ASHLAND — J.P. Fraley played his fiddle in a way only he could.

Fraley, 87, of Denton died Thursday evening at his home, leaving a legacy of old-time musicianship which spanned several generations and influenced musicians and listeners worldwide.

Fiddler Michael Garvin, whose grandfather Bert Garvin played banjo and recorded with Fraley, met the famous fiddler at an early age and was one of the last people to study the instrument with him before Fraley suffered a stroke that essentially ended his days as a player.

“I play fiddle now and I always pay tribute to J.P.,” Garvin said Friday, explaining his family is also related to the Fraley family. “Everybody says, and I agree, he was a smooth and laid-back player ... with an emphasis on smooth.”

Garvin said lessons from Fraley taught him to play “authentic” old-time fiddle, a trait that traditional fiddlers around the world admired in Fraley’s style.

“As soon as I picked up a fiddle I was in the right hands,” said Garvin, who was studying guitar when he first met Fraley. “He was more authentic to the old-time music. I guess you could say he wasn’t corrupted by new interpretations. I definitely tried to copy him right off the bat.”

Fans of Fraley’s style and sound weren’t limited to this part of the world, Garvin stressed.

“When it comes to old-time music people seek out our area and they are definitely on the map,” Garvin said, acknowledging Fraley’s individual talents as well as those who recorded and performed with him. Garvin said Fraley’s playing appealed to others because it was an honest reflection of the songs he learned as a young fiddler, as well as the things he learned from his own father, who was also a devoted fiddle player.

On a personal level, Garvin said he will remember Fraley as both a musician and a storyteller.

“He was a real Kentucky kind of guy. They didn’t need anybody’s help and they could do anything for themselves,” Garvin said, noting Fraley “traveled the world” for National Mines and shared his passion for music with people everywhere he went.

Musician Doug Chaffin said he met Fraley more than 30 years ago and played upright bass with him on several recordings in addition to live performances. Chaffin said Fraley was particularly popular at the many music festivals they attended together, adding Fraley loved to make new friends and was more than happy to get involved with any jam session he was invited into.

“At every festival there was just scuds of people that wanted to be around him,” Chaffin recalled. “He was just friendly ... five minutes with him and you felt like you had known him for years.”

Chaffin said Fraley’s sound and style were so distinctive, he could always pick him out from a distance even if he was just sitting in on a jam session somewhere in a large crowd.

“ I call him a violin fiddler. He was just so smooth ... so slick. He just had that particular, unique style and there was no one else like him,” Chaffin said. “He could pick up a $30 fiddle and make it sound like a $10,000 fiddle.”

Chaffin also said his friend and fellow musician had a wonderful sense of humor and a keen ability when it came time to tell a story.

“He kept everybody in stitches. He told all these long stories and a lot of them were partially true,” he said with a chuckle, recalling a story Fraley once told about his father making a decision to get baptized.

 Fraley’s legacy wil be that of a musician who shared his love of music with the world, Chaffin said.

“He was  legend, not so much around this part of the country but all over the country,” he said.

Musician Barb Kuhns said her band started helping out with the Fraley Festival at Carter Caves in the mid 1970s, and she later organized and coordinated the festival on the family’s behalf along with Doug Smith. Kuhns often performed “twin fiddle” with Fraley even though she never recorded with him.

“What he liked the most was just to jam,” she said of Fraley, remembering his efforts to encourage young people and novice musicians who showed an interest in old-time music. “He was always willing to show people music stuff and make them feel comfortable.”

Kuhns said Fraley was passionate about nature and the outdoors, enjoyed fishing and tending to his vegetable garden as well as spending time in the woods. His legacy, she said, will be “the beauty of his fiddling,” his open approach toward people and “his sense of humor, too. He saw humor in everything.”

Fraley’s approach to the instrument gave him a distinctive sound, she said.

“It was very smooth but had a lot of drive. It came from the heart and was very soulful,” Kuhns said of Fraley’s signature style, adding his playing was always ideal for everything from dance tunes to slow waltzes.

Kuhns recalled accompanying Fraley to one music festival with a particularly “rowdy” crowd, explaining the audience instantly hushed to complete silence as Fraley launched into a slow and soulful rendition of Margaret’s Waltz.

Fiddler Joe Dobbs said Fraley “just had a unique touch and style he developed from eastern Kentucky fiddle playing.” Dobbs said many might be interested in knowing Fraley’s “had quite a following in Australia,” in part due to an Australian fiddler who had learned all of his songs from the albums recorded for Rounder Records.

“He was known all over for his Kentucky-style fiddle playing,” Dobbs said.

According to old-time music journalists and historians, Fraley’s recordings spanned three decades and he, along with his wife Annadeene, entertained audiences during concerts and festival appearances near and far.

The Fraley Festival at Carter Caves State Resort Park was established during the 1970s by Fraley and his wife. Former Carter Caves park naturalist John Tierney said Fraley “had a tremendous music talent and people gathered around him to listen to his fiddle tunes played in a way only he could. He truly was a Kentucky treasure and will be greatly missed by those that knew him.”

Fraley recorded and was featured on several albums for Rounder Records, including Harlan County U.S.A,  The Land of Yahoe, Maysville, Mountain Journey: Stars of Old-Time Music, and The Art of Traditional Fiddle.

To read additional comments, tributes and memories about J.P. Fraley visit fiddlehangout.com/topic/19888, as well as ket.org/muse/mountainmusic on the Internet.

Funeral services for J.P. Fraley will be conducted at 3 p.m., Feb. 27 at Malone Funeral Home in Grayson.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at

tpreston@dailyindependent.com or

 (606) 326-2651.