A Feast of Piping, Old-Time Fiddling & New Podcast 'Irish Music Memories'

Seamus Ennis

I recently received a gift of a collection of 10 cassette tapes, mainly of piping music, from my good friend Tom Wilsbach of Maine. Tom is a piper and music collector who, in 1978, completed a degree in musicology at the University of Maryland entitled Never was Piping so Gay: Uilleann Piping in the United States. Tom shared his very interesting thesis with me which is now in the library of NPU in Dublin. 
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The first tape I have digitized is a concert given by Seamus Ennis at the Tradition Club, located upstairs in Slattery’s Bar, Caple Street Dublin in 1972. Performances were held every Wednesday night at this club, which was run by Tony Crehan & Sean Corcoran (members of the folk group The Press Gang), Kevin Conneff (of The Chieftans) and singer & songwriter Finbar Boyle. When I shared my recording recently with Ronan Browne, he immediately recognized it and said he also had a copy of the same event. When we compared files, we found I had just half of the concert while Ronan had the entire event and he very kindly sent me the missing tracks. 

Seamus Ennis in Sandycove (photo by Anne Browne, 1977)

Listen to the recording

​​In a telephone call I had with Tom Wilsbach to thank him for his kind gift, he mentioned an old-time fiddler from Maine named Mellie Dunham, whose story fascinated me. Tom subsequently sent me a copy of Mellie’s recordings, and I have added the following photographs, biographical information and video link to give you some insight into early old-time fiddling in America which I hope you will enjoy.

Mellie Dunham

Mellie Dunham, son of Alanson Mellen Dunham and Mary Denison, was born on a small farm in Crockett Ridge, outside Norway, Maine on 29th July 1853. He was exceptionally good at woodwork and, at the age of 13, he fully restored an old broken fiddle to good working order. Later, he designed a more efficient snowshoe which the famous Robert Peary used on his expeditions to the North Pole. Mellie played the fiddle from his early teenage years at various house parties and at dances held in the Heywood Club in Norway. In 1875 he married a local woman named Emma Richardson, known as “Gram” and their daughter, Ethna Pearl, was born in 1878. Pearl married Nathan Noble in 1897. With his ever-increasing fiddle playing demand, Mellie formed an orchestra consisting of his daughter Pearl on piano and organ, her husband Nathan Noble on bass and cello joining Mellie on fiddle. By 1920, Pearl and Nathan’s daughter, Cherry, replaced her mother playing piano in the orchestra and when they went on the make recordings in 1926, Nathan was the caller of the orchestra. 
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In 1925, Mellie was the winner of a fiddle competition held in Lewiston, Maine, earning him the title of Maine’s Champion Fiddler. At this time in America, Henry Ford was very active in promoting old-time fiddling to revive and preserve the traditional music and dance of his youth by holding concerts and old-time fiddling competitions in Dearborn Michigan. After his Lewiston win, Mellie and Gram were invited to Dearborn where they spent a few days with Henry Ford, playing music with the Ford orchestra, which was reported widely in the Boston and New York newspapers. This rise in fame and popularity earned Mellie (and Gram) a $500-a-week contract for a vaudeville tour on the Keith-Albee circuit, beginning in Boston on 22nd December 1925. They played in cities throughout America, the tour ending in Portland, Maine on 17th May 1926. Earlier that year in New York, Mellie and his orchestra recorded 8 sides for the Victor label, which were to be Mellie’s only recordings.

After the Keith-Albee tour, Mellie and Gram returned home to a civic reception in Norway. All schools were closed that day and the entire town turned out to welcome home their famous citizens. At their house, they found a large fiddle erected over the doorway and a similar size bow leaning against the door. This gift was made by their friends Vivien Akers, Fred Cummings, Ralph Haskell and Henry Cullinan. Mellie continued to travel and play, now commanding $100 a night up to 1930. Tragedy struck that year when their house burned down following a chimney fire and the only personal possessions, they managed to save were Mellie’s two fiddles. Although the neighbors rallied and had a new home constructed in a matter of weeks, Mellie never really recovered. He suffered from failing health throughout 1931 which eventually led to his death on 27th October. Gram, now heartbroken at the loss of her husband and original home, died on 31st October 1933.

