Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Abel S. Browning


Here is a very interesting record. This was discovered in a batch of 78s in the last few days by a friend of mine. This is an acetate record that was made March 22, 1938 by Fiddler Abel S. Browning of Oakland, MD. Mr. Browning was 84 years old at the time which means that he would have been born around 1854. He was still playing quite well at this age as you will hear.

All of the tunes here are not familiar to me, except for Arkansas Traveler and Washington March, which bares some similarity to Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.

I've tried to find some information on him and can nothing online except for a couple references to him made by Pennsylvania fiddler Walter Neal. If anyone knows anything about Mr. Browning, please let me know.
Enjoy!!

Kimmell's Hornpipe
Bluebells of Scotland
Lackey's Hornpipe
Arkansas Traveler
William's Cotillion
Bloomington Waltz
Heir's Waltz
Washington March
Atlanta Hornpipe

Click Here to Download

4 comments:

  1. You are effin' kiddin'me. This is unreal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow!
    Previously unheard recordings by a fiddler born ante-bellum! And he's *REALLY* GOOD!! Traditional fiddling fanatics all over the world are passing around the 20-year-old whiskey.

    Also, for a 1938 acetate, this one's impressive both for the quality of the recording and for its state of preservation.

    I posted the URL of this page on the Fiddle Hangout forum, and the folks there have turned up a bunch of info on Mr. Browning:

    http://www.fiddlehangout.com/topic/17195

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeremy,
    My Grandmother was a Browning and I have some info on him. He was born 11/28/1854 in Garrett, MD Died 2/07/1941 in Thayersville, Garrett County, MD is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Oakland, Garrett Co, MD Son of John Lynn Browning and Mariah Thayer Browning and is the Grandson of Meshack Browning who was to be the Daniel Boone of MD and wrote "44 Yrs in the Life of a Hunter". And, has one of his flintlocks at Smithsonian in DC. He was married to a Mary which I haven't been able to find a maiden name yet. And, haven't found any record of any children also. He was to be great at making muzzle loaders by hand, and his own fiddles too.

    ReplyDelete