EDDEN HAMMONS VOLUME 1

by Danny Williams

Music in the Air Somewhere, the seventh addition to the West Virginia University Sound Archive Series, is about two subjects that many West Virginians hold dear: fiddle music and folk traditions. It is also a look into the broad influences that folk music has on fiddlers' compositions and techniques, and on the diversity of music traditions in the Mountain State. Included with this survey of Appalachian fiddle traditions is a CD of Marshall's field and archival recordings of West Virginia musicians Warren Cronin, Rita Emerson, Lela Gerkins, Leland Hall, Phyllis Marks, Lester and Linda McCumbers, Woody and William Simmons, Melvin Wine, and the Sandy Valley Boys. Through oral histories and interviews that reveal problems arising from ethnicity, class, and gender, Marshall investigates how instrumental and vocal music has fused, merged, and transformed. A celebrated fiddle player with a graduate degree in ethnomusicology, Canadian-born Erynn Marshall is a regular performer and fiddle instructor at prominent Canadian and U.S. festivals and music camps including the Augusta Heritage Festival (West Virginia) and the Calgary Folk Festival (Alberta).

Audio CD

First published January 1, 1999