He was born in 1901, and died in 1985. Thomas Jefferson “Tommy” Jarrell was, as a friend of mine says, “a bridge to the past.” There are top-ranked bluegrass musicians working today who learned tunes from Tommy Jarrell.

Although he played banjo with equal skill, this all-too-short documentary spotlights Jarrell’s fiddling, following him from a country dance to the Library of Congress, where he plays “Old Joe Clark” – on a Stradivarius!

In between, you’ll hear the story of his own fiddle, which dated from the Civil War.

All in all, this little gem of a film was so magical that I didn’t want it to end.

I don’t know how he did it, but Tommy Jarrell got more notes out of this tune than most people think are in it. His approach was almost microtonal, and it makes for fascinating listening.

This is Tommy Jarrell with “Greasy String”.