Greenberry G. M. Leonard and Emmett Lundy

Longevity and luck has much to do with how well some traditional musicians are remembered.  Born in 1808, and a resident of the Old Town township of Grayson County (the Post Office was Nuckollsville), Leonard was a legendary fiddler who passed many of his tunes to a much younger student, Emmett Lundy. Born in 1864, Lundy became well known for his fine playing, recorded commercial 78 RPM discs with Ernest Stoneman in the 1920s, and was recorded for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress by Alan Lomax in the 1930s. 

Lundy was 56 years younger than his mentor, and called Leonard “an old mountain boomer,” on recordings for the Library of Congress, but was grateful for the tunes he taught him, gave him credit for them, and via recordings made them available to generations yet to arrive. While many of the younger Galax area fiddlers who play his tunes today may not know their source, they are nevertheless a monument to “an old mountain boomer” who inspired a younger fiddler generations ago.

So if you hear a fiddler at the annual Old Fiddler’s Convention in

Galax announce his tune as “Piney Woods Gal” or “Flatwoods,” be advised that you are also hearing a heritage melody that reaches back almost two centuries in this place.