Ed Haley

John has been studying the life of the great fiddle player, Blind Ed Haley.
John's last two recordings on Rounder Records have brought back to life some of Haley's music.

Wild Hog In The Red Brush consists of songs that Ed Haley was known to have played, but that were never recorded.

John's latest album The Speed of the Old Long Bow is full of reincarnations of tunes that Ed Haley had recorded.

John has also produced two volumes of tunes for Rounder Records that are actual recordings of Haley's.
Volume 1, Forked Deer contains two discs with 18 tunes each. Volume 2, Grey Eagle is soon to be released.

Look at a hand written transcription of Ed Haley's version of Bonaparte's Retreat

Ed and Laury were great friends and Haley named his son Lawrence after Lawrence Hicks. They also made a pact that whoever died first, the other would come to his grave and play the fiddle. Hicks said he wanted Ed to play "When Our Lord Shall Come Again" and told him that when he died his spirit would remain between Heaven and earth until Ed played at his grave and that only then would he meet the Lord in the air. Laury died on January 18, 1937 and a flood prevented Ed from getting to the Hicks home in time for the funeral. As soon as he was able, though, Ed arrived and played the tune Hicks had requested. Lawrence later told me that he used to have nightmares about Laury's grave on the hill by the Hicks home; he dreamed that Laury was up there and would "get him."

After visiting Haley's birthplace and talking with Mrs. Postalwaite, it slowly dawned on me that he was not really a Kentucky fiddler as the "Parkersburg Landing" album liner notes claimed. Not only was he born and raised in West Virginia but he spent a great deal of time in the Calhoun County area of West Virginia, a hub for great fiddlers and musicians. Lawrence figured that he traveled throughout northeastern Kentucky, southeastern Ohio and all over West Virginia except in the panhandles--perhaps even as far as Morgantown, Elkins or Buckhannon. He played at places like Parkersburg, Richwood, Webster Springs and Sutton, WV.

I suppose it would be best to refer to him as an Ohio River Valley fiddler. Down in Big Sandy country on the West Virginia-Kentucky border, he frequently played a tune called "Three Forks of Sandy" in reference to the Big Sandy River, the Levisa Fork and the Tug Fork. Haley played around Twelve Pole Creek in West Virginia as well, which is located between the Tug Fork and Guyandotte River valleys. The Guyandotte River Valley was a place where he played often as it was fed by Harts Creek, his childhood home, and was the stream which flowed by such places as Logan Court House and the coal fields of southern West Virginia. He also played in the Little Kanawha River Valley of northwestern West Virginia which ran through the town of Parkersburg as well as Calhoun, Roane and Braxton Counties. In the Kanawha-New River drainage basin of West Virginia was Charleston (where Kessinger had watched him play so many times), Clay County (where Laury Hicks lived) , the Cherry River (he played a tune "Cherry River Rag") and Webster Springs (where the photograph of him and Johnny Hager was taken).

Lawrence and I then visited Enslow Baisden where we found several old residents of Trace gathered on a porch and talked to them. Someone mentioned that Ed played at Dingess in Mingo County. Enslow Baisden, a son of Jeff Baisden, said that his father was nicknamed "Jig-Toe" Baisden because:

"He's the one that had the big ole feet and he'd get up and dance and play that banjo. He wore a 12 or 13 shoe. He'd get on his heels and dance. He called their square dances about all the time."

Haley and his wife often rode the train to Harts and then walked up the creek to Trace Fork when they came in for a visit from Ashland. Ed said that a person always had to get a little comedy in the act so he often told a story or jokes between tunes. Ed sang and often made up songs, such as "Hell Up Coal Holler." Baisden said that Haley played on the radio in Huntington or Ashland sometime in the 1940s and his wife could play the mandolin and harp at the same time.

Enslow Baisden, himself blind as of two years ago, said he was nine or ten when he first saw Ed Haley play the fiddle and watched him many times throughout his life. Baisden wasn't sure how much longer Haley played on Harts Creek after the mid-1930s because he left Trace in 1935 for northern West Virginia and had only recently moved back from Oklahoma. On one occasion, Baisden saw Ed play all night at John and Robert Martin's for two hundred or more people. Ed played a lot with Johnny Hager and Joe Adams, still living, played with Haley.

He played a lot with Robert Martin at his house. Both were drinking and, when Ed said he had to go to the outhouse, Martin walked him out into the chicken coop for a joke. Lawrence said a lot of people used to play jokes on his father. Joe Mullins told him that Uncle Peter kept bulls and cattle in a field that his dad often walked through. When he'd get half-way across the field, some of his cousins would snort like a bull to scare him. He ended that prank when he pulled a pistol from his pocket and fired several shots in the direction of the sound.

For more information about Ed Haley, read the extensive Liner Notes of
 Forked Deer
as well as
Wild Hog In The Red Brush and The Speed of the Old Long Bow,
John's CD's of songs that were played by Ed Haley.
Also see David Lynch's Ed Haley Page

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