going to pay I imagine I'll play the Chinese breakdown I've always been had pretty good luck with it the chance was and probably do rain hornpipe according to how good a fidd is there some of them good Fiddlers comes up there sometime you have to change tunes right in the middle of the stream play a little different tune or something other if you happened to tie with one of them I'm I had to play a half a dozen tun I get back me fidler contest we got to get that Garden up down in shape and plant some po Garden is it too early to plant turnips yeah it's too dry too dry