His Music Is In His Message
stomping
students.”
By MARK GALLOWAY
Henry lives in a school bus.
His home is Seattle, New
Orleans, the Smokies, Ann Arbor
...and he carries his living in a
fiddle case.
He shuns the nine to five
routine; he sleeps at truck st(^s;
he dresses in an old yellow shirt
and pulls his long brown hair
back in a pony tail.
Henry is totally um-
conventional. So where does his
appeal to conventional middle
class America come from?
From his music - the pleasure
in which he creates it, the joy
with which he spreads it, the
simplicity through which he
shares it with anyone who wants
to listen is always evident
Henry the Fiddler (he doesn’t
bother with a last name) has
been crisscrossing the country
for the past six years, playing the
street corners and the bars and
the art fairs and the fiddle
festivals.
A man who had once decided to
make computers his career,
Hemy found that he did not like
programming machines in a
Chicago office building half as
much as he liked fiddling his
Sunday afternoons away in a
Chicago park.
When he found himself
“digging the good feelings as I
gave people music to dance by,”
he gave his two weeks notice to
the boss and most of his
possessions to his friends.
Carrying his home on his back,
his transportation in his thumb,
and his income in a faithful,
brightly painted "tin can, Heruy
the Fiddler hit the open road.
Along the way he picked up the
fiddle styles of Scottish airs and
Appalachian bluegrass, not to
mention a bit of rock n’ roll, waltz
music, and music of the Texas
folk.
Jamming around campfires
from Arizona to New England,
Henry “traded Ucks” with other
musicians — and he won his
share of awards at fiddle
festivals.
“I was out to see the country,”
he said “and I learned a lot. But
then people started to want to
learn from me.”
It was time to start recording
some of those tunes and time to
start making a little money to do
“1 that When an independent
agent out of Mountain View,
Arkansas, Bill Fegan,
discovered” Henry, “it was just
right time at the right place.”
/egan put Henry, along with
p, “|®nds and back-ups, Eddy,
arUe, and Cathy, on the college
™‘-.He played at Dunham
ditorium in front of a crowd of
he caUed “lively, foot- ^
musician-pleasing
The minstrel’s style was in
formal and his warmth came
through as he fiddled through
Irish jigs, American swing,
mountain melodies — even the
Mickey Mouse Club theme song
— addmg bits of information
about each one.
But while entertaining is
Henry’s love, and he does it with
unaffedted sincerity, his life is
much more than that
“I guess I am really into
ecology,” he said. “I don’t like
what’s happening to this country,
and I’ve found that the only way
really to get something ac
complished is to do it yourself.”
So the minstrel is “creating
energy” and “using the talents I
have” to make the contracts and r • i.-
the bucks necessary to even- HENRY THE FIDDLER performs for appreciative
tually realize some of his audience.
dreams.
Those dreams? They include
establishing generators and
stations for non-polluting
methane gas, building a home
and garden in the country “to get
back to the land,” and starting a
recording company that foes not
cost artists a mint to take part in.
The notes are in the briefcase
for a book on fiddling, maybe
another on his travels, and his
namesake album has already
been released.
And Heiuy admits that life
right now is too hectic, too
complicated by bus breakdowns
and concert schedules, too
draining, even too artificial.
“I’ve thought about just
picking up the pack again and
sticking out my thumb,” said
Henry, “But that would just be
ignoring the problenns. I feel I
have to be doing something
positive to help solve them.”
» “Why would getting a letter recalling our car
- make you think the mail service is slow?
Guess Who?
Mis-judged
Book Orders
Vex Students
By Mark Galloway
Brevard freshmen faced an
unexpected problem as they
Iraced for the upcoming fall
semester. Many Brevard
students had to go without books
the first two weeks of school.
Some bookless students,
claiming what one student ad
visor termed as, “not having the
slop before sloppin’ the hogs,”
bewailed the problem. Freshman
David Skiba said, “They are
making a farce of the educational
system by not supplying the texts
to study with.”
The administration and student
union book store had reasons for
the students’ temporary hard
ship. This year’s “annual” book
computations began as the
faculty turned all of their book
requests in to Business Manager
Jim Alderman to meet the in
structors’ needs to accomodate
this year’s entering freshmen.
During early summer, Dean
Morris G. Wray and business
manager Jim Alderman
methodically predicted what
students may or may not take in
the fall semester of 1977 by using
the incoming student course
prerequsites, and judging on the
students’ past academic records.
“I suspect that we have never
guessed as well as we have
before this semester,” Dean
Wray allowed, “there is no way
we can be perfect guessers.”
Ordering the books for just HOW
MANY students taking WHAT
COURSES included a solid week
of the staffs deliberation. The
decision makers were then
compelled to order the amount of
books for the projected incoming
students plus a small over-order
in case of an unexpected influx of
summer enroUees.
As a child, I spent a good deal
of my time eluding my older
brother. He liked to beat up on
my head from time to time. It
wasn’t all that bad, however, as I
also passed many hours riding on
my blue tricycle with my
girlfriend. Actually, she and I
were more like brother and
sister, I suppose.
Aside from fun and games in
my childhood, I suffered from
asthma, off and on, for years. I
spent many long nights just
trying to breathe. Fortunately,
either my mother or my grand
mother w(Xild stay up with me on
many occasions, giving me aid
and comfort Even mwe for
tunately, I “ourgrew” the
asthma when I was twelve, and
I’ve not been bothered by that
nonsense since thea
Protect Yourself
Against Glaucoma
A. “As you can tell, I started “hog-calling” early in life.
(For answers, turn to page 4)
Band Presents Concert
The Brevard College Concert
Band will present a concert,
Thursday evening, November 10,
at eight o’clock p.m. in Dunham
Auditorium. The band is com
posed of forty college students,
and additional players from the
community and area schools.
We hope the varied program
planned will include “something
for everybody,” and we cordiaDy
invite everyone to attend. We are
especially hopeful that mere
college students will come to the
performance. We think you will
find it an evening well spent; so
grab a oal and come have a great
time!