North Carolina String Music Masters: Old-Time and Bluegrass Legends by Carlson Elizabeth A

Author:Carlson, Elizabeth A. [Carlson, Elizabeth A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2016-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

Doc Watson, Deep Gap, North Carolina, 1964. Photo by Dan Seeger, [Pf-20001/1905_01] in the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records, Southern Folklife Collection, the Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For the next two years, Arthel continued to build confidence. In addition to chopping wood, he helped his mother around the house and continued his learning by listening to books on tape.

He spent the rest of his free time playing music, either alone or with family and neighbors. He often played three or four hours a day. He loved to sit on the porch swing of his mountain home and play his banjo and guitar.

TWO FINGERS AND A FLAT PICK

By age sixteen, Arthel had begun busking weekends on the streets of Boone and Lenoir, sometimes with his older brother Linney. In Boone, Arthel played his guitar and banjo for tips at fruit stands, taxi stands and in front of Wilson’s Barber Shop. In Lenoir, he often played at the Hog Waller marketplace. Some of what he played were the old mountain songs he learned from older relatives and neighbors. But most of his repertoire was contemporary songs on records and radio. “Weeping Willow” by the Carter Family was an audience favorite. Arthel became known as an excellent singer and guitar picker. Between songs, he delighted listeners with good-natured jokes and folktales.

In 1940, when Arthel was seventeen, he decided it was time to upgrade his Stella guitar. A chance arose for him and David to make some money. Many diseased chestnut trees had died and fallen in the area. Arthel and David cut up many of the trees and sold the wood to a dealer in Wilkesboro. With the money he earned, Arthel bought a Silvertone guitar from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. He also bought a Nick Lucas guitar instruction book and a flat pick.

Though Arthel had been playing the guitar since thirteen, he focused on practicing special techniques on his new Silvertone. On the radio, he started listening more closely to the techniques of the Delmore Brothers and to his new favorite, Merle Travis. Listening to Travis’s guitar technique, Arthel made a discovery that inspired his own self-taught two-finger style. Using his thumb and index finger, he could play the lead, chords and melody at the same time. He felt excited that he could play “Deep River Blues” solo and make it sound like it did when the two Delmore brothers performed it on the radio.

Now that he had a pick, he changed his sound again. Arthel went back to his 78rpm records and focused on the guitar runs. Listening intently, he realized Jimmy Rodgers was playing with a flat pick. Using a pick, Arthel began to teach himself the same style. He decided he could also use a pick to make the Carter Family songs he’d been playing sound better.

All his experimenting and practicing was paying off. Arthel began winning prizes at contests and fiddlers’ conventions. Adept at using his two-finger and flat pick playing techniques, he was making a name for himself as one of the area’s best young guitar players.

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