Kelly J. Lundy

This guitarist and singer was the youngest of 14 children. His father, Emmett W. Lundy, was a fiddler from Grayson County, VA, who recorded a wonderful set of fiddle tunes from his repertoire for the Library of Congress in 1941. By the time these recordings were done, son Kelly was working as a professional musician and was more than proficient at playing guitar backup for his dad. In fact, the reason the family had so many children might have been the father's desire to have at least one kid who could learn how to play backup on guitar. Kelly started out playing music at 14 on the so-called "seed fiddle." This was just a normal fiddle, but it acquired this nickname when whoever wanted the instrument had to sell seeds to earn the money to buy it. He went to the guitar soon after, as the instrument was becoming very popular. There had been a guitar lying around the Lundy house for a few years, but nobody had learned how to play it. The first person he remembered coming along who could pick was Herbert Higgins, the son of local fiddler Charlie Higgins. Just as Emmett W. Lundy had taught the elder Higgins fiddle music, the junior Higgins repaid the debt by showing young Kelly some guitar licks. He picked up more basic accompaniment skills from Eck Dunford, the main guitarist his father was playing with at the time. As good a musician as he was, Emmett W. Lundy never pursued a music career, preferring to make music at home for his own entertainment. Kelly's first experience playing music professionally outside his home was with the Moose Melody Boys, a loose aggregation of players who would combine into various string bands, dance numbers, and comedy routines to peform at regional schools and community centers. Lundy had added bass to his arsenal of instruments by the time...