The Kitchen Musician ~ November 2021

Hello friends,

While avoiding some work to close up my New Hampshire cabin for the winter, I enjoyed playing an old folk song that I have been singing for forty five years yet never recorded. Join me at the wood stove as I sing “Blind Fiddler” and remember Jehile Kirkhuff, the blind fiddler whom I met at the same time I learned this song.


Index

  NEWS:
  THIS MONTH’S MUSIC: “Blind Fiddler”
  UPCOMING SHOWS
  FEATURED NON-PROFIT: Voter Protection Corps


Tom at The Virginia Thurston Healing Garden
Photo: Simon Bunyard


News:

My song “In the Space Between Your Words” was named a finalist in the 2021 Maine Songwriters Association song contest. Congratulations to the top three songwriters: Oliver Rhodes, Andrea Goldman Cole and Ric Allendorf.

I am not accepting any indoor gigs until we make greater progress controlling COVID; however I am having a lot of fun expanding my music community via virtual events. In particular, I frequently appear virtually in the UK, featuring at folk clubs throughout England and Scotland. Regardless of where you are geographically, if you would be interested in hosting a virtual house concert for yourself and friends, please contact me. I can take care of all of the technical aspects, and if you like, I can invite a music friend or two to add to the fun!


This Month’s Music: “Blind Fiddler”


“Blind Fiddler”, Traditional
Lyrics in the comments below.

Recently, while participating in a song swap in England (virtually), my fellow musicians asked me to sing a traditional American folksong. I sang “Blind Fiddler”, which I learned from an old Jody Stecher recording in 1974. The song dates back to the mid 1800’s and we now know it thanks to Mrs. Emma Dusenberry. According to the great English singer Eliza Carthy, Ms. Dusenberry “sold it in return for a cow”. My new English friends hadn’t heard the song before and asked if I would share a recording. So for them (and you), here is an informal video of me singing in front of the stove in my New Hampshire cabin.

Jehile Kirkhuff

At about the same time I first heard “Blind Fiddler,” I was visiting my parents in Northeastern Pennsylvania. That’s when my friend Edith (Doughty) Barnard introduced me to the locally famous blind fiddler, Jehile Kirkhuff. Jehile made a huge impression on me. Of course, I greatly admired his skill on the fiddle and his monumentally huge repertoire of traditional tunes (recordings of which are now housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC). In 1954 Jehile earned the title “World Champion Fiddler” by winning a prestigious fiddle competition that I think took place in Texas.

After a couple of visits, Jehile invited me to accompany him on guitar in a small concert at the local grange hall – a highlight of my early days as a musician. But my greatest memories of Jehile were sitting in his living room and just talking. Jehile was quick to insert poems or phrases from Shakespeare into everyday conversation. He was bursting with folksy wisdom and authenticity, and I was thirsty for what Jehile was pouring.

Back in 2013 I wrote “Fiddleosophy”, a song to honor Jehile’s memory and the impact that his folksy wisdom had on this impressionable twenty-something. It seems appropriate to share it again this month.


“Fiddleosophy (The Pennsylvania Fiddler)”
Lyrics: © 2013 Tom Smith
Tune: “Off to California (Hornpipe), Traditional

Lyrics in the comments below.

Steady on my friends!

“A man could do much worse than to spend his whole life long
Discovering his voice and giving it to song”

Tom

(If so inclined, I invite you to leave a comment by scrolling to the end of this page.)


Featured Non-profit

Voter Protection Corps

Last month I had the great pleasure to join some of my folk heroes Tom Chapin, Reggie Harris and others in a virtual concert to support Voter Protection Corps, hosted by Musicians for the Greater Good.

From the Voter Protection Corps web site:
Restrictive voting laws. Unfair or inadequately resourced voting procedures and infrastructure. Circulation of misinformation and intimidation. Whether transparent, insidious, or unintentional, these widespread and multifaceted problems materially interfere with the right to vote. Solving them requires expert legal, political, or other strategic interventions, and a well-coordinated plan of action.” […] Our mission is to ensure that all eligible voters can register, vote, and have their votes counted.

Please join me in supporting Voter Protection Corps.

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6 Comments
  • Tom
    November 9, 2021

    Blind Fiddler
    Traditional

    I lost my eyes in a blacksmith’s shop in the year of 56
    While dusting out a T flange that was out of fix
    It bounded from my tongs and there revealed my doom
    I am a blind fiddler and far from my home

    I went to San Francisco, I went to Dr. Lane
    He operated on one of my eyes but nothing could he gain
    He said I’d never see again, and it’s no use to mourn
    I am a blind fiddler and far from my home

    I have a wife and three little children, they depend on me
    They share in all my troubles, whatever they may be
    I hope they are contented while I’m compelled to roam
    I am a blind fiddler and far from my home

  • Tom
    November 9, 2021

    Fiddleosophy (Pennsylvania Fiddler)
    Lyrics: © 2013 Tom Smith (ASCAP),
    Music: “Off to California (Hornpipe)”, Traditional

    I come from Pennsylvania with a fiddle under chin
    They tell me its the devil’s bow I draw across its strings
    It can cast a spell upon you, put a dance within your feet
    There is nothing like a fiddle that can get you off your seat.

    Some would say its a kind of an imprisonment
    When you give yourself up to an instrument
    But nobody can hate while fiddling a tune
    And when a body’s dancing it can not shoot a gun

    ——

    This is not about the fiddle, this is not about the dance
    It’s not about what you should do to have this world make sense
    This is not a lecture that will tell you right from wrong
    I sing not to give answers but because I have a song *

    I know that I don’t have all the answers
    But this world could mend if inherited by dancers
    And a man could do much worse than to spend his whole life long
    Discovering his voice and giving it to song

    * Maya Angelou
    “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

  • Mickey Levine
    November 9, 2021

    Wow – that brings back memories – I know we performed that song on many of an occasion. I played along with the recording – but I think I was on mandolin when we would perform it. Thanks for bringing the memories and smiles back.

    • Tom
      November 9, 2021

      Yes, this one was a staple in our duo days. Fun to think of you playing along on that new guitar. Great to hear from you Mickey.

  • Seth Connelly
    November 12, 2021

    two beautiful songs well delivered! To hear you reminds me of the first time you walked into the Sit’n Bull Pub open mic, and poured your honeyed songs over us all as an “add on” at the end of the night. A Wonderful memory in my life, and the start of a long term friendship. Great way to start my day <3

    • Tom
      November 12, 2021

      I consider that meeting at the Sit ‘n Bull to be one of the luckiest days of my life, Seth. And also grateful for what is yet to come.