Fiddlin 'Sam Long

"Fiddlin '" Sam Long (born October 22, 1876 in Scranton , Kansas , as Samuel William Long ; † May 6, 1931 in Kansas) was an American old-time musician .

Life

Life before career

Long was born in Kansas in 1876. His father William B. Long, whose ancestors came from Pennsylvania , was himself a fiddler, but forbade his son to play the fiddle. With the help of his mother, Long practiced secretly and soon mastered the instrument. The family moved to Burns, Kansas, near Wichita, when Long was nine years old, and by the 1890s Long lived in California as a young man , where he had performed as a fiddler on various occasions.

He then lived in Jasper County , Missouri , where he worked in the mines. Because of the unhealthy work in the mines, he quickly developed lung problems and worked as a farmer for a short time, but returned shortly afterwards to the mines. In 1904, Long married Bertha Eudora Rickman, with whom he lived in Jasper County for eight years and had four children. In 1912, after his attempt as a farmer failed, Long and his family moved to Commerce , Oklahoma , where he made his living as a miner again.

Career

Long also repaired instruments and performed on square dances himself . In these dances he was either accompanied by a pianist or a guitarist and also showed his talent as a dancer. In 1926 Long took part in a large-scale fiddle contest in Joplin , Missouri, which had previously been extensively promoted in advance and in which 88 fiddlers ultimately took part. Long won the competition and received first prize an opportunity to travel to New Castle , Pennsylvania, to record for Gennett Records .

Long held his first recording session in New Castle in January or February 1926, which produced two singles. Long was the first old-time musician from the Ozarks to be immortalized on record. In addition, his version of the piece Seneca Square Dance served as a model for many other Fiddlers to come to learn the song directly or indirectly from his record. However, the Gennett Record Company records indicate the location of the recording in Richmond , Indiana , where the Gennett studio and the company's headquarters were. Long was accompanied in the studio by a guitarist named Ray Kastner, who appears in the records as "Roy Kastner".

Long's records were released under the name "Fiddlin 'Sam Long of the Ozarks" and found acceptance in large parts of the country. His recordings sold very well, especially in his homeland but also in the whole of the Midwest. Even so, no second session was organized for Gennett, so that the six pieces recorded remained Long's only recordings. In 1928 he won the Joplin Fiddle Contest again and prevailed against 76 other musicians. Due to his lung problems, he had to give up his work in the mines and was forced to travel to milder areas such as Texas or Arizona . He later settled with an uncle in Kansas, where he died in 1931 at the age of 54.

Discography

Tracks have also been released under the pseudonyms "Uncle Jim Hawkins" and "Fiddlin 'Dave Neal" on Champion Records , Challenge Records and Buddy Records.

year	title	#
Gennett Records
1926	Listen to the Mockingbird / Sandy Land	3255
1926	Seneca Square Dance / Echoes of the Ozarks	3284
Unpublished titles
1926	The Rights of Man Stoney Point and Mule Skinner's Delight	Gennett

literature

• WK McNeil: In Search of Fiddlin 'Sam Long ; published in: Country Music Annual (2000), University of Kentucky Press
• Drew Beisswenger, Gordon McCann: Ozarks Fiddle Music (2008), pp. 88-89; Mel Bay Publications, ISBN 0786677309
• Tony Russell: Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 (2004), p. 512; Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195139895