GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Civitan Club will host the 57th annual Granite Quarry Fiddlers Convention on Saturday, Oct. 14, at East Rowan High School. The event will include competition in two band categories, bluegrass and bluegrass gospel, and individual youth and adult instrument competitions.

Registration will open at 4 p.m. for all categories. Youth competition begins at 4:30 p.m. All adult entries must be registered by 6 p.m. to be eligible to draw a number for performance time in a lottery-style drawing. Youth winners will be announced at 7 p.m., just before the adult competition begins.

Each year since 1970, the club has honored individuals who have contributed substantially to promoting and preserving traditional old-time and bluegrass music. This year’s honoree is Jerry Stuart, of Siler City. He will be honored in a special presentation at 6 p.m. during this year’s convention. Stuart will be joined on stage by his son, Doug Stuart, and friends in a half-hour performance honoring Stuart following the presentation.

The Ralph Pennington Memorial Master Fiddler Award will be presented to the First Place Fiddler in the adult competition. Pennington, originally from North Wilkesboro, was a luthier of finely crafted string instruments. Although he played all the instruments, he was widely known for playing the fiddle and mandolin and won many awards on both.

The Don and Margaret Livengood Memorial Award will be presented to the Most Outstanding Youth Performer as selected by the judges. The award was created by their daughter Patti and husband, Walter Beaver, in memory of Don and Margaret, with Don being the last of the original three Granite Quarry Civitan members who chaired the Fiddler’s Convention Committee. The other two committee members were James Mathis and Junior Bost, both of whom are also deceased.

The Civitan Club will serve BBQ chicken plates, hamburgers, hotdogs and desserts throughout the day and evening. Food will be available 11 a.m. until sellout. Advance tickets are available for the chicken plates by contacting a Civitan member. The tickets are $12 each.

Admission to the convention is $10. Children under 12 are free with a paid adult. The event is held on the second Saturday in October each year at East Rowan High School located at 175 St. Luke’s Church Road, Salisbury. The Granite Quarry Civitan Club president is Steve Staton, and the Fiddlers Convention chairman is Norman Ribelin. Vivian Hopkins, former president of the North Carolina Bluegrass Association, is the convention coordinator.

Stuart was born on Dec. 10, 1937, in Siler City. By 12, he started learning to play a plastic ukulele. His dad, Blake, had played old-time music and helped him. By 13, he had learned the mandolin style of Bill Monroe from 78 rpm records and formed a country band. By 14, he was playing on the local AM radio three days a week with Philco as a sponsor.

Stuart left that band after high school and moved to Washington to study electronics. He recorded one of his original mandolin tunes on a Folkway album titled “Mountain Music Bluegrass Style.”

It is still available 64 years later on a Smithsonian CD by the same name. The tune is “Rocky Run.” The Smithsonian Institute bought Folkway when the owner of Folkway died. For that recording, Stuart assembled a band that included Mike Seeger, Tom Gray, Pete Kuykendall, Smiley Hobbs and himself. Stuart played with The Rocky Ramblers, of which he remarked, “We had the only full bluegrass band in the D.C. area for a while with fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass.”

After completing his college studies, Stuart moved back to N.C., went to work in engineering with Bell Labs, married and started a family. He played in local bands at festivals in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

He recorded a single of Galax, another original mandolin tune, sent it to the Grand Ole Opry, and was invited to appear on the Opry as a guest with his band, the Bluegrass Gentlemen. They played at the Ryman Auditorium shortly before the show moved to the new Opry House.

During the late 50s, Grey and Stuart teamed up on a couple of songs called “You Left Me Alone” and “Silence of Tears.” Gray recorded these songs with the early County Gentlemen, and Stuart has had other artists record his original tunes and songs. In the 70s, Stuart had an opportunity to record an album for producer Barry Poss on the County record label. It was titled “Rocky Run” and included several more original tunes and songs.

Stuart’s mandolin, Ole Red, is a Gibson F4 that was converted to an F5 by Ralph Pennington before Stuart acquired it in 1968. Pennington replaced the top, lengthened the neck and replaced the fingerboard. Pennington said that the wood for the top came from risers on the interior stairway of a grand 100-year-old house. The wood in the new top had been cut and dried for 100 years when he salvaged it. Stuart loves this instrument’s great, dry tone and has been enjoying it for 55 years. Other notable mandolin players have played it on stage.

Ricky Skaggs borrowed the mandolin from Stuart to play on stage when he was with Ralph Stanley’s band. Stuart even walked up to the stage and handed his mandolin to Bill Monroe at a festival in Lavonia, GA, when Monroe broke a string on his own mandolin. Monroe played Ole Red for a few numbers.

Stuart never quit his day job and never tried to play music for a living. He provided for his wife and three children with his regular jobs. Stuart will tell you that the Lord has blessed him and that he has no regrets about not trying to be famous. He is thankful for his family, friends, and health. Stuart and his wife, Margaret, live in his hometown of Siler City.