Alva Greene

Alva Greene: fiddle.  Here we hear Alva and Francis playing an old parlor tune I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets utilizing the old-fashioned technique of “beating straws.”  Usually the beater will play on the same instrument as the fiddle, taking care to strike on the strings upon which the fiddler is not noting, but Francis found it easier to tune his own fiddle to Alva's and play independently.  Alva had been a good friend of J P's father, but had left the region to work in a shoe factory in Portsmouth and raise his family there.  J P was fishing one morning below Sandy Hook and heard the sound of old-fashioned mountain fiddling.  He followed the sound and soon encountered Alva, who had returned to Sandy Hook and was practicing n his porch.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mark Wilson, to the Musical Traditions Records 4-CD set Meeting's a Pleasure (MTCD341-4)