Pearl Sivetts, A Missouri Ragtime Fiddler |
"He had a style I never heard before." |
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photo courtesy Lonnie Sivetts |
Who was Pearl Sivetts? |
| Pearl Sivetts was a self-taught fiddler from Putnam County, Missouri. He was born in rural Putnam Co. about 1910 and lived near Unionville until the Korean War, when he and his wife, Rose, moved to Eastern Washington in order to be closer to the port of debarkation for their son's military service in Korea. They lived in Spokane and also spent time in and around Pendleton, Oregon. |
| Pearl told about competing in a fiddle contest held as part of the famous Pendleton Roundup in 1951.On a visit to Pendleton in 1995, I searched through the local newspaper, but was not able to turn up any reference to a fiddle contest during the Korean War years as part of the annual Roundup. I'd really like to find out more about fiddle contests at the Pendleton Roundup, in case any reader has information. |
| He worked on the Umatilla River bridge, and at other jobs in Milton-Freewater and other towns in that area of southeast Washington and northeast Oregon. Both Pearl and Rosie liked living in the west and remembered their time there fondly. After the end of the war, they returned to the midwest, settling in Grinnell, Iowa. Pearl retired from Grinnell College in 1972. |
| I knew Pearl from 1970 until the end of his life in 1984. By his own account, he was at his musical peak in the late '40s and early '50s. When I knew him, he often said he'd been "lost out for twenty years," although he said he used to have "a good upstroke on the bow". Even as he played in the '70s, his tone was smooth, his pitch was true, and his interpretations of tunes was imaginative and unique among the Iowa and Missouri fiddlers that I knew or have heard in recordings. |
Pearl played quite a few ragtime tunes, including composed rags, like "Dill Pickles." The most interesting were tunes like "Shaker Rag", "Mendota Rag," and the "Nick Scobee Tune," as well as a number of no-name tunes which were folk tunes with quite a bit of ragtime rhythm, but which didn't have the classic ragtime structure developed by the piano composers of the turn-of-the century. Pearl used the term, "ragtime" to describe his overall style of playing, syncopated and rythmically complex, rather than the strong, driving rythm more typical of Missouri fiddlers. Pearl also used some blues notes in his tunes, and played at least one tune he called a blues, the "Putnam County Blues." Interestingly, Pearl always denied any musical interchange between black and white players, even though his own interpretation of tunes was full of ragtime and blues influence. |
The best fiddle music, according to Pearl, was more for listening
than dancing. Playing for dances was hard work and tended to make
one play rough and simplify the tunes so as not to get too tired.
He valued improvisation and elaborating on the
melody, smooth tone and rythmic swing. That's consistent with his
own style of playing, but he also admired some of the Texas fiddlers whom he heard on records in the 70s,
like Benny Thomasson, who went much
further with improvisation than Pearl did. Listen to "Shaker Rag"
for a good example of Pearl's improvisation. |
| Pearl's musical influences | ||
| According to Pearl, "Alvin Yardley was the best fiddler I ever heard." Yardley was from Pollock, Missouri, and was a few years older than Pearl. "The Alvin Yardley Tune" was the only name we had for a rag which was Pearl's favorite. It's in F, with two parts, (plus a lost 3rd part in B-flat). | ||
Other Fiddlers whose tunes Pearl played include: |
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| Major Boston Fatty Cal Billy Martin Nick Scobee Perry Thornton |
Billy Bunch Evertt Bunch George Bunch Tom Helton Jonathan Pickering |
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Pearl also talked about these fiddlers: |
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Jim Buster |
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| Family members include: | ||
Pearl's grandfather Sivetts (accordion) |
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| See a partial list and listen to Pearl's Tunes. | ||
| Some other Putnam County Fiddlers active in the late 1970s & 1980s |
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