08 Fiddlin' John - John Johnson

Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

Fiddlin' John Johnson (An 8-minute radio piece from The Home Place Series) Produced by Michael Kline, supported by the Humanities Foundation of WV (1979) John Johnson, born and raised in Clay County, was a towering figure in the circle of legendary West Virginia fiddle players. His father, recognizing the boy's talent as a five year old, invited neighboring and distant fiddlers to come stay for days, even weeks, at a time to share their old tunes with such a willing young student. School was a row boat's pull across the Elk River and a mile's walk along the railroad tracks, a sometimes thing for him. John grew up doing all the hardest kind of work along side all the hardest kind of men. With people dropping by at all hours of the night to steal him away for dances and warm him with locally made refreshment, John developed an early taste for liquor, and, as a raging alcoholic, would ramble all over the southwestern states. When strangers heard him play they would invite him home, put him up and keep him around just for the eerie tunes. But he'd get restless in a few days and ramble on, wherever the winds blew him. He picked up Texas swing licks and every kind of a style he encountered in those twisted years. He pulled a long bow with so much torque it smoked. But I never saw him break a hair. John could play any tune in any key. His music was compelling, seductive, and over powering. To see and hear him play the fiddle, you'd have thought we was a devil incarnate. And in his poetry and art he equated his instrument with ungodly sources. His music and continence offered challenges I'd never met anywhere else. When asked by a BBC film crew about the kinds of occasions that prompted him to play, John answered that he liked best to take his fiddle up on the mountain and “play it for the trees.” What follows is an 8 minute audio portrait of the man and his music. Michael Kline