Dale Potter---"Mr. Double Stop"

(1929-1996)

Dale Potter's fiddling has always fascinated me.  How on earth could a guy play entire fiddle tunes using all double stops (double notes and chords).  Totally amazing.  I was even more blown away to learn that Dale was from Southeast Missouri, Puxico in Stoddard County. 

This photo is an autographed promo that I got from my Buddy Bob Leidigh in Ohio.

Dale's records are out-of-print but if you run into one get it.  If you want to hear Dale's signature piece "Fiddle Patch" you can pick up Bobby Hick's CD by the same title as he plays it almost note for note as Dale once did.  Readily available from Elderly Instruments, Amazon, County Sales, etc.

Some cat is selling the old Rural Rhythm label stuff on cassette and has a couple of Dale Potter titles at www.ruralrhythm.com.

Get a copy of The All Stars: Jazz From the Hills which features Dale along with Homer and Jethro and Chet Atkins.   You can get it at Amazon.

Below is some miscellaneous information I gleaned off the internet concerning Dale.

Born: 04/28/1929 in Puxico, MO

fiddlers Tommy Jackson and Dale Potter became important Nashville session men.

Excerpt from:     http://www.thanksforthemusic.com/history/fiddle.html

Double Stops are an essential feature of Western Swing fiddling, with the sixth note of the chord often highlighted. Dale Potter, who played fiddle with Hank Williams, is credited by many as the originator of double stopping and the instant creation of harmony fiddle lines. He also deliberately mimicked the riffs produced by the unusual tuning of the pedal steel.

Excerpt from:     http://www.fiddlingaround.co.uk/westernswing/wswingframe.html

Dale Potter
Country waltz time Stoneway STY 172 1978 197810 US
Hoe down. Vol. 1 Rural Rhythm RRDP 179 1967 US
Super fiddle Stoneway STY 175 1979 197910 US
Unique fiddle style of Dale Potter Stoneway STY 166 1977 197712 US

Excerpt from:      http://www.ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/BGdiscography/lp/perfp.htm

Stoney Lonesome

Bill Monroe recorded Stoney Lonesome on 30th January 1959. It was one of his classic twin fiddle pieces, with Benny Martin and Dale Potter doing the honours. The mandolin and banjo play only the first part of the tune on their breaks. In the tab below I've kept close to Bill's mandolin break for the first part and culled some licks from the fiddle lead (I think!) for the second part. (In the first part the three notes with 1/4 above them are to be choked by about 1/4 tone.) There is also an alternative second part which the fiddles launch into at one point in the recording: this involves a small modification to the chording.

Stoney Lonesome is a very bluesy tune, with a wild, primitive sound. There are echoes of the Scottish bagpipes, as in Monroe's Scotland, another twin fiddle masterpiece recorded less than a year earlier. Monroe takes Stoney Lonesome at a fair pace, about 128 half-note beats per minute.

Excerpt from:      http://www.btinternet.com/~john.baldry/mando/tabgif/stoney/stoney.html

Allen Dale Potter grew up as a child prodigy in Acorn MO. In the shadow of Puxico MO. He learned to play the mandolin while still a child. Later switching to the fiddle. He was able to play two and three part harmony clone, which was unheard of at that time. Chet Atkins was so "knocked out" by his playing that he recorded Dale on an album for RCA, along with Homer and Jethro., Bud Issacs and himself. The Album was called "The All-Stars". Dales feature song was "Fiddle Patch" (This LP is still in print, on the Bear Family label, a re-issue) Dale lost a big part of his hearing while serving in Korea with the 79th Engineer Bn. He was well known in all companies, especially "B" and H & S. He continued to record for Stoneway records in Texas, during the 1970s and 80's. During the search for veterans of the 79th I was sadden to learn that Dale had past away during the spring time of 1996. He was the best by far, at what he wanted to play. His particular talent was, and is still very rare.. Don

Excerpt from:      http://hhc79e.tripod.com/memorial.html

Some of the most interesting innovations in country and bluegrass music have resulted from misunderstandings of one sort or another. Probably the best-known is the fabulous double-stop fiddle work of Dale Potter, who listened to Bob Wills on the radio as a youth and mistook the Texas Playboys' twin fiddles for the work of a single musician--Potter developed an astonishing facility for self-harmonizing in an effort to emulate that sound.

Excerpt from:      http://www.milesofmusic.com/momzine/mzblue2000.html

Dale Potter Partial Discography

DALE POTTER SUPER FIDDLE RECORDS Stoneway #175 STEREO. 1979. [SIDE1] MAIDEN'S PRAYER, FIDDLE PATCH, PRETTY COQUETTE, SWEET GEORGIA BROWN, BONAPARTE'T RETREAT, WABASH BLUES. [SIDE2] BLACK MOUNTAIN RAG, THE WAY THAT YOUR LIVING, HOT CANARY, MIDNIGHT IN OLD AMARILLO, BYE BYE BLUES, CAROLINA MOON.

DALE POTTER POPLAR BLUFF MARCH/I'M WALKING THE DOG 45RPM USA STONEWAY:1148

DALE POTTER: Green Valley Waltz  45 RPM STONEWAY 1154

DALE POTTER RURAL RHYTHM 235 A TRIBUTE TO BOB WILLS

Country waltz time Stoneway STY 172 1978

Hoe down. Vol. 1 Rural Rhythm RRDP 179 1967 US

Unique fiddle style of Dale Potter Stoneway STY 166 1977

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