Crooked Road CD Series [Back]

Eddie Bond: Take Me Back

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Eddie also grew up in a musical milieu of younger players who have local
legendary players as their heroes.  These include Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Benton Flippen, Ernest East, Rafe Brady, Otis Burris, and Kyle Creed, among others.

Eddie’s musical world is expanding; he has recently performed at the National Folk Festival, the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife, in a concert for the Queen of England, and on tours to distant places. But he has no wish to become a professional, and adores his job and his co-workers who make Pepsi in Wytheville.

While there is no bluegrass on this recording, Eddie once performed in a bluegrass band.  This was in Iraq during the Desert Storm war.  Eddie was then a member of the 82nd Airborne Infantry, and occasionally treated his unit to some mountain fiddling.  His skills attracted attention, and General James H. Johnson, who was organizing what he called “The All-America Bluegrass Band”, sent for Eddie.

In this band he met Jim Greer, a bluegrass banjoist also recruited for this group organized to entertain troops and make a film.  They’d played together for a few days before Eddie rolled out a Grayson County version of “Cackling Hen.”

“Where on earth did you learn that?” Greer asked.  Eddie said he’d learned it from the late Albert Hash, founder and fiddler of the old-time group, the Whitetop Mountain Band. Greer knew the tune because he is from the Whitetop – Mt. Rogers area, Virginia’s highest mountains, and had been well acquainted with Hash. So from among the tens of thousands of troops in Iraq, General Johnson had found two musicians from opposite sides of Grayson County.
Yes, this is the same Virginia county that famed 30s, 40s and 50s collector Alan Lomax called, “America’s richest breeding ground for traditional musicians.”

It is still productive, and the swarms of kid players now part of the older fiddler’s conventions delight Eddie.

He loves a cappella singing almost as much as string band music, and here you will hear him with a family and friends group delving into a song from the Church of Christ tradition.

But mostly you will hear him with dear friends who sometimes come to visit Grandma Widner’s house in Fries to share music with its current residents.  You will hear some echoes of the past reaching toward the future, held aloft with energy and power.  Success is happiness, and Eddie and his family are very happy in Granny Widner’s house.
-Joe Wilson

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