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Fiddler
Bluegrass né Benjamin Franklin Logan Jnr. le 6 Juin 1927 à Coahoma (Texas). Tex
Logan est décédé le 24 Avril 2015 à Morristown (New Jersey).
From the
kind of activities he is renowned for, most people might get a bit envious of
Tex Logan. He is a famous and influential fiddler who hosts annual barbecues in
his Madison, NJ, home that attract guests such as
Doc Watson,
Bill Monroe, and Oscar Brand.
Monroe not only attends these events, he
also plays music at them, and even did a routine dressed in drag once. Logan has
written songs that have been recorded not only by
Monroe, but by
Emmylou Harris and even Bob Dylan, who
normally prefers to write his own songs. Logan is also an electrical engineer
who got so far in this field that he is sometimes referred to as a rocket
scientist. Which is a bit of exaggeration, but the designation of "rocket
scientist and bluegrass fiddler" just sound so perfect.
Born Benjamin Logan Jr., his father was also a violinist, although Logan Jr.
quickly realized the vast difference between classical violin training and
fiddling once he went from one to the other. He took violin lessons as a child
in Texas and from as far back as his adolescent days he was torn between his
interest in science and his love of playing the fiddle. Certainly, the latter
won out in terms of personal enthusiasm, as he said at one point he would gladly
trade 20 years of engineering for one night of fiddling. But in practical career
terms, he spent much of his life employed by electrical engineering firms before
retiring. He received his bachelor's degree in the subject from Texas Technical
College, and went on to be a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. He literally fiddled his way out of this posting, heading for
Wheeling, WV, and a stab at full-time musicianship before returning back to the
technical world in 1951. During his Wheeling days, Logan was a member of the
Coal River Valley Boys which also featured another half and half player,
banjoist Don Stover. This meant
Stover was spending half his time
playing bluegrass, and the other half actually working in the coal mines. The
band also featured the well-known
Lilly Brothers, as well as Red
Belcher on banjo. When Logan returned to M.I.T. in 1951, it was by no means
an end to his bluegrass connections. In his second year there, he lined up work
for the Lilly Brothers in Boston.
Perhaps there was a mental cross-reference between bluegrass and mathematics,
considering the rapid pace at which chord changes fly by, especially when the
musicians involved try to play the fastest tempos possible, or not possible.
Logan himself would usually mention the speed at which bluegrass was played
whenever describing the reasons for liking it in interviews, and the following
reaction is typical of comments about Logan from fans of this genre, that is
when they aren't drooling over the reputed quality of his barbecue or homemade
baked beans: "The most impossibly fast tune I've heard recorded is "Fire on the
Mountain" with Tex Logan setting the pace playing with
Bill Monroe." This performance is
featured on the Smithsonian Folkways collection of live
Monroe tracks, entitled Off the Record,
Vol. 1, while the comment was taken off an Internet chat room site dedicated to,
of all things, bluegrass performances at rapid speeds.
Monroe was particularly enthusiastic
during the early '50s about banjo and fiddle breakdowns at manic tempos, when
Logan was in and out of the mandolinist's Bluegrass Boys.
Monroe was one of many artists to have
recorded and performed Logan's most famous original song, "Christmas Time's A-Comin',"
a real favorite with country artists looking for a seasonal song for that
inevitable yuletide theme album. There seems to be a new recording of this
number for every generation of country music audiences, from bluegrass
grandpappy Monroe to '80s country-rock
goddess Emmylou Harris to '90s country
radio sharpies Diamond Rio. Dylan, on
the other hand, preferred Logan's "Diamond Joe," pulled off as a sardonic folk
number on his Good As I've Been to You album.
In 1956, Logan went to work in the communications theory department of the New
Jersey Bell Telephone labs. The bluegrass world never let him rest in peace,
however, and he was continually pressed back into service by enterprising
pickers from the New Jersey area such as flatpicker and vocalist
Peter Rowan, with whom he toured
Scotland in the '80s, and versatile mandolinist Barry Mitterhoff, who created a
revival group in the '90s devoted to Logan's music that performed at the New
York City new music venue Tonic. Logan was one of the musicians profiled in
Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas, a
collection of biographical essays by Joe Carr and Alan Munde. The jam band
generation adopted Logan as one of their own through his connection with big
daddy Jerry Garcia, with whom he performed and recorded on several versions of
Old & in the Way's new-grass
projects. Tex Logan died in Morristown, New Jersey on April 24, 2015 at the age
of 87.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._Logan
Talents : Fiddle
Style musical : Progressive Bluegrass / Traditional Bluegrass / Old-Timey / Bluegrass
Years in activity :
| 1910 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 2000 | 10 | 20 |
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
| 1964 | LP 12" Prestige Folklore FL 14024 (US) |
 |
BLUEGRASS GET TOGETHER - Charles River Valley Boys With Tex Logan - Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes / What Have You Done / Comin' From The Ball / Sally Goodin / Uncle Pen / Angel Band / Goodbye Old Pal / I See A Bright Light Shining / On The Jericho Road / Cherokee Shuffle / My Gal's A High Born Lady / Cryin' Holy Unto The Lord / Before I Met You / Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar |
| 1983 | LP 12" Waterfront WF 012 (UK) |
 |
Revelry - Peter Rowan And Tex Logan And Greg Douglass - The Holy Wells Of Ireland / Maelstrom / Sitting On Top Of The World / Rising O' The Bones / Lovesick Blues / Talkin Bluegrass - Black Mountain Juice / Mansion On The Hill / When I Was A Cowboy / No Place Like Home |
© Rocky Productions 26/07/2015