Mellie Dunham, 1925

Mellie & Henry Ford

Mellie's Orchestra(l to r) Gram ( Mellie's wife), Nathan Noble, Cherry Noble & Mellie

Mellie Dunham’s recordings
(Tune notes and digitization by David Sanderson. Private CD courtesy of Tom Wilsbach)

Mellie recorded eight sides for Victor in New York in January and February 1926 and these were his only commercial recordings. He was accompanied on these recordings by his orchestra members Nathan Noble, his son-in-law, and Nathan’s daughter Cherry. Mellie’s wife, Gram, was not a musician but she performed in the vaudeville act and travelled with the orchestra when it played. They recorded a group of contra dances that were standard in Maine from an earlier period, with Nathan calling; “Rippling Waves”, a waltz composed by Mellie and two medleys of Mellie’s standard tunes, both titled on the records “Medley of Reels” although one is a group of jigs.

Mellie and family

​Old-time Fiddle Competitions

Fiddle competitions first appeared in the U.S. in November of 1736. According to The Thistle and the Brier: Historical Links and Cultural Parallels Between Scotland & Appalachia, p.73, by Richard Blaustein (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003) “The first recorded fiddle contest was held as part of a St. Andrew’s Day celebration in Hanover County, Virginia.” The best fiddler was to win an Italian-made Cremona fiddle. The next year only the first twenty fiddlers to sign up were allowed to play. In Texas some contests were running for as long as eight days. The Atlanta Fiddlers’ Convention was begun in 1913 and became an annual contest. As noted earlier, Henry Ford was greatly interested in old-time fiddling. He sponsored fiddle contests at Ford dealerships in hundreds of communities across the country. His promotion of fiddling helped contribute to its growing popularity on the radio.

Following the success of the Lewiston competition in Maine in 1925, the organizers decided to hold a bigger competition the following year. It was open to local, national and overseas fiddle players to claim the prize of $1,000, a Gold Cup and title of World Champion Fiddler. It was held in April 1926 in Lewiston, Maine and two of the overseas contestants were John Wiseman, age 76, from Bantry Co. Cork and James Scott Skinner, age 83, from Aberdeen, Scotland. Mellie Dunham was among the local fiddlers competing. An article in the Miami News of Florida on 4th April by M.E. Hennessey, beautifully describes the excitement of the build-up to the contest (Fiddle Contest in Maine, April 3, 1926 - Newspapers.com™). When it was Scott Skinner’s turn to compete at the event, he was told he could not play a Strathspey (only Reels & Jigs were allowed), which made him very unhappy (he was known as King of the Strathspey). When he began to play, the piano accompaniment was not at all to his liking. He stopped playing, asked if he could continue playing solo and when permission was refused, “the ‘King’ lost his temper, brought his performance to an abrupt stop, and bowing to his mystified audience, marched off the platform. He thereby lost the championship but maintained his self-respect. ‘A kind and hospitable people are the Americans, and I shall never forget the great time they gave me over there’. He went on to visit and play in several cities including Portsmouth, Holyoak, Fitsburg and Pantucket before he returned home to Scotland from Boston.” (People’s Journal, May 29th, 1926)

Wiseman and Skinner, on board the liner to America

The eventual winner of the competition was 67-year-old John Claffey of Boston, a professional musician who played for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
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To give you an idea of what these fiddle contests looked like in the olden days, click on the link below to see a short film of the 1926 Michigan State Fiddle Contest. The famous classical violinist Mischa Ellman attended this event and presented the trophy to the eventual winner, “Jep” Bisbee, a fiddle maker and player from Paris, Michigan. 
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Michigan Fiddle Contest Champ Named (courtesy of King Rose Archives)

​New Podcast – Irish Music Memories

Finally, I wish to announce the launch of a new podcast in which I will share interviews with musicians, broadcasters, researchers and storytellers who have shaped the traditional Irish music scene in Ireland and beyond. The podcast is entitled Irish Music Memories and will be available from your favourite podcast app.

Listen & subscribe here