Tommy Jarrell: Breaking Up Christmas (1983)

[@Jignasty5]

Tommy Jarrell finally gets an Ad. KZbin just broke my heart.

[@erstwhilerambler]

After a solid half-hour of practice I’ve still got to run it at 3/4 speed to keep up (and I’m probably only getting about 3/4 of the notes). These guys are blazing 🥵🪕🎻

[@guywolff]

There was no one like him .. Thanks for posting these ... Between him and Clarence Ashley the world is a different place ...

[@dbd1353]

no disrespect on anyone else, but to my ears, still the gold standard..30 years after his passing..

[@priser24]

Beyond fantastic.

[@AlanLomaxArchive]

@sigelman We've just posted all the tunes from the session, including the several partial numbers. Enjoy!

[@rugerfan2036]

priceless!

[@Yaddahay]

Thank you for uploading this!!

[@SueDuda]

Breaking Up Christmas has to be my favorite Tommy Jarrell tune to play on my fiddle!! Thanks for posting!!

[@kelsibwells432]

Excellent! just beautiful really starting to develop an appreciation for Appalachian folk music.. the old guy playing that violin or fiddle rather looks like he has really put some miles on that baby if you look where the Bow strikes the strings it looks like he's had it smoking a couple of times or two!!! lol lol good for him!😃😉

[@tyler0503]

It's built-up rosin

[@joeycovington4681]

So friggin' good. Stupid good.

[@trickiewoowoo]

good sippin music!

[@77Fairbanks77]

Yeah Ray Chatfield plays a sweet version on that banjer

[@josechrist3948]

Wonderful music, great musicians! Why are we killed today with rap and other trash?

[@alexhickey5633]

Back when music was music. Timing may have been off slightly, dont matter 1 bit when it sounds as warm as it does

[@ekillops22]

Luke Skywalker playing second fiddle

[@PotBelliedNinja]

But Tommy is the only one who truly knows the Force

[@bernadetteroberts1540]

totally

[@gantlax8f14]

I was about to post that.

[@stevenposch7346]

Dance to him any time.

[@WaterTowerBand]

😂😂😂😂

[@peterwhite7428]

A couple of interesting things about Tommy’s fiddling. He is ver far from the bridge where the volume comes from. He does not clean his stings which causes some sleeks. That’s part of the charm. Away from the bridge the stings are at less of an arc. Also he holds the fiddle under his chin. He stares at the bow not at his fingers

[@ZachVance108]

Is that bridge of Tommys a square lol no arch for tommy haha one of my favorites of all time.

[@brownpaul52]

The second fiddle player is Bill Cummings, not Rhys Jones. He came around visiting fairly frequently in the early 1980s.

[@sharondavisgreen5135]

I think he was referring to his resemblance to Mark Hammill, the original Luke.

[@jeffphillips5632]

NO KIDDING. MAYBE IN ETERNITY SOMEWHERE WE CAN HEAR THAT.

[@ZachVance108]

Jeff Phillips we can only hope 😁 If it’s anything like people portray it as that is gonna be one hell of a party !!!!

[@sigelman]

@AlanLomaxArchive : thanks!

[@gval900]

What ever happened to Ray Chatfield? He is good.

[@fiddlejohn9305]

RIP - he passed away in Galax in 2022 at age 82. I had the great pleasure of playing music with him here in Colorado back in the seventies and eighties. Besides being a great banjo player, he was also a skilled banjo maker, working at Ome in their early days in the sixties.

[@sigelman]

My god, Tommy is incredible -- I love how he gets the whole instrument ringing at 1:33 . Other than the Sally Ann video, are there other pieces from this session available? I'd love to see them up here.

[@maxyoungquist5603]

They knew they were filming history

[@DeadEyedTye]

Tommy's entire young life wasn't recorded of course due to where he lived but we are so lucky to have all of this footage of his late life in the 70s and 80s.

[@tradssalesone6334]

Sounds like Fire on the mountain.

[@glynrhys68]

Who's the woman in the straw hat clogging! Love her! :-D

[@stillonshine8867]

Tapping both feet at the same time.

[@lovechild89507]

Ray Chatfield rocks! Does anyone know how he's doing?

[@joehayward7608]

1:54 Luke Skywalker on the fiddle

[@commontater8630]

No it's not, you dork.

[@mikegager]

just noticed tommy had geared tuners on his violin. didnt even realize that was a thing lol

[@blanko8463]

wow ... didn't even notice ... thanks for the comment ... I've seen a few fiddles like that ... but never noticed this one ... ya know, they say there ain't no difference between a fiddle and a violin .... well ... I seen Tommy play a Strad ... and I'd say there might be a slight smokey campfire dancing difference.

[@Bamaonthetrail]

Alan who is the other boy on fiddle

[@XilePablo]

he lives n galax, va n still plays, n teaches

[@jedmarum]

Wee Haw!

[@StoredMars]

i hate sunkist

[@keyfeatures]

argh! what is the sound recordist doing?! he misses the first bit of singing, then leaves his mic pointed away from the fiddle for the rest of the tune. annoying.

[@Lonesometraveler99]

It's field recordings.

[@justforever96]

+keyfeatures He's supposed to record the surroundings as well. He's probably a college kid, and it's just a field recording, to get the idea of the song, but also the culture as well. They couldn't afford a team of cameramen for everything; they travelled all over the country. The best ones, they went back and revisited, and did official or studio recordings of. Sad, but there was no other way.

[@treystewart9812]

I can hear the tune!