Mississippi fiddle music has long fascinated me. Early in my playing, I learned many of the tunes and searched out the old recordings. My appreciation and focus on these quirky tunes has only increased over time.

In 2004 I recorded a cd of tunes from Carroll County, Mississippi, based primarily on the recordings of Narmour and Smith.

In addition to my private students, I teach workshops in Vintage Mississippi Fiddle tunes.

Listed below are various sources that I use in learning Mississippi fiddle tunes. Please feel free to suggest any I have left out!

From the late 1927-36 white Mississippi fiddlers were represented on approximately 150 78rpm records. Though the number of bands and fiddlers recorded was small as compared to other southern states, the quality was high and a wide variety of styles were captured. Some of the recorded musicians were the Carter Brothers and Son, Narmour and Smith, The Leake County Revelers, Hoyt Ming and his Pep-Steppers, Freeny's Barn Dance Band, Mississippi Possom Hunters, Ray Brothers, The Newton County Hillbillies and The Nations Brothers.

In 1923, Arthur Palmer Hudson began his ballad collecting in Mississippi, which culminated in his 1936 publication of Folksongs of Mississippi. Although his focus was on documenting the Mississippi textural variations of the classic Scots and English ballads, his fieldwork documented other songs and folkways. Unfortunately, only a handful of the songs were documented with musical notation.

Beginning in 1936, the WPA Music and Writers' Project in Mississippi, inspired by Hudson's work, began collecting songs in the state. The  state office of the Music and Writers Project arranged the recording schedule for  the Library of Congress field recording expedition of 1939. During that summer, Herbert Halpert documented ballad singers, children's songs and games, blues, gospel singing and fiddle and banjo players. Some of the musicians Halpert recorded were John Hatcher, W.E.Claunch, Stephen B. Tucker, Enos Canoy, Thaddeus C. Willingham, and John Brown.

Alan Lomax's five LOC fieldtrips from 1936-1959 focused on the black music traditions. Fiddlers that he recorded include Son Sim's and Sid Hemphill.

In lp record era there were 3 recordings of interest:
Hoyt Ming and his Pep-Steppers - New Hot Times -1973 a modern recording of the family band that made the classic 78's
Mississippi Sawyers - 1980 - living fiddlers playing in a variety of state styles. Bluegrass, Old time, Celtic and Cajun
Great Big Yam Taters -1985 - a fantastic source of information and recordings from the 1939 Library of Congress trip to Mississippi