Old-Time TOTW

Old-Time TOTW #375 is Irish Boy from the playing of John Morgan Salyer (20 January 1882--18 November 1952) from Magoffin Co., KY. He was the son of Morgan Mason Salyer (1842-1913) and Katherine Patrick (1864-1885). He married Minnie Gullett (1884-1972) on 11 August 1905. John Salyer's ancestor, Benjamin K. Salyer (b. 1670 in France), supposedly a Huguenot with the name "DeSalier" or "Desalier," was listed as a "land owner" in Charleston, SC, 1690-1700. (source: Jana Buck Hanks and George Stokes)


When John was about eight years old, he fell out of a tree and broke his leg. His father (a fiddler) bought him a half-size fiddle to keep him occupied while he recovered. John began to show a great deal of talent, and according to his son Grover, "it was not long before he could hear a piece and then play the piece himself." In those days, learning to play the fiddle was largely a matter of watching, listening and practicing, since generally the traditional fiddlers did not give lessons. Music was a part of everyday life, centered in the home and neighborhood. One of Salyer's close neighbors, and eventually his closest musical partner, was Willie Fletcher (born in 1871). John learned many of his tunes from Willie and greatly admired his musical abilities, considering him to be "the sweetest and smoothest fiddler he ever heard." Both John and Willie could play the banjo and fiddle equally well, and they visited each other's homes frequently, playing for hours at a time.

Besides entertaining family and neighbors, John enjoyed playing for local square dances. His son Grover remembered those events well: "He...played for a lot of dances-...and I've seen him...playing for a hoedown dance and he'd jump up and dance and play the fiddle at the same time." One of John Salyer's good friends throughout his life was William "Bill" Stepp (born in 1875), whose fiddling was recorded by the Library of Congress field workers traveling through the region in 1937. The versions of several tunes Stepp and Salyer played in common are remarkably similar, and it is quite possible that Bill and John learned some from each other.

John, along with Grover on guitar and his other son Glen on mandolin, was invited by the Sandy Valley Grocery Company to be entertainers on an excursion to the 1933 World's Fair at Chicago. They made music on the train during the trip. Once in Chicago, the Salyer trio was invited to play for a dance in the million dollar ballroom of the Knickerbocker Hotel. The dance floor was made of glass blocks with many colored lights in it. There were 6,500 people there; some wanted waltz music, some wanted square dance, and fox trot, others wanted Virginia reel or jig music. John said to them, "We'll play our kind of music and you dance any kind of dance you can!" (source: routyrock, Ancestry.com; Bruce Greene)

Salyer didn't believe in recording on record labels, because he felt they didn't share enough profit with the fiddlers. Fortunately, his sons convinced him to make some home recordings in the early 1940s. If it weren't for those recordings, many of those tunes might not be known today.

Irish Boy is a, interesting and crooked version of “Callahan” or “The Last of Callahan.” The tune is not related to the Irish air titled “The Irish Boy.” I featured this tune, but played on viola in D,A,DA tuning for Old-Time TOTW #30 on 1/20/19:    • Old-Time TOTW #30: Irish Boy (1/20/19)  

Joining me is friend Mark McNulty on guitar (Oberlin, OH)

My book, Marion Thede and the Fiddlers of Oklahoma: The Fiddle Book, the Musicians and Their Tunes is now available for pre-order from McFarland & Company: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/ma...