WV Press Videos

Acclaimed W.Va. fiddle player, radio host dies

File photo from The Herald-Dispatch Joe Dobbs
File photo from The Herald-Dispatch
Joe Dobbs

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Iconic local musician Joe Dobbs died Monday. He was 81.

Dobbs, who moved to West Virginia in 1967, left his mark on the music scene in the Mountain State in myriad ways.

The always smiling, and sweet spirited fiddler founded the Huntington-based 1937 Flood in the 1970s with fellow old-time music lovers, Charlie Bowen and Dave Peyton, who still carry on the tradition.

 Born in Mississippi where his grandfather was a fiddler, Dobbs was playing fiddle by the time he was 10 years old, and used the instrument as his passport to travel near and far to joyously make a life sharing music.

Dobbs owned and operated the St. Albans-based Fret ‘n’ Fiddle music store and shared his love of old-time music as the soft-spoken, open-hearted host of the radio program “Music From The Mountains,” a show that featured music from around the world for more than 25 years before he retired the show in 2007.

As a recording artist, instructor and lecturer, he performed not only at festivals and universities around the U.S. and Canada, but also toured Africa, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, performing traditional Appalachian folk music…

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

And get our latest content in your inbox

Invalid email address