Deep Musical Roots
~ by Julia Pearson almost every community, with bands from Needmore, Nashville, Helmsburg, Pikes Peak, and Trevlac playing for Old Soldiers Reunions, Old Settlers Reunions, and parades. Newspapers have accounts of fiddling contests being sure crowd draws at these events. Cash prizes and the notoriety of being the best fiddler around attracted many musicians for a rousing, toe-tapping show.
Square dances were an important component of Brown County social life during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Noted in Dillon Bustin’ s If You Don’ t Outdie Me, Allie Ferguson and Mollie Lucas reminisced about weekly dances held in Nashville during their youths.
In February 1926, Hamblen Township musicians Mary and Vincent Beisel, known to their friends as Diner and Doc, were photographed by Frank Hohenberger with their fiddle and guitar. The Beisels headed a contingent of musicians and dancers known as the“ Brown County Fiddlers” and recreated a Brown County backwoods barn dance at the Palace Theatre in Indianapolis. They were so well received in Indianapolis that they were booked on a tour of the midwestern vaudeville
Pikes Peak Cornet Band.( 1907).
Brown County Fiddlers first string band( 1926).
circuit in a new act called“ Brown County vs. Broadway.” Oddy Green, who was known for his ability to play“ Pop Goes the Weasel” while holding his fiddle behind his back, was part of this act.
Continued on 48 March / April 2021 • Our Brown County 47