Ed Haley Fiddle Fest

September 18, 2010
1628 Winchester Avenue, downtown Ashland

The 15th annual Fiddle Festival is named after the late Ed Haley, an area fiddler known throughout the country. His authentic music, played in traditional style, has influenced generations of musicians, including the late John Hartford. The festival includes:
 

FREE FIDDLE PERFORMANCE, 10:30-11:15 AM

Fiddle Contest judges will play old time Appalachian tunes in a variety of authentic styles.

ED HALEY EXHIBIT, 11:30 AM -12:30 PM

Visit with contestants, sponsors and old time music lovers while you view the exhibit of memorabilia collected by Haley family members and fans.

OLD TIME FIDDLE CONTEST, 12:30 PM - ?

There is NO entrance fee for the audience.

Entry Information

• Registration:  9:30 a.m. - 12 noon(Pre-registration not required.)
• Entry Categories:  Teen (up to age 19), Adult (age 20-64), Senior (age 65 and over)
• Entry Fee: Teen $5.00; Adult or Senior $10.00
• Tune Selection:  Contestants will play two old-time tunes of their choice. Judges will rate contestants on tone, timing, difficulty, expression and technique. Highest scores will go to contestants playing old time tunes in an appropriate old time style.  

Contest Prizes

• TEEN, Age 19 & under
  1st Place ~ $ 250  2nd Place ~ $ 125  3rd Place ~ $ 50 
• ADULTS, Age 20 - 59
  1st Place ~ $ 500  2nd Place ~ $ 250  3rd Place ~ $ 100 
• SENIOR, Age 60+
  1st Place ~ $ 500  2nd Place ~ $ 250  3rd Place ~ $ 100 
• ED HALEY CHAMPION AWARD:
  $100 prize for the contestant, any age, who best plays an Ed Haley tune (as one or both of their old time tunes in the contest.)

Winners will be announced at the end of the Senior contest.           
For more information, contact Gayle Fritz, 606-324-5366

ABOUT ED HALEY

Ed Haley was one of the best known fiddlers in this region of Appalachia. He traveled frequently and performed in a variety of venues. He seldom recorded commercially because he was worried that record companies would take advantage of a blind man. Late in life, he made recordings for the family on a Wilcox-Gay disc-cutting machine. The recordings were passed along to family members, and some were eventually released to Rounder Records.  The rest were lost or destroyed.

Ed Haley was born in August 1885 on the Trace Fork of Big Harts Creek in Logan County, WV. He was the only child of Thomas Milton Haley, a well-known fiddler in the Guyandotte and Big Sandy Valleys, and Imogene Mullins.

Ed lost his eyesight at age three after contracting measles. After his mother died around 1892, he was raised by his maternal grandfather, Jackson Mullins, and uncle Peter Mullins, who supposedly gave Ed his first fiddle.  Ed grew up to be a professional fiddler who traveled widely throughout West Virginia, Ohio, eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. He had a huge repertoire of old time music which he performed at square dances, fairs, fiddle contests and courthouse squares.

In the late teens, Ed married Martha Ella Trumbo, a blind piano teacher form Morehead, KY who played mandolin and accordion with her husband for many years. They raised a family in Catlettsburg and spent their final years in Ashland.

Ed Haley died of a heart attack on February 3, 1951 at home in Ashland.  His wife died in November 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio. Both are buried in Ashland.

Bluegrass and folk musician John Hartford began researching the story of Haley's life and music in 1990. Hartford spent the last years of his life promoting Haley’s significance in the world of music. He learned a number of Haley's tunes and recorded them on the Grammy-nominated albums, "Wild Hog in the Red Bush" and "Speed of the Old Long Bow: A Tribute to Ed Haley".  Hartford performed Haley's arrangement of "Man of Constant Sorrow" for the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  From 1995 until his death in 2001, Hartford collaborated with Brandon Kirk, a historian and genealogist, on a story about Haley. The manuscript is still unpublished.

HOW THE FESTIVAL STARTED

In 1996, members of the Ed Haley family were approached by Ashland’s newly formed Poage Landing Days Committee to help start a fiddle contest that would honor Ed Haley’s memory. Ashland resident Patricia Haley, the widow of Ed Haley’s son Lawrence Alfred Haley, supported the project not only to recognize Ed Haley but to encourage the appreciation of old-time mountain music. She was involved with the Festival until her death in 2007.  Patricia’s  sons, Stephen Haley and his wife, Ruth, of Goodlettsville, Tenn., and David Haley and his wife, Denise, of Ashland, continued the family involvement with the Festival.