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| Dixon, Glenn. “The Gift of Music: Old-Time Musicians Band Together for Banjoist Dwight Diller.” Express: A Publication of The Washington Post. Thursday, January 12, 2006, p. 40 (E12). |
Dwight Diller is a disciplined man, some might say an intimidating man. Yet he is also a generous man, a clawhammer banjo player who
has taught countless hopefuls to respect the instrument.
On a day in October, he was an unlucky man. He fell asleep at the wheel just a short distance from home. “I don’t know if you’ve driven a
lot in West Virginia, but there are no straight roads,” said Alan Jabbour, a D.C.-based fiddler who goes back decades with Diller.
Jabbour is also a scholar, retired from the directorship of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. More than 30 years
ago, Diller helped him research “The Hammons Family: A Study of a West Virginia Family’s Traditions,” a crucial document of
Appalachian music and culture.
Now Jabbour can return the favor. He and five other acts play Friday up in Boyds, with all donations going to Diller’s medical expenses
and recovery. Even if traffic up 270 makes you late, don’t miss it. The New Southern Cowtippers, Caruther’s Others, the Martin Family
Stringband, Scott Prouty and Ellen Hatton and the Reed Island Rounders will keep the music coming for hours.
Jabbour recognizes Diller’s reputation as an exacting teacher. “He’s the kind of person who feels that what he has to offer is a certain
way, a certain particular approach to the instrument – not just technically, but also spiritually.”
Jabbour and Diller still cross paths from time to time, but the fiddler hears about his friend more than he sees him. “I was recently in
England,” said Jabbour, “and I kept bumping into people in the British Isles who had learned from Dwight Diller.”
Boyds Presbyterian Church, 19901 White Ground Road, Boyds, Md.; Friday, 7:30 p.m., $20 (suggested donation; Diller’s CDs and DVDs
also available); martinfamilyband@hotmail.com.
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