Charlie Higgins was an American old time

Old-time music

Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...

 fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

 player from Galax, Virginia

Galax, Virginia

Galax is an independent city in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is bounded to the northeast by Carroll County and to the southwest by Grayson County. The population was 7,042 as of 2010...

. Higgins said that he was influenced by other old-time fiddlers including Emmett Lundy and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith

Fiddlin' Arthur Smith

Fiddlin' Arthur Smith was an American old time fiddler and a big influence on the old time and bluegrass music genres.-Biography:...

. His style of playing was said to be very innovative and creative. Higgins played regularly with Wade Ward

Wade Ward

-External links:...

, Dale Poe and other old-time musicians in the Galax area. Recordings of Charlie Higgins are few, and limited to field recordings made between 1959 and 1961 by folklorists Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...

, Peter Hoover and John Cohen. At the time of these recordings Higgins was over eighty years of age, and apparently was not recorded during his prime. However, he was still good enough at age 82 to win first place at the 1960 Galax Old Fiddler's Convention. Higgins died in 1967 and is buried with his wife Mallie at the Coal Creek Community Church in Galax, Virginia.

Discography

Year	Title	Label	Number	Notes
1962	37th Old Time Fiddler's Convention at Union Grove North Carolina	Smithsonian Folkways Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...	FW02434	1961 field recording
1997	Southern Journey. Vol. 2: Ballads and Breakdowns	Rounder Rounder Records Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...	1702	1959 field recordings by Alan Lomax Alan Lomax Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
2001	there is no eye: music for photographs	Smithsonian Folkways Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...	SFW CD 40091	1961 field recordings by John Cohen
2004	Uncle Charlie Higgins, Wade Ward & Dale Poe	Field Recorders' Collective	FRC-501	1959 field recordings by Peter Hoover

External links

• Audio sample of "Blackberry Blossom" (1961)
• MP3 Audio sample of "Charlie's Breakdown" (1959)