Pendleton Vandiver
Pendleton " Uncle Pen" Vandiver (* 1869 in Butler County, Kentucky, † June 1932 ) was an American Old-time musicians. Vandiver is mainly attributed to Bill Monroe, the "Father of Bluegrass ", to have greatly influenced.
Life
About Vandivers early life little is known. He was born 1869 in Kentucky as one of ten children. His youngest sister was Melissa, who was to marry later and Buck Monroe alongside Bill Monroe and Charlie Monroe should be delivered and Birch Monroe. Vandiver married Anna Belle Johnson, with whom he had a son Cecil and a daughter. In these years, Vandiver earned his living as a farmer. After Vandivers family had all died, he moved to the neighborhood of his sister and her husband Buck, who had a farm in Rosine, Kentucky. Vandivers small hut was on a hill that rose before the village.
It was especially in the small towns in Ohio County, where Vandiver received great notoriety as Old -Time Fiddler. He went on to Barn Dances and Square Dances, where he was often accompanied by the young Bill Monroe on mandolin and guitar. Vandiver was the first Fiddler, the Monroe ever heard in his life, and exercised a great influence on him accordingly. Monroe himself wrote in 1972 his album Bill Monroe 's Uncle Pen, that his uncle honored, on Vandiver: "Hey what one of Kentucky 's finest old-time fiddlers. And he had the best shuffle with the bow I'd ever seen. "
After the death of his sister and his brother- Vandiver took his nephews and nieces for some time to himself, yet he was physically disabled in his last years. A donkey had thrown him from his back after the donkey had startled from an approaching train.
Pendleton Vandiver died in 1932 at the age of 63 years. Bill Monroe was at this time in Chicago, he worked for an oil refinery. In honor Vandivers Monroe wrote the song Uncle Pen, whose refrain is as follows:
High on the hill and above the town Uncle Pen played the fiddle Lord, how it'd ring You Could hear it talk