Remembering Clark Kessinger

 A 1982 Interview with Clark's friend, Billy C. Hurt

- Peter Anick

Reading the interview with Billy C. Hurt, Jr. in the Winter 2015/16 issue brought back memories of a road trip I took back in 1982 with fellow fiddler Dave Reiner. We were doing research for our Mel Bay book, Old Time Fiddling Across America, and had stopped in at the Galax Old Fiddlers Convention. The convention, situated in western Virginia, drew in many fiddlers from the neighboring states of North Carolina, Kentucky, and West Virginia. As you might imagine, the range of fiddle styles within earshot was considerable, spanning many dialects of old time, mountain music, and bluegrass. Toting our cassette recorders, we wandered up and down the aisles of the campground from jam session to jam session seeking out potential informants. One of the folks we met there was Billy C. Hurt (Senior), who we learned had been a good friend of Clark Kessinger, one of the greatest old time fiddlers of his day. Billy was pleased to share memories of his friend and we incorporated excerpts of his interview into our write-up about Clark in our book. Many years later, I had the opportunity to return to the Galax convention and I sought out some of the folks I had met during our first visit. I was pleasantly surprised to run into Billy’s son, Billy Hurt, Jr., who, just as his dad had hoped, had grown up to be a fine fiddler himself, and a passionate proponent of Kessinger’s signature fiddle style.

A few weeks ago, I dug out the cassettes from that 1982 trip to Galax and rewound to the beginning of the interview with Billy C. Hurt, Sr. Billy’s voice still rang out strong above the blue-grass band playing in the background. A small group had gathered around to listen in as I positioned the microphone and Billy launched into an enthusiastic eulogy for his celebrated friend…