My Most Famous Relative Inducted!

My most famous relative, Byron Berline, was inducted into the National Fiddler's Hall of Fame, in Tulsa, OK last month!

This morning I found myself, for no special reason, singing John Denver's song "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," and I started wondering if what I'd always heard was true: that Byron played the fiddle on that album. (No, it was a later one: Windsong.) So I get on Google and spend several hours re-acquainting myself with the Oklahoma "cousin" I first met as a starry-eyed 12-year-old. I was so proud when I read that he'd been inducted into the Fiddler's Hall of Fame last month!

It's going to take several days to tell about this remarkable musician. So I'll start here with the early years.  

I have a wonderful photo of him playing on-stage with Crary & Hickman at a bluegrass festival in Kansas in the 70s, but who knows where it is? So here's a promo photo from the Double Stop Fiddle Shop website, which I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing.

To peak your interest, I'll show you Byron today, in his fiddle shop in Guthrie Oklahoma. (I tried and tried to imbed the video here, but I'm no computer wizard --- it didn't work. So here's a link to click on.)

http://youtu.be/ypP6fY3QyYU

Byron grew up in a musical family, which is why he started playing fiddle at age 5. His father, Lew (a great old-time fiddler in his own right) was my grandma's first cousin who lived in Oklahoma. His mother, Elizabeth, played piano, and two brothers and two sisters also made music.

When I met him, he was 19 and had already recorded an album with the Dillards. I was a gawky 12-year-old, sitting with other cousins on my aunt's living room floor, listening to the old folks jamming.

Here's how the story went down. Not that I remember that much. I was 12 that year. I'd never heard of blue-grass music; I was only just then hearing about the Beatles. Some out-of-town kin had dropped by, on their way to an out-of-town place... because their boy had been invited to play somewhere... because he was a really good fiddle player... because he'd learned from his daddy when he was only five... 

At first I was disappointed when they walked in. We were supposed to be meeting a new cousin, and here he was, a full-grown man of 19 or 20.

My aunt and uncle had a party at their farmhouse for the Berlines. There was good food, and I got to play with my local cousin's dolls, and there was music. We young cousins (at least five of us) sat for awhile on the floor in the living room and watched the grown-ups playing music. We'd get bored and scamper off to play, but I kept coming back, because I couldn't get enough of checking out the only young man in the room, who was sure fiddling up a storm.

I later saw Byron play at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas and at a club in Champaign, Illinois, both  sometime in the 70s.

(to be continued, tomorrow or sometime in the near future)