Howard Joines

"He got a toy fiddle for Christmas when was something like seven years old. He got good on it, my grandmother tells me, and the neighbors would come to ask him play. He was shy, and he would get behind the door and play...The first real fiddle he had he ordered from Montgomery Ward. I think that was in 1929 and I've got it now. He kept it all these years. I guess he had thirteen or fourteen fiddles when he died. He would buy 'em and fix 'em, and play different ones at different times. Sometimes he'd sell 'em or trade 'em...I used to go to sleep with [Howard] playing the fiddle, and de'd be up playing it next morning when I'd wake up...I can remember one time when I was little that we went to a fiddle convention in West Jefferson. it was in the aduitorium and Daddy let me carry his fiddle. I was so proud of him, because he won, most of the time. Or he won a lot. I remember him playing "Twinkle Little Star" and winning the fiddle competition. And the last convention he participated in was tthe Austin event not too long before he died, and he won a blue ribbon playing solo on the fiddle.

He always took time to teach other aspiring fiddle players, both young and old, some of the old tunes, the proper way to handle a bow, or a few notes they couldn't get quite right. May people's lives were enriched by his musical talent and ability."

(qtd. in Donleavy 232-4)