Fiddle | John Harrod | Beginning/Intermediate | Period 3 | Week 3 (July 20-24, 2026)
The best thing anyone ever said to me about fiddling was Darley Fulks saying, “A tune is a feeling.” Darley was the quintessential old style Kentucky fiddler, full of tunes from before the Civil War and full of wisdom about what it all meant. That remark, delivered as he was tapping my knee with the tip of his bow, has stuck with me as the essence of what we are doing and why it’s important. A fiddle tune doesn’t have to be difficult to embody a deep feeling. In this early intermediate class, we will explore this idea with a number of easily accessible tunes from Kentucky and West Virginia.
About the Instructor
John Harrod has documented, recorded, and performed traditional music for more than 45 years. Born and raised in Shelby County, Kentucky, he has a B.A. from Centre College (1967) and an M.A. from Oxford University (1969) which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Recently retired, he taught history and English at Owen County High School and Frankfort High School. In the 1970s and ’80s, he played with a number of bands including the Progress Red Hot String Band, the Bill Livers String Ensemble, and the Gray Eagle Band that re-introduced traditional musicians such as Bill Livers and Lily May Ledford to Kentucky audiences. John’s field recordings are housed at both Berea College and the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead. He has taught fiddle and conducted workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center, the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, and the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School. He continues to perform with Kentucky Wild Horse, a band that draws on a wide variety of Kentucky music past and present. In 2004 John received the Folk Heritage Award of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts for his work in traditional music.