Larry Franklin is descended from a family of legendary Texas breakdown
fiddlers. His great uncle, Major Franklin, and his father Louis Franklin, were
seldom recorded but vastly influential fiddlers in the Texas fiddle style that
has become the national heard everywhere today.
Larry Franklin was winning most of the major fiddle contests while still in
his teens, and has gradually evolved into the all-around musician and top call
Nashville session pro that he is today. He also has a new solo album under his
belt. Add three Grammies and his recent induction into the Texas Fiddlers'
Hall of Fame and you have an all-around winner.
When and where were you born?
I was born in Sherman, Texas. August 5. 1953.
What were your fiddle influences? At what age did you start?
I started maybe a month and a half before my eighth birthday.
You learned from your dad. Any other fiddlers?
Well, mainly my dad - but, you know, my dad was good friends with Norman and
Vernon Solomon, Benny Thomasson. and just a whole lot of people. There were
impromptu get-togethers whenever anybody could. They went to these fiddling
contests as much to see each other and play with each other as to compete. I'm
sure they were happy to win some money, but they were definitely in it for the
friendship.
Did you get to hear Texas Shorty?
Texas Shorty was in, I believe, the first contest I entered. The first contest
I ever entered was in Hale Center, Texas - west Texas near Plainview. I'd been
playing for two weeks at that point. My dad taught me "Rubber Dolly" and "Boil
Them Cabbage Down" and he let me go with him. It was quite a trip. Eck
Robertson was there - we had breakfast with him. For me, it was like sitting
across the table from Roy Rogers. I was mesmerized when I heard him play, and
he looked like Wild Bill Hickok. I had never heard anybody yell and sing while
they were playing the fiddle before. I was in the eighteen and under group.
Byron Berline won first - I think he was eighteen and I was seven. Mike
Solomon, Vernon Solomon's son, won second and I don't remember who won
anything else. But the reason I remember that is Mike Solomon split his prize
money with me.
That's good!
I must have looked pretty disappointed. He just came over and gave me half of
it. It really kept me going. Mike was several years older than me, so I was
already looking up to him - he was a good fiddle player. There weren't a lot
of kids playing fiddle back then like there are now -just a few people to look
up to.
Did you ever want to learn to read music, or did you read music later in
your career when you became a studio musician?
In the last fifteen years or so, I've had a desire to learn - I just haven't
had the time to devote to it. When I got out of the Army. I went to college
for awhile and took music theory for a semester and learned some of the basic
stuff. I was always so busy playing, that I never got to the point of being
able to sight read or anything. It would almost take me having to take time
off from working to be able to devote the time to it. Now, growing up, I had
sisters that took piano lessons and became piano teachers and they all read
music, but for some reason, I never got that kind of instruction. I just kind
of followed my dad around - and he didn't read. We all played by ear and we
all seemed to do pretty well with it.
Did you play guitar back-up for your dad before you took up fiddle, or
after?
No, I started trying to play fiddle at seven and I didn't start playing guitar
until I was about twelve. Once I learned how, I started playing back-up for my
dad and he'd play back-up for me and we'd go to contests and help each other.
What notable contests have you won that you'd like to mention?
The one at Crockett, Texas. They call it the World Championship. I won that
when I was sixteen. I won so many contests when I was fourteen to sixteen
years old that I guess I won most of them . We mainly went to Texas and
Oklahoma.
Did you compete with your dad at those contests?
We did. Sometimes they would have them where the different age groups would
play off against each other for a Grand Champion kind of thing. A couple of
times it happened where I won the young group, my dad won his age group, and
Major won the old group. That was intimidating. I think I somehow won at least
one of those play-offs but I for sure didn't think I won by any means. I was
so young I wasn't able to partake of the beverages going around and, at that
point, maybe I did out-play them a little bit. When they'd get together on the
weekends, I'd go to bed - they'd be playing. When I woke up they'd be playing.
When I'd go to bed the next night - they'd still be playing!
Did you ever get to Weiser or the Grand Masters?
Well, I did go to the Grand Masters the very first year - I think it might
have been 1970. I got third place that year. Vernon Solornon won, Dick Barrett
got second. I went back when I got out of the Army and I think I got second
one year and maybe third one year, and then my professional playing prevented
me from ever getting to go again. I just kind of got out of the contests.
What kind of bands have you played with since your contest days?
The first band that got some notoriety was the Cooder Browne Band. We formed
in north Texas and moved to Austin when the whole Willie Nelson/Austin music
scene started taking off. Willie kind of took us under his wing and signed us
to his Lone Star Records and we did one album, put it out and toured with
Willie. We later disagreed on some directions that we wanted to go. I also
play guitar and the group was asking me to get away from the fiddle. I was
wanting to play the fiddle and I was trying to find guitar players to fill
that spot. They never accepted anybody I brought in -that was the whole reason
that fell apart. After that I said, “I know one way I'll get to play the
fiddle," and I went and started my own band - the Larry Franklin Band. We were
mixing swing music with country rock and that sort of thing. I did that for
another three or four years with that band and played out that situation. I
then went to work with Asleep at the Wheel and I played with them for seven
years.
