David Killingsworth

Picker of the Month Mr. David Killingsworth Fiddler Extraordinaire I wanted to rekindle a column that Marilyn started and hopefully try to continue this each month. I really like the concept of highlighting one of our Plectral Pickers, hearing their stories, their background in oldtime music. We have a lot of very talented oldtime musicians within the Plectral Society with some very interesting stories to tell, and the one I'd like to start with is mine and everybody's favorite fiddler - Mr. David Killingsworth. David's been fiddlin' for a long, long time. He's one of the most sought after fiddlers in our area, but did you ever wonder how does someone get that good? Well, here's David's story - one I know you will enjoy:

My early musical influences were my mother, Louise Killingsworth, and my aunt, Shelby Jean Fisher, who played gospel and old-time music on the piano. I also had a great-uncle, Miley Higgins, who played the fiddle at our annual family Christmas gatherings when I was a small child. I only heard him at Christmas because he lived so far away, in Fayetteville, Tennessee. One of my great grandfathers, Calvin Higgins, was a fiddle player as well but I have no memory of hearing him play. Each Saturday night I would listen to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM until falling asleep.

I can remember hearing Flatt and Scruggs, the Louvin Brothers, The Crook Brothers, and the Fruit Jar Drinkers. After we got a television, I got to see what Flatt and Scruggs really looked like! I also loved the Lawrence Welk Show, which came on Channel 7 each Saturday night. I was fascinated by the accordion and horn playing, especially. At that time, I made no differentiation between types of music. If music was tasteful and well played, then it was all just good music, as far as I was concerned. In 1965, I decided I wanted to get my own instrument, so I told my parents I wanted......a bugle.

This met with a less-than-enthusiastic reception, so I said "OK, I'd like a set of bagpipes instead." (I loved the sounds of the bagpipes and drums on the old Shirley Temple and Laurel and Hardy movies.) Mama said, "First, I am going to order you a guitar, and you can see how you do with that, Then, we will see about the bagpipes or something else." So my first musical instrument was a $24.95 guitar.

A man named Ocie Humphrey lived near us. He had been the champion fiddle player in my area in the 1920s and 30s, and I figured he could show me how to tune the guitar. So I took it to him and he sat in his wheelchair and tuned it for me. I noticed this little guitar-looking thing sitting on the bed, with a round, yellow-and- brown striped back on it. He said, "That's my mandolin," and he picked it up and started strumming it, and that was the most beautiful musical sound I had ever heard. I can still remember the rippling, chiming tone and how it stirred me, to this day. I took the guitar back home and started practicing it, but I was ruined.

The mandolin was in my head and heart, and I got myself one as soon as I could. I went frequently to Mr. Humphrey's home to pick with him and began learning the old tunes. He usually played the fiddle and I would accompany him on the mandolin or guitar. He was in failing health and passed away in 1967, and I acquired his fiddle soon afterward and started playing it. I still have it. My mother and aunt started playing the mandolin and guitar at this time, so we had our own little family string band. I usually played fiddle by this time.

Other musicians I played with as I progressed were Con Crotts (Father of Mississippi TV personality Kay Bain,) Dixie Donnell from Shiloh Park, and George E. Knight, a fiddler and also one of the first 3-finger banjo players in out area. George E. gave banjo lessons to Tom Murray, who gave banjo lessons to Billy Joe Autry, who gave banjo lessons to Kurt Stephenson. I learned many old tumes from these men, some of which dated back to the Civil War and before. Wayne Jerrolds also became a musical and personal friend at this time. Most of my "pocket" money in my teenage years was made from playing at square dances with Earnest Whitten.

My Dad drove me to my first square dance in 1967, and neither of us really knew what to expect. Dances of any kind conjured up evil images in the minds of most of the churchgoing Christian womenfolk in my area, but my mother was willing to look the other way while I gave it a try. I remember Daddy saying, "Now son, tonight you're going to see what the other side of life looks like."

Then when we got there, all we found were people of all ages, from babies to old folks, just listening to the music, visiting, dancing and having a good time. (Not even a faint odor of brimstone.) At the square dances, I usually played either guitar or banjo, while Earnest played the fiddle. As the money came in, I started buying records and became familiar with the music of Bill Monroe, who started having an influence on my mandolin playing.

I never tried or wanted to play professionally, but did play banjo one time on the WSM Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree in 1973, and have played mandolin a couple of times at the Station Inn in Nashville with the Wayne Lewis band. I have also played fiddle in a few shows with Ramona Jones, and bass fiddle with Kenny Baker and Josh Graves.

I did play on the same stage with Bill Monroe one time, in 1990 in Savannah, Tennessee. I had played fiddle with another band that night and, as was Monroe's custom, he had all the musicians to appear together on stage with him to play the final "number," as he called it. We played the "Soldier's Joy" and after the show was over, he walked up and stuck his hand out without saying a word, and I shook it. Of course, that was a memorable moment. So, old-time music has been a part of my life almost from the beginning. It was actually something I grew up with, rather than something I made a conscious choice to get into. I never wanted to get really serious with it, but it has been a rewarding pastime. Life is not easy for anyone, especially in these times, but if my music has made the load seem a little lighter and the way seem a little better for someone, then it has all been worthwhile.