I’ve written about this before. It was at my Dad’s funeral where I watched my Mom place old love letters from Dad in his coffin as we passed by for our final look at him.
It was a surreal moment because, in the later years of their marriage, theirs had become a marriage of difficulties and faded love. As I watched Mom place those old love letters by Dad’s side, my thoughts drifted to a song that came to mind at that very moment.
The song opened with a fiddle that perfectly set the tone for one of country music’s most unforgettable songs—Faded Love by Bob Wills. Since that day, whenever I hear those opening notes, my thoughts immediately return to that moment.
The fiddle is the heartbeat of country music. Like the heartbeat of a baby in the womb before birth, the fiddle was there before the birth of country music itself.
During the 1700s and 1800s, the fiddle was already part of the music that would eventually become country music. Scottish, Irish, and English immigrants brought the instrument to America, where it became central to Appalachian music, Southern string bands, barn dances, and frontier entertainment.
The fiddle was also there when country music became commercially successful in 1922, when American fiddler Eck Robertson recorded Sallie Gooden and Arkansas Traveler for Victor. Those recordings are widely regarded as the first commercial recordings of traditional country instrumental music.
One hundred years later, today’s mainstream country music seldom includes the fiddle. Take the fiddle out of country music, and you may still have music—but you no longer have the heart of country.
This piece is not about criticizing today’s mostly mislabeled mainstream country music. I’ve done enough of that in earlier writings and, no doubt, there will be more to come. This Essie Country Note is about honoring one of country music’s greatest and most historic icons—the fiddle.
If the fiddle truly is the heart of country music, then the video below is one heartbeat every country music fan should hear.
The opening fiddle in Faded Love has taken me back to that moment for many years. But if there is one recording that celebrates the allure and delight of the fiddle, it is Roy Clark’s entertaining version of Orange Blossom Special. Enjoy:
Gene Johns
Founder, Essie Country
Essie Country: Home of 21st Century Real Country Music 