MOUNT VERNON — Homegrown music could be heard up and down South Main Street on Saturday during the 2011 Dan Emmett Music and Arts Festival as local musicians were offering their renditions of instrumental tunes. It was a fiddle playing contest on the main stage on the square for young and old.
Noah Brown, 10, of Bellville, played “Devil’s Dream” for his entry in the contest. “I’ve been playing for six years,” said Noah who stated he usually plays classic, bluegrass and just random tunes on the fiddle.
“This is great,” said Myrtle Litteral of the fiddle competition. She has been at the competition for many years. “The talent is right there.”
Judges for the contest were Stan Hortz, Bob Acord and Lisa Petrie. Elements they looked for when judging were old-time ability, authenticity and suitability; rhythm and timing; clarity, intonation and expression; and difficulty and mastery.
Winners in the fiddle contest are as follow:
Age 11 and under: First place, Addyson Hiltner of Newark; second place, Christina Joneikis of Shreve; and third place, Sadie Benete of Mt. Perry.
Age 12-19: First place, Brandon Shull of Lancaster; second place, Shiloh Six of Danville; and third place, Rachael Campbell of Utica.
Age 20-54: First place, Jacob Stockdale of Bolivar; second place, Krista Solars of Jeromesville; and third place, Joe Lautzenheiser of North Lawrence.
Age 55 and older: First place, Becky Fields of Butler; second place, Gaylord Johnson of Sunbury; and third place, Albert Petrush of Monroeville, Pa.
On the First-Knox stage on Gambier Street was a banjo contest and a flat-pick guitar contest. Traveling to Mount Vernon for the contest was James Stockdale, 15, from Bolivar.
“I played around with the banjo before, but picked it up again a few weeks ago,” said James, who explained he has played other instruments as well. “The way I play is called a claw hammer which uses a fingernail method of picking. It’s an old archaic sound, different from the three-finger picking,” said James, who took second place in the 17-and-under category.
Other winners in his banjo class were: First place, Tanner Yurco of Cambridge and third place, Cole Morris of Walhonding.
Winners in the 18-and-over category were: First place, Gideon Eddy of Utica; Rick Tincher of Mount Vernon; and Calvin Stockdale of Bolivar.
“We look for rhythm and timing, clarity and precision and difficulty. Some of the tunes are harder to play than others,” said Marty Townsend, who was handling the judging chores with Darrell Sanson.
Prior to the banjo contest was the flat-pick guitar contest. Winners in the 12-and-under class were: First place, Garrett Hughes of Danville; second place, Kevin Pae of Howard; and third place Lane Morris of Walhonding.
Age 13-19 class: First place, Jack McCarthy of Columbus; second place, Zach Addison of Galion; and third place, Anthony Tincher of Mount Vernon.
Age 20-and-over: First place, Chris Dudley of Pickerington; second place, Timmy Gillenwater of Griffithsville, W.Va.; and third place, Larry Miller of Westerville.