Fantastic! They're one of my favorite bands.
Yeah, that was really a lot of fun. Of course, fiddle is kind of a driving
instrument for that band. I got to play all I wanted to. Those three bands
totalled made up about fifteen years of touring and playing and, at that
point, I'd about figured out that I needed to slow down a little bit, so
that's when I moved to Nashville and pursued a studio career, and I've been
here ever since. I've been here almost eleven years.
So I'll bet you've recorded with just about everyone.
I have recorded with a lot of people - I've been very lucky. Of course, things
are a little different now than they were a couple of years ago, when
everybody and their brother was getting record deals and making records, so
it's a lot thinner now but, yeah, I'm lucky to be one of the top call players
in town. There's a lot of great musicians here. There don't seem to be that
many fiddle players that are getting the studio calls, but the ones that do
are really great players like Stuart Duncan, Aubrey Haynie and Glen Duncan.
Who were your influences in swing playing?
I guess probably anybody that played with Bob Wills would be some of my
original influences. Then, as I started trying to broaden myself a little bit,
I started listening to Vassar Clements and Stephane Grappelli, and I kinda
zeroed in on Johnny Gimble. Between those three guys, well, I've got more than
I can handle. I would say those three in particular. I was just looking for
ideas. I was really influenced by a lot of guitar players. Playing guitar a
lot, through high school and on in the bands I started working with, it seemed
fairly easy for me to apply that to the fiddle - as far as the blues of B.B.
King, Duane Allman and Eric Clapton - people like that. Just the attitude and
the approach seemed to fit with me and so I blended that with the swing stuff.
When I started learning how to improvise, I learned to improvise on the guitar
first. You know, playing those Texas contest songs, everybody was telling me,
"This is the way the song goes - play it like this." You weren't supposed to
deviate much from it. But then when I'd go play guitar, well, I'd have to play
solos. That was totally different.
On the subject of the way a fiddle tune should go - I've heard that Dick
Barrett considered Major Franklin as the expert on how any tune should go.
Yeah, he was. I dare say that nobody could play 'em like him. I never did hear
anybody do it. There was nobody that had the same bowing even to this day.
I hope somebody puts out a CD of Majors live tapes.
Yeah, the recordings of him are pretty slim. What little we have is real
impromptu stuff. He wasn't fond of being recorded. We have our little stashes
of stuff that we're lucky to have - it's too bad there's not a lot more.
The stuff Major recorded on that County album is fabulous. I've heard that
he wasn't happy - he didn't think it was his best playing, but it sounded
pretty damn good to me.
Oh. yeah, I agree. That album was recorded in my parents' living room. I
remember me and Mike Solomon were both there and we both played some and I'm
sure there's a tape of that somewhere. Seems like it was the early sixties, so
I would have been pretty young - ten, eleven years old, maybe. But I certainly
remember it happening. It was kind of like an episode of Andy Griffith. This
guy comes to town with a tape recorder and they all come out of the hills and
start playing.
When you were a kid, did you learn any of your Dad's or Majors solos, note
for note?
Well, I didn't really feel like they were soloing. just felt like they were
playing the song, the way they thought it was supposed to go. I didn't realize
that Major was improvising a little bit on parts. At that point, I didn't
understand that's what he was doing - I was SO young. My dad was pretty
consistent in his parts and so, when he taught me a song, I kind of kept
playing it that way.
Does your Dad still play?
Not very much. He'll get inspired to play occasionally, but he worked pretty
hard in his life, you know. farming, and his hands are not in the best
condition. But he still has it all in his mind. I'll get him around here once
in a while and he'll say, "No, that's not the way it goes!" He'll pick it up
and say, "This is the way it goes," and this and that, and I just have to sit
back and grin.
How old is your dad?
He's seventy-nine. We were just in Hallettsville, Texas, a couple of weeks
ago. I was inducted into the Texas Fiddlers' Hall of Fame this year. (Ed.
note: A partial list of past inductees includes Major Franklin, Benny
Thomasson, Eck Robertson, On4lle Burns, Texas Shorty, Terry Morris, Louis
Franklin, Johnny Gimble, Randy Elmore, and Dale Morris.)
So, I went and picked my parents up and they went with me down there and he
played some. Of course, as soon as he picked up the fiddle, everything else
stopped - it was like E.F. Hutton, you know? Everybody knows that you don't
get many opportunities to hear him play anymore. It was cool to hear him and,
of course, it was hard for him and it kinda wears him out - he gets out of
breath and stuff. It just depends. You catch him in the right mood and he can
still play, but it's not easy for him.
Have you studied Johnny Gimbles' playing and do you pattern yourself at all
after Johnny?
Sometimes I catch myself doing it. I try to think along those lines - it
depends on what kind of song I'm playing. I got to be around Johnny quite a
bit when I was playing with Asleep at the Wheel and he would come sit in with
us all the time and he was always there when we were recording. We did twin
fiddle parts together. I was around him quite a bit, but I was never around
Grappelli or anybody like that...
Johnny's energy is so incredible. That's the thing I really appreciate - his
enthusiasm and his energy for playing. I just hope that I can enjoy it that
much at that age
