Fred Price
Musician · Mountain City, Tennessee
Best known for
Fiddle
Fred Price was a Tennessee old-time fiddler from Mountain City whose late-1950s collaboration with Clarence "Tom" Ashley and his neighbor Clint Howard formed the core of an Appalachian string band whose 1960–61 Folkways recordings helped catalyze the urban folk revival's interest in southern mountain music.
- Born 1915 in Johnson County, Tennessee; lived nearly his entire life around Mountain City and the nearby community of Shouns; died 1979.
- Played fiddle through his school years and during World War II; after the war married Mattie Howard and raised two musical children, Lois Ann and Kenneth.
- In the late 1950s teamed up with banjoist/singer Clarence "Tom" Ashley and his neighbor and frequent musical partner Clint Howard, forming the core of an old-time string band whose discovery by folklorist Ralph Rinzler helped catalyze the folk revival.
- Featured prominently on the Folkways recordings "Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's" Vols. 1 and 2 (1960–61) and on the compilation "The Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley 1960–1962" — the sessions that introduced the young Doc Watson to a national folk audience.
- From 1961 onward toured the northern folk-revival circuit with Ashley, Watson, and Howard — the Friends of Old-Time Music concert at New York's PS 41, Newport Folk Festival, Carnegie Hall, the University of California, and Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest TV show.
- Continued performing as a duo and with sons after Ashley's death; Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price recorded the album "Old Timey Concert"; Price and Howard recorded "The Ballad of Finley Preston" (1972), a song about the last legal hanging in Tennessee.
- Honored on Mountain City's "Mural Mile" and at the annual Long Journey Home heritage music festival held at his home place each Labor Day weekend.
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Doc WatsonPlayed on recordings with Doc Watson
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Clint Howard, Doc Watson and Fred PricePlayed on recording with Clint Howard, Doc Watson and Fred Price
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Fred Price, Clint Howard and Doc WatsonPlayed on recording with Fred Price, Clint Howard and Doc Watson