The McCarrolls
On fiddle and guitar,
father and daughter make family music
By Morgan Simmons knoxnews.com
For
Tom and Tammie McCarroll-Burroughs, making music
comes as naturally as breathing.
In 1932, when Tom was 4 years old, his grandmother
taught him to play "Bile Them Cabbages Down." It was
his first tune, and he learned it in bed because his
grandmother was afraid he’d drop the fiddle.
Tammie, Tom’s daughter, started picking the mandolin
at the age of 4 and, by age 12, was hosting her own
live music show on radio station WLIL, in Lenoir
City.
When Tom and Tammie perform songs by the Carter
Family, Tom picks a 1915 Washburn guitar he bought
at a yard sale for $1.
Otherwise, he plays the fiddle while his daughter
backs him up on guitar.
"I can fiddle, but it makes the dogs howl, so I
stick with guitar," Tammie said.
"McCarrolls can play with just about anybody, but
McCarrolls play best with other McCarrolls," she
added.
Tom’s father, James "Uncle Jimmy" McCarroll, played
fiddle for the Roane County Ramblers, a highly
acclaimed string band that recorded in the late
1920’s. In addition to his superb fiddling, Jimmy
McCarroll also composed several tunes that have
become classics in the old-time canon.
Tom and Tammie include at least two of Jimmy
McCarroll’s fiddle tunes, "Hometown Blues" and
"Southern No. 111," in their standard set list.
Jimmy McCarroll played music right up until he died
in 1985 at the age of 93. Tom inherited his father’s
musical ability, as did his younger brother Charles,
who also plays fiddle, but in a smoother, more
modern style than Tom.
From the time he was a young boy, Tom accompanied
his father to fiddle contests and music shows. In
1936, at the National Fiddle Convention in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he won junior champion, while his
father placed first overall.
During much of the 1940’s Tom and Jimmy McCarroll
played for the Saturday night square dances in Oak
Ridge, at the Number 1 Recreation Hall, close to
where the K-25 plant is now located.
Between 1948 and 1959 Tom laid down the fiddle and
became a full time farmer.
"I was burned out from playing school houses and
theaters for no money," he said. "Every time I heard
a fiddle, it burdened me. I got disgusted and quit
for 10 years."
By the time Tammie was born in 1959, Tom was playing
again. He and his wife, Polly, who passed away in
1989, sang together in a gospel quartet, and when
they performed at churches, and revivals, they took
Tammie along.
"When I got tired and sleepy, mom just put a blanket
and a pillow down in the guitar case and I slept in
the guitar case while they sand and played," Tammie
said. "She made sure nobody closed me up and carried
me off."
More songs
Listen to songs by The McCarrolls: