"Farewell Princeton" - Old-Time Fiddle & Dulcimer - Gina Dilg & Ben Kiser

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Gina and I got together and filmed a couple videos at Clifftop 2025, just a little ways down the hill. This tune comes from the playing of Clyde Davenport (1921 - 2020) of Wayne County, Kentucky.

Gina Dilg - Fiddle (ADAE)

Ben Kiser - Dulcimer (DAD)

Clyde grew up on his parents' farm near Mt. Pisgah in the southern part of Wayne County on the Cumberland Plateau. He was born to a musical family and he learned much of his repertoire from his father, Will Davenport (b. 1876) who in turn learned much of his repertoire from his older neighbor, Will Phipps, who was born sometime prior to the Civil War.
As a teenager, Clyde played both fiddle and banjo for community gatherings and dances, and after serving in World War II he had a brief professional music career on a radio station in Muncie, Indiana. Davenport abandoned the fiddle for fifteen years while working for Chrysler, but eventually picked it up again, preferring the older music rather than Bluegrass and Country.
Although he learned most of his music from his father, he patterned his gentle and smooth bowing after the fiddling of one of his greatest influences, Leonard Rutherford (1900? - 1954) who lived in Monticello, the county seat of Wayne County, and frequently played there on Saturdays in front of the courthouse.
During the spring of 1990, Clyde Davenport was visited on several occasions by folklorist and tune catcher Jeff Todd Titon, who recorded over 150 tunes, some of which were issued on the album "Puncheon Camps." He was also visited and video taped on a number of occasions by Joseph Decosimo during the last years of his life.

Here's a link to hear Clyde Davenport play this tune
https://www.slippery-hill.com/content/farewell-princeton

#fiddle
#dulcimer
#oldtimemusic
#appalachia
#traditional
#folklore