Don & Marji Richard

It gives me great pleasure to introduce our Picker of the Month - or I should say Pickers of the Month, for you can't mention one in the same breath without the other. I have had the good fortune of knowing and playing with this most gracious couple over the past 20-something years on many occasions. Whether it be in the Ozarks, on the porch of the Wildflower Inn, or at the Community Center at Gravel Hill, or the festival at Eastview (oh how I wish they would bring that back), in their gracious home, or simply the parking lot of the Old Country Store - you'll not find a more gracious and more enthusiastic couple of oldtime musicians. I've been playing with them so long they're just like family, and they are part of my musical family. Anyway, it is an honor and a priviledge for me to present our December Picker's of the Month - Mr. Don and Ms. Marjorie Richard. Congratulations Don & Marji'. You truly deserve it.

When and how did you first become interested in oldtime music?

(Marjorie) With just a few lapses now and then, this music has always been part of my life. My dad, mom, grandfather, and two of dad’s cousins had a string band in the mid-1930’s and played occasionally for local events. During my childhood Dad had a home recording machine that brought almost every old-time string band in the area to our living room. There was always music in our home. It’s a great legacy that my parents left me.

(Don) I started going to square dances at the Lion’s Club in Corinth, Ms. when I was about 14 and I’ve always loved the music. I would occasionally go to Marjorie’s house when they had musical groups there, (We lived about a mile apart.) I did not play an instrument at that time. I was on one of my Air Force assignments to Vietnam when I bought a banjo for $25 in the Philippine's, when I was about 28 years old. Just about drove Marjorie crazy trying to learn how to play the darn thing!

How long have you been playing oldtime music?

(Marjorie) As a little kid, while my hands were still too small for a guitar, Dad gave me a ukulele and taught me the chords in the keys of “C” and “G”, and I played along with the rest of them when I could.

(Don) When people ask me that question I usually say about 40 years. Sometimes their response is: “ You must be pretty good,” and my reply is “No, I just play badly with more confidence.”

What are your musical influences?

(Marjorie) Besides my dad, who played the fiddle and guitar, and my mom who played the mandolin, my greatest influence was Dad’s sister, my Aunt Eunice Smith, who played piano with area square dance bands. She could play the fiddle tunes note for note on the piano. She and I sang together a lot just for fun, and she taught me how to sing harmony.

(Don) Eunice Smith was playing the piano at all those square dances I went to in Corinth and also Bolivar, and certainly Marjorie’s folks were very encouraging. Her dad allowed me to “play” along when I couldn’t tell one chord from another. Certainly our association with the Jackson Area Plectral Society has been a major influence over the past twenty-plus years.

Does anyone in your family play music?

(Marjorie) No one still living except my cousin, James Smith, of Huntsville, Alabama. He plays autoharp and sings the old-time songs. Our daughter learned the flute, and sang alto in our church youth choir as a teenager, but doesn’t sing or play an instrument of any kind now.

(Don) I was one of ten children in my family and brother Steve is the only other member of my immediate family that plays an instrument. I had a great uncle, Rob Moore, that played the banjo in the early 1900s and I have his restored banjo.

What kinds of times and places have you played music in your life?

(Marjorie) As a teenager I occasionally sang on WCMA in Corinth, Mississippi on their live Saturday morning music programs, usually with Arnold English’s band. Don was career Air Force, and when we came home on leave we’d play with a group that gathered weekly at the store in Eastview. Don’s brother Steve was usually part of that group, and a young banjo player named David Killingsworth. (yes, “banjo”!)

Don was stationed at the Air Force Academy 1969-73, and a group of us got together at someone’s house about once a month. Quite a mixture—faculty, staff, cadets, playing everything from banjo to piano to trumpet—but we had fun with it. Mostly old-time and country.

(Don) I could not come up with a list! We often put our banjo and autoharp or dulcimer in the car when we travel, and we’ve played at an old country store in Floyd, Virginia, the porches and the barns in Cades Cove in the Smokies, on a hotel balcony overlooking a mountain stream in Gatlinburg, in an old log church at Shiloh, and many times in Mountain View, Arkansas. we are usually the last to leave the grounds at Athens State College every October and at numerous jam sessions at festivals all over the country. We enjoy playing with our brother Steve at family gatherings.

What else do you do besides play music?

(Marjorie) Our church is important to us. Don has taught a Sunday School class of adults for at least fifteen years. He’s also a trustee and I’ve been assigned to a committee position beginning in January. We’ve sung in the choir since joining First Baptist in 1984, and right now the Living Christmas Tree is our focus—16 songs to memorize! We follow the Union University basketball and golf teams, and Don’s the scorekeeper for home basketball games. We’re avid golfers (though we’re not very good), and we like to travel. We’ve put 26,000 miles on our minivan since April of this year.

What makes this kind of music "good" to you?

(Marjorie) Keeps me in touch with my roots, my heritage—it’s the kind of music my father and grandfather played, and it reminds me of family and my Tennessee home wherever I am, whenever I hear it. It’s easy to listen to.

(Don) Certainly the whole spectrum of people that just get together and have fun with this music is a great attraction to me. It draws people from all walks of life.

Why did you choose to play this kind of music?

(Both) It’s the kind of music we like best, and most of it is simple enough that it’s fairly easy to learn. Also, we like the kind of folks who play old-time music—just good, down-to-earth, friendly people who accept you and encourage you and help you learn.