When Joe Was Named 'a Living Treasure'

#393 / Flood Time Capsule: 2002

Flood fiddler Joe Dobbs received many awards over his eight decades, but none ever meant more to him than the one he received on a Saturday night 22 years ago this week.

The very first Footbridge Living Treasure Award — conceived and created just months earlier by West Virginia’s Friends of Old-Time Music and Dance — was presented at a gathering of Joe’s admirers in the hills of Fayette County.

The Award’s Conception

The year 2002 brought a wake-up call for FOOTMAD, because the group had just lost two special people — Mike Fenimore and Rebecca Skeen-Webb — prompting members to reflect on the need for an award to recognize an important contributor while he or she was still alive.

Turning the project over to talented West Virginia artist Rick Gallagher, he came up with the FOOTbridge award, celebrating the diverse meanings of that word “bridge.”

A bridge, said a FOOTMAD statement, “on a musical instrument guides and supports the strings, establishes the scale (sets a standard), helps conduct sound from string to body; in music, connects different segments, provides an interlude; architecturally, connects isolated or difficult to reach places, establishes a flow and exchange of traffic/commerce (ideas/knowledge), lifts you above obstacles, links people (age groups, cultures).”

The Trek

For the September night’s festivities, The Flood hit the road to travel to a dance hall at the Fayette County Park at Beckwith, WV.

There the guys were featured performers at FOOTMAD’s 20th annual Fall Festival, joining a host of Joe's oldest and newest friends, including Australians Rod and Judy Jones, Linda and Wendell Dobbs and their Irish band Shenannigans and singer/songwriter Kate Long.

For the event, David Peyton penned some beautiful remarks that were read at the presentation. Here's the text of Dave's complete statement:

And here is audio of Steve Volkman’s introduction and the actual presentation of the award to Joe mid-way through the show:

Incidentally, producer George Walker also recorded and edited the entire concert for a special edition of Joe's "Music from the Mountains" show that month on West Virgina Public Radio.

Featured Song: “June Apple”

A highlight of The Flood's set that night was a particularly tasty version of Joe and Dave's raucous “June Apple.” Click the button below to hear that night’s take on the tune:

“June Apple,” a classic modal Appalachian tune, often is associated with beloved fiddler Tommy Jarrell, who hailed from the Mt. Airy and Round Peak areas of North Carolina.

A colorful character, Jarrell retired from the state highway department in 1966 and opened his modest home in the hamlet of Toast, NC, to scores of young musicians who came from across the US to learn his iconic brand of traditional music.

Jarrell recorded many times as a solo artist or with his friend, banjoist Fred Cockerham or other musicians.

From Jarrell’s playing, “June Apple” became a popular jam tune, often with lyrics that Tommy sang on the “B” part:

Wish I was a June Apple
Hanging on a tree
And every time my true love passed
She'd take a little bite of me.

Floodifying It

In the Floodisphere, the song always showcased Joe’s fiddling and vocals by Dave. The song used “floating verses,” meaning stanzas that can be swapped in from a number of other songs.

Dave often borrowed this verse, for instance, from the old tune called “Train on the Island”:

You can ride the old grey mare
And I will ride the roan.
If you get there before I do
Leave my gal alone.

And from “Bile Them Cabbage Down” he took:

Someone stole my old ‘coon dog.
Wish they’d bring him back.
He chased the big hogs through the fence
And the little ones through the crack.

Flashback 20 Years

Joe and Dave first started doing “June Apple” 20 years earlier, during the days of the old Bowen Bash music parties at which the band was born in the mid-1970s.

Click “Play” on the video above to hear one of their earliest renditions, recorded at a bash 43 years ago this week.

In this laid-back party setting, you’ll hear mid-song Dave ask band mates Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen, “Any narcs here?” then drop in this wink-wink/nod-nod verse that he picked up from “Soldier’s Joy”:

Twenty-five cents for cocaine.
Fifteen cents for beer.
Twenty-five cents for morphine.
Carry me ‘way from here.