Words and Images by Jenny Lynn Davis
Joyce and Jim Cauthen brought Alabama’s old-time fiddling tradition to the Jasper Public Library on Thursday, January 30, with their presentation, Way Down in Alabam’: Finding Fiddlers and Their Tunes.
They shared stories about Alabama’s fiddlers and performed traditional tunes for the audience.
Joyce Cauthen has dedicated years to preserving the state’s fiddling history with her book, With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: The History of Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama. She also compiled Possum Up a Gum Stump: Home, Field, and Commercial Recordings of Alabama Fiddlers and worked with the Alabama Folklife Association to edit Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymn Book: A Primitive Baptist Song Tradition and produce related CDs. In 2011, she received a Governor’s Arts Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts for her contributions.
“Ever since I was invited to come speak to you, I’ve been so excited to come back to Jasper,” she said. “I’ve been in close contact with Jasper as I’ve been working on a book about a man named Fiddlin’ Tom Freeman from Bug Tussle, and while Bug Tussle isn’t in Walker County, it’s very close by, and he did a lot in Jasper.”
In the 1980s, the Cauthens traveled across Alabama, recording old-time fiddlers who learned their tunes from family traditions rather than recordings.

“We knew we had to do this because once those people died, the tunes would die with them,” she explained. “We made it our mission to record as many as we could and make them accessible to as many people as we could.”
This work is now available through the Alabama State Archives.
Cauthen described old-time fiddling as a tradition dating back to the 1600s, played at dances and gatherings. Unlike bluegrass musicians who add improvisation, old-time fiddlers preserve the original melodies. Though its popularity declined after World War II, the tradition saw a revival on college campuses in the 1960s, which sparked her passion for the style of music.
Today, Joyce and Jim continue to share this music through their bands, Red Mountain and Flying Jenny.
This free presentation, made possible by the Alabama Humanities Alliance, was part of the quarterly event series for the adult programs at the Jasper Public Library. WL