Published: October 04, 2008 09:45 pm      

Byrd lands prestigious fiddler award

One of Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s passions in life has been playing the fiddle, bluegrass style, and this affection for the instrument is bringing him some national acclaim.

In Nashville this weekend, the Senate’s longest-serving member is being honored on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry with the Dr. Perry F. Harris Distinguished Fiddler Award.

Byrd played bluegrass music while working as a butcher in a small Raleigh County town back in the 1950s before he launched a successful career in West Virginia politics, and often relied on the fiddle to warm up to the voters.

The 90-year-old senator will be given a special tribute during the Grand Master Fiddler Championship this weekend inside the Nashville Convention Center.

“I thank the Grand Master Fiddler Championship for honoring me with this prestigious award,” Byrd said Friday.

“As a young boy in West Virginia who loved to fiddle, I never dreamed that my life would be so blessed and enriched by that beautiful instrument.”

Byrd said the award revived memories of his late wife, Erma, who often encouraged him to continue with his pursuit of music.

After mastering the instrument as a teenager, Byrd toted the fiddle everywhere he ventured.

Besides attracting voters out on the hustings, Byrd also played the fiddle in churches and homes.

Byrd not only plied his skills at the Kennedy Center and Grand Ole Opry, but one time put in an appearance with the popular “Hee Haw” show on television.

Exactly three decades ago, he produced a bluegrass album titled “Mountain Fiddler.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com