Coal Harbor Bend

Manon Campbell (1890-1987) recalls his uncle’s story of when he was rafting logs down the Kentucky River one night and heard a tune coming from a party somewhere on shore. A little later he heard the same tune coming from another party on shore until he began wondering how all these people could be playing the same tune. It was dawn when he realized he had been caught in a slow moving whirlpool at a place called Coal Harbor Bend. John Harrod recorded him in 1978. Campbell learned many tunes from his father’s sister, “Viney” Lusk (b. 1870s) and her son “Dandy” Lusk and Will Christian, an African American fiddler who played for local dances. Campbell knew many different tunings and many rare local tunes from Letcher County where he was born. Chris and Stephen double fiddle: gdae.