Decades of tunes Millersburg man preserves Missouri fi ddling music and stories by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop T he fi ddler can't keep the smile off his face. While performing a program at the Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City, Howard Marshall was taking questions from the audience when Luke Stegner of Eugene stood up with his fi ddle. Howard immediately invited young Luke - more than six decades his junior - up front and the group started an impromptu performance of " Ashokan Farewell. " " That was a great illustration of the magic of folk music, " Howard says. " With a melody that everyone knows, musicians - some of whom have never met before - somehow without hesitation started playing a tune and it works. " It reminded the retired University of Missouri professor of the 1970s in Columbia. Fiddling had suddenly become important at that time and college students began taking up the art in droves. " It was a great boost to the older fi ddlers around town who few had really heard of, " Howard says. " They started going down to the Chez Coffeehouse and mixing in with the college kids. It was a marvelous thing to see and stories like that are what helped grow fi ddling in popularity. " If anyone would know about fi ddling, it would be Howard. He is one of the foremost authorities on fi ddling in Missouri and just published " Keeping It Old-Time: Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s Folk Music Revival to the Present. " Combined with his fi rst two fi ddling books - " Fiddler's Dream " and " Play Me Something Quick and Devilish " - Howard devotes more than 1,300 pages to the history, stories, tunes and traditions that have driven fi ddling in the Show-Me State. JULY 2023 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 15http://www.RURALMISSOURI.COOP