Joseph “Joe” Patrickus
Joseph F. Patrickus, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois but has been making custom Western-style boots in Camdenton, Missouri since 1978. Taught by his California-dwelling Uncle Aldie, Mr. Patrickus is a fifth-generation custom bootmaker. He credits his training as an electrical engineer with an easy transition into a second career in bootmaking.
b. 1947 d. 2018
Camdenton, Missouri
Custom Handmade Western Bootmaking
Apprentices:
1987 Joe Patrickus, III & Franklin Holler
1989 Kathleen Patrickus Flanders
1990 Kathleen Patrickus Flanders
2002 Kathleen Patrickus Flanders
2007 Stephen Mino
Mr. Patrickus makes custom boots for “the true boot connoisseur,” incorporating regional and exotic materials in the finished product. In addition to making boots, Mr. Patrickus is one of just a few artisans who still makes wooden “lasts”—the wooden form around which the boot is shaped—rather than relying on mass-produced plastic lasts. In 2007, Mr. Patrickus noted, “In my opinion, the art of making a great western boot includes every aspect of the boot—from the design and visual artistic elements to quality constructions and a perfect fit enabled by the use of custom lasts.
Outside evaluator Donald Love praised Mr. Patrickus’s teaching during a 1987 session, observing, “bootmaking is a slow, laborious process. Even a master requires weeks to finish a pair. Beginners could easily become burned out from trying to work too fast, or discouraged by the slow pace. Joe keeps up a steady stream of encouragement. He urges them to the next steps, and, when necessary, reins them in to make sure the work at hand is being done with sufficient care.”
Among his many apprentices are Mr. Patrickus’s son and daughter, who were eager to carry on the family tradition. According to MFAP staff evaluation in 1989, there were only three women who practiced traditional bootmaking in the United States. Kathleen Patrickus noted, “I love making boots, I always have wanted to learn. You can put your dreams in boots. I’ve helped my father in the shop for several years, and this program has made it possible for me to learn how to make boots from the beginning.”
Audio clip: Mr. Patrickus and Stephen Mino discuss the process of learning inlay technique with MFAP Folk Arts Specialist Deborah Bailey on a site visit to the apprenticeship in 2007.
Vesta Johnson
Vesta Johnson describes fiddling as “excellent therapy.” A fourth-generation musician, Mrs. Johnson is a member and co-founder of the Missouri Fiddlers and Country Music Association. “I started playing fiddle at age seven. I learned from my mother at home, and I learned from my dad and other fiddlers from the area. My dad once handed me the fiddle when he was playing at a house party and told me to play a couple of tunes, which I did. I don’t remember ever being asked again.”
b. 1922
Kirkwood, Missouri
North Missouri Old Time Fiddle
Apprentices:
1989 Reese Stanley
1990 Brandi Bonds & Paul Brake
1995 Matt Vanover
1996 Michael Vanover
2006 Megan Greene
2010 Ellen Gomez
2011 Terri Brandt
2012 Terri Brandt
2015 James Hall
According to her many students and other fellow-fiddlers, Vesta Johnson’s fiddling is known for its infectious rhythm. Her sense of “good time” has helped to establish her deserved reputation as a talented dance tune player.
Although her mother, sister and daughter also played the fiddle, women fiddlers of Mrs. Johnson’s generation are relatively rare. During her decades as an instructor in her home and at the Bethel Fiddle Camp, Mrs. Johnson has worked to provide opportunities for all young fiddlers to ensure the continuation of the tradition. “We just never had the opportunities the men had,” Mrs. Johnson told MFAP staff member Julie Youmans in 1988. “I wish I had had a fiddle camp like this to help me. Women didn’t just go up and play with strangers like they are all doing here, and I feel uncomfortable about breaking in on a jam session to play. Not a woman’s proper behavior. “
In 2006, Mrs. Johnson reminisced about her long career as a fiddler. “I even played fiddle contests—even then [1970s and 1980s] women did not play fiddle contests really—it was always men, the judges were men too. But I made myself get up and do it. There were some tongues wagging, and looks, too. It wasn’t always easy but I saw no reason why women couldn’t do it.”
Over the years, Mrs. Johnson has taught hundreds of fiddlers in both formal and informal lessons. During a site visit at Mrs. Johnson’s home in Kirkwood, Julie Youmans observed, “Vesta is remarkable in her seemingly never-ending pool of fiddle students that keep coming out of the woodwork to ask her for help. She repeats that she never felt she was a teacher, yet she obviously does it well. Last year at the Bethel Fiddle Camp, she was touted among the students as one of the better, if not the best, of the teachers there. She makes them play a lot, rather than taking too much time demonstrating, and she is very organized in how to go about it.”
Mrs. Johnson is known for her vast repertoire of Missouri fiddling tunes, particularly dances tunes, including hoe-downs, hornpipes, two steps, waltzes and schottiches. Apprentice Megan Green wrote in 2006, “I’ve learned a lot of tunes from Vesta but I have much more to learn…She’s just a wonderful fiddler and person too. She knows so many tunes I want to learn and she also has the history and perspective of many years. She knew and played with a lot of the great fiddlers from Missouri and she tells me about them too and what she learned from them throughout the years.” Ms. Green added, “I’ll keep on learning from Vesta as long as she’ll have me.”
Now in her 90s, Mrs. Johnson regularly appears at local, regional and national events. She continues to participate in the TAAP program with new apprentices, maintains an active teaching schedule, plays at monthly jam sessions and carries on her musical traditions both within her family and within the wider communities to which she belongs.
Audio clip: Vesta Johnson and backup guitar player Dale LaRose play the tune “Robinson County” in May of 1997.
Bernard Allen – Fiddle and Mandolin
Bernard Allen applies his love of Ozark hand woodworking methods to instrument making, primarily fiddles and mandolins. Here, Allen holds a fiddle with a natural finish that allows the beauty of the wood to stand alone. Allen uses the curled ƒ-holes (visible here and on many of the exhibition’s instruments) as a tuning mechanism during the construction process, blowing across the holes with his mouth and gently shaving the bass bar until the instrument is tuned to F. The paired curled ƒ-holes allow sound to vibrate more freely.
Patrick Gannon
Patrick “P.J.” Gannon is an internationally known performer and teacher of traditional Irish music. With his wife Helen Gannon, herself a master artist in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in Irish step dance, he founded St. Louis Irish Arts, a branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, (The Cultural Movement of Ireland) in 1973. Born in the Galway area of the West Coast of Ireland, Mr. Gannon moved to St. Louis in 1967 and eventually took a position as a professor of psychiatry at St. Louis University. Both his parents were accomplished singers and lilters, and as a boy, Mr. Gannon learned to sing, lilt, play harmonica, tin whistle and piano accordion.
b. 1931
St. Louis, MO
Sean-nòs (Traditional Irish Singing), Irish Tin Whistle, Irish Harmonica
Apprentices:
1988 Linda Herndon & Meghan O’Connor (Tin Whistle)
1989 Kelly Russell & Sarah Casey (Tin Whistle)
1990 Michelle Sheets (Tin Whistle)
1993 Margaret Shannon (Sean-nòs)
1994 Amelia Flood, Margaret Shannon, Rachel Cameron (Sean-nòs)
1997 Sally Sutter (Irish Harmonica)
Lilting is a way of singing that fills the function of an instrument for dancers. In the village where he was born, Mr. Gannon’s father was the favorite lilter and singer. In March, 1994, Mr. Gannon recalled, “The only entertainment may have been one instrument, a fiddle or a flute, sometimes no fiddle, no flute, so what they would have would be a singer. Now if that singer could lilt, then they could dance. So I learned lilting also. So the lilter would lilt and they would dance the reel, the hornpipe, and the jig, which are the three basic dances. The reel would be the group dancing, the jigs and the hornpipe if there were single dancers. And lilters were held in high esteem.”
In his work with his apprentices, Mr. Gannon reinforces the traditional relationship between music and dancing. In 1988, outside evaluator Eileen Flanagan noted, “One aim of whistle playing in Gannon’s school is to become good enough to play for dancers. In Ireland many players of great reputation do not have the stamina and temperament to do it. At this moment Meghan [O’Connor] does play for dancers as does Linda [Herndon]. This came about as a result of their apprenticeship.”
In 1994, Mr. Gannon mused, “The apprenticeship is really what pushes them on. When you’re doing an apprenticeship you really put your best behind it, because they’re going to be the role models for the others. The important thing is that they don’t hide it. So we bring them out in March and they perform to audiences and that’s where their confidence develops. In fact, they get so confident that they get very cheeky.”
According to Eileen Flanagan, “A no nonsense teacher, P.J. allows no idle chatter and focuses on music throughout the 40 minute lesson. His teaching style is that of a parochial school teacher: he is in complete authority but not excessively rigid.”
Mr. Gannon’s apprentices appreciate his knowledge and skill as a teacher. Margaret Shannon noted in her application to apprentice in 1993, “He is easy to learn from. He understands all the stories and ways of being Irish.” In the same application, Sara Dobbs (eleven years old at the time) wrote, “I am very lucky to be able to study with Dr. Gannon. He knows a lot and is a great teacher. My grandmother was born in Ireland and I am very proud of my Irish heritage.”
Audio clip: During an interview with MFAP staff at St. Louis Irish Arts in August 2006 prior to their program and performance at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Mr. Gannon talks about his family’s musical traditions in Ireland during his childhood in the 1930s.
Donald Graves – Walking Cane Dulcimer
Donald Graves still plays his great-grandfather’s dulcimer as well as his own. Maw-Hee, also a fiddle maker, wrote his name and the year of completion inside each instrument. Graves continues that tradition today. Like many rural nineteenth- and early twentieth-century luthiers, Maw-Hee built instruments on request only, not as an occupation. Similarly, Graves makes dulcimers by request for family members and special friends.
Edna Mae Davis
Any conversation about the notable Ozark music tradition of Ava, Missouri is incomplete without mention of Edna Mae Davis, square dance caller and dancer. In an application for the TAAP program, she listed her occupations as housewife, clerk, and ‘beauty operator,” but Mrs. Davis’ career in square dancing started much earlier than that, when she started dancing with her family at the age of three. “That was about all we did in our community,” she wrote.
b. 1929 d. 2003
Ava, Missouri
Square/Jig Dancing and Square Dance Calling
Apprentices:
1988 Donald Randleman, Imogene Kane, Cindy Keeling, Josh Bradley, Mark Kane
1989 Amy Jo Davis, Michelle Kane
1990 Lacy Davis
1991 Clinton Overstreet
1993 Desha Marie Worth, Mike Bristol, Crystal English, Mandy Whittenhall, Cathy Davis
Edna Mae Davis’s leadership role in maintaining the area’s musical heritage was evident in the active role she took as a teacher and performer. She stated that while “[t]he tradition is very good in this community, […] fewer young people are learning how to do this.” In order to keep the tradition alive, she apprenticed not only family members (her daughter Cathy, for example, apprenticed as a caller in the program) but also members of the community, often teenagers.
Noted Ozarks community scholar Gordon McCann complimented Mrs. Davis’ aptitude for teaching square dancing; he stated, “I have been to a number of square dances where Mrs. Davis was present and have witnessed her ability to take amateurs, ‘city slickers’ such as my wife and myself, and in an hour’s time having us keep up with the best of them as far as the figures are concerned.”
Outside TAAP evaluator Catherine Parce agreed with Mr. McCann’s assessment; she participated in a 1990 square dancing event in which over thirty children cycled in and out of the dance. “Some of the youngest children, several of whom had never danced before, had trouble distinguishing right from left. With tireless patience Davis and her daughter pointed out the errors and re-directed them time after time.”
In an obituary, Missouri Folk Arts Program director Lisa Higgins observed the joy Mrs. Davis took in her work, stating, “Every time I worked with Edna Mae or ran into her at events, like the West Plains Old Time Music & Heritage Festival, I could see how much she loved dancing and calling. As I have looked through old photos of her from the archives, Edna Mae is always smiling, sometimes even throwing her head back and laughing with joy.”
Audio clip: The square dancers tap out a lively rhythm to the music as Edna Mae Davis calls the dance at the Big Muddy Festival in 2001.
The Art of Work
Missouri is home to vibrant musical traditions, a sign of the state’s rich artistic and cultural diversity. Every cultural group that settled in Missouri brought its musical customs, including easily transportable instruments and the skills to build and repair them. Although often overlooked, the visual and aural art of luthiery—the intricate craft, repair, and restoration of stringed instruments—is central to musical expression.
By the 1860s, St. Louis was home to multiple small luthier shops and two manufacturers of stringed instruments. Perhaps Missouri’s most influential manufacturer was the Schwarzer Zither Factory founded in 1866 in Washington by an Austrian immigrant. Employing German craftsmen, he developed award-winning, innovative, and elaborate instruments that are still admired for their quality. Luthiers were needed in isolated rural areas, too. Local musicians often served in that role, as a sideline to their primary occupations. Periods of economic hardship required creative solutions, so instruments were strung with braided horsehair or screen wire, and fiddles were created from recycled cigar boxes and other found wood.
Research in the archives of the Missouri Folk Arts Program uncovered a tribute to the late Cope Ashlock, a luthier who once operated The Violin Shop in downtown Columbia. He printed a telling motto on his business cards: where work is art and art is work. Ashlock’s philosophy aptly describes the dominant theme in this exhibit – building instruments by hand is an art, and creating art requires skill, precision, and lots of hard work.
Today, despite the ready availability of mass-produced stringed instruments, luthiery remains a living art