Goldie Walters
Tekemah, NE
Art Wooten’s Quadrille
Players: Bob Walters, fiddle
Eighth of January
Players: Bob Walters, fiddle
Bob Walters recorded this tune in Nebraska and sent it to Dwight Lamb who was stationed in France with the U.S. Army at the time.
Good for the Tongue
Players: Bob Walters, fiddle
From “Bob Walters: The Champion,” recordings from the collection of Dwight Lamb
Lady on the Green
Players: Bob Walters, fiddle
From “Bob Walters: The Champion,” recordings from the collection of Dwight Lamb
Rustic Dance
Players: Bob Walters, fiddle
That Good Tune in A
Players: Bob Walters, fiddle; Lynn Holsclaw, electric guitar
Goldie Walters grew up in a musical family in southeast Nebraska, and married into another when she married the exceptional fiddler Bob Walters. For their over fifty years of marriage, Goldie provided Bob with support in a very important area: good backup.
Goldie was primarily a pump organ player, which isn’t as unusual as it sounds. Pump organ was not at all an unusual instrument in the 19th century and well into the 20th, particularly in the upper Midwest. It is relatively mechanically simple, so it was suited to harsh prairie living. It’s also much lighter and easier to move than a piano, which is lucky, because people who knew them say that Goldie wore out three pump organs loading them first onto horse-drawn carts, and later trucks to take to dances. Goldie mastered the elusive art of playing pump organ in rhythm, and could do so on any type of tune. Goldie played backup on several commercial records, and many, many home recordings, often with Casey Jones, Dwight Lamb, his father Clarence Lamb, or the Walters family.