Jehile Kirkhuff
(1907 - 1981)
Jehile Kirkhuff was a blind
fiddler from Susquehanna Co., Pennsylvania.
Born in 1907 to a long line of old-time fiddlers, he was said to have a
repertoire of over 1,500 tunes, 400 of which are recorded in the Library of
Congress. Jehile had heard good fiddle tunes from really good Fiddlers since he
was first born. His father and grandfather played, as did his Uncle Jehile who
was known as a very good player. When he got his first fiddle, a tin fiddle
from a Sears catalog, and he was shown a scale, he started to pull melodies
from his memory to his fingers and he was all set.
He was so good that when he was 9 years old and
performing for the first time in public at a social event in the Grange Hall,
the seats were all taken and the standing room was all taken because of his
already blooming reputation as an above average player. Children’s heads could
be seen in the windows as they jumped up to get a peek at the young legend.
Over the years he refined his skills and visited other local Fiddle players. He
said he learned from “those who loved this music the most and played it the
best”.
The American Folk Life Center at the Library of
Congress became interested in Jehile after he won the 1954 World Championship
in Crockett, Texas. (Smokey Butler, a young Fiddler from Texas came in a very
close second place. Smokey is a grand example of the Old-Time Texas style.)
Alan Jabbour who started and manages the American Folk Life Center visited
Jehile at his Pennsylvania home and recorded his tunes.
Jehile's influence was far reaching. WVIA public television (Scranton/Wilkes
Barre) made a documentary on living off the land in Northeast Pennsylvania.
"Journey to the Endless Mountain" included a segment on the lives of
Ed and Geraldine Berbaum, a couple who gave up professional careers in New
Jersey and moved to the hills to live off the land. Ed took fiddle lessons from
Jehile and recorded and categorized many of his songs. Jehile's influence on
the Berbaums inspired the producers of the documentary to dedicate the show
"to the music and memory of 1954 World Champion Old-Time Fiddler Jehile
Kirkhuff." The video is available
through WVIA at http://www.wvia.org/television-92/original-documentaries
There is also a book on his life story: "Jehile: The Blind Fiddler from Lawton
Pennsylvania" by Ken Oakley, which has an accompaning cd of his music. Here is a sample of Jehile's playing:
You can also download other MP3 recordings by
Jehile, get sheet music, and learn about his life at the following websites:
http://jehile.org/Jehile.org/Welcome_Jehile.html