Hiram Stamper

Hiram Stamper (* 16th March 1893 in Knott County , Kentucky ; † 16th January 1992 ) was an American Old-Time - Fiddler . Stamper made no commercial recordings throughout his life, but was recorded several times by folklorists and music researchers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Life

Hiram Stamper came from Knott County, which is in the far east of Kentucky near the Virginia border. He was born in 1893 to Marion Stamper (1856–1953) and Martha Ann Stewart (1864–1929). Stamper served as a soldier in World War I between 1914 and 1918 and married Martha Kelly in 1924. His uncle Daniel Triplett, Shade Slone, a civil war veteran from the Pippa Passes area in Knott County, as well as "Black" Hiram Legley and Si Terry had musical influences on Stamper.

Stamper is best known for his special style of playing within old-time music. Even today bands such as the Black Twig Pickers refer to him. Stamper played a fiddle style typical of this region of Kentucky. There the fiddle was used as a solo instrument until the beginning of the 20th century and was only played together with guitar and banjo later, for example in West Virginia . In addition, his instrument was tuned lower than the usual standard tuning and the bridge of his fiddle was built lower so that he could play two to three strings simultaneously. This resulted in a fuller sound.

Stamper was recorded for the first time in 1977. Most of the recordings were made by Bruce Greene, who tracked down numerous musicians in Kentucky and recorded their pieces on tape. 1986 Stamper was visited again by Bob Butler, who recorded some of his pieces again. In contrast to many other contemporaries, he hardly played songs that he knew from records or the radio. Stamper's repertoire therefore included classics such as Sally Goodin ' , Cumberland Gap , Sourwood Mountain or Roll On John, which was further developed into Roll On Buddy , especially in bluegrass . There were also lesser-known songs among the recordings, including Brushy Fork of John's Creek , which Stamper learned from Shade Slone. Slone and several other Fiddlers claimed the piece was made during the so-called Morgan's Raid in 1863 , when General John Hunt Morgan's soldiers camped on John's Creek in Pike County. The piece was also found in the repertoire of other old-time musicians from eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.

Hiram Stamper died in 1992 at the age of 98. Stamper's son Art Stamper became a sought-after bluegrass fiddler and played for Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers , among others . Stamper's recordings are now in the possession of Berea College as part of the Hutchins Library .

Web links

• Hiram Stamper on the Berea College site

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kentucky Old-Time Fiddlers: Hiram Stamper. Retrieved November 27, 2015.