Old-Time TOTW
#oklahoma #fiddle #folkmusic
Old-Time TOTW #327 is Judge Parker from the playing of Riley Lee “Billy” Foust (13 January 1920—23 August 2017). He was the son of Louis Odell Foust (1891-1984) and Alice Ethel Brooks (1895-1973). Billy was born in Oklahoma City, OK, and died in Farmington, San Juan County, NM. He married Wilma Ethel Paris (1922-2009) on 25 July 1940. (sources: Ancestry, Family Search, Find a Grave, and public documents)
At age 17, Foust was the Oklahoma state fiddle champion of 1934. He traveled and played with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Billy formed his own band in the 1940s: Billy Foust and His Western Okies and Billy Foust and His Circle Arrow Boys. He played on a weekly radio show in Borger, TX, and has his own television show in Amarillo. He and his family moved to Farmington in 1959, and he owned his own business, Billy’s American Service Station, from 1963-1973. In 1975, he began working for Graves Oil and Butane Company and retired in 1985. Billy was inducted into the Country-Western Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 1988.
You will find more information about Billy Foust in my upcoming book, The Fiddle Book Revisited: Oklahoma Fiddlers and Their Tunes from the Collection of Marion Thede. Stay tuned for updates on its publication.
Judge Parker, known as the “Hanging Judge” was Isaac Charles Parker (1838-1896), of Fort Smith, Arkansas. In his twenty-one years on the federal bench, Parker sentenced 160 people to death. Seventy-nine were executed, and the other eighty-one died while incarcerated, were pardoned, or had their sentences commuted.
Other fiddlers played this tune, but Foust’s B part is different from others.
Joining me is friend Mark McNulty on guitar (Oberlin, OH).
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Paul Kirk has been playing bowed string instruments since 1980 and has been teaching them privately, in classroom settings, and in workshop formats since 1988. He studied music theory, composition, music education, music history, and musicology at Cleveland State University. While at CSU, Paul played violas da gamba, krummhorns, and recorders in early music ensembles. He was a founding member of Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble and has founded many of his own bands over the years including A Hundred Thousand Welcomes Celtic Ensemble, Knives and Forks English Country Dance Ensemble, and Down the Road Old-Time String Band. He has composed over 500 folk tunes in a variety of styles.
Paul has closely studied the music from Appalachia, the history of American old-time fiddling, source fiddlers, as well as the social aspects of the music. Since July 1, 2018, he has been creating and sharing videos each Sunday through his Old-Time Tune of the Week series on YouTube. Paul puts a great focus on fiddle bowing patterns and techniques and has devised practical methods for teaching with excellent results. One of his specialties is teaching old-time fiddle to crossover students, especially those coming from a background in classical violin and other musical traditions.
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In 2022, Paul was designated as a master old-time fiddler and received a Traditional Arts grant from the Ohio Arts Council to work with an apprentice of his choice.
Paul taught viola, choir, music history, and assisted with drama and art for ten consecutive summers at orchestra and fine arts camps for The Music Settlement when it was known as Cleveland Music School Settlement.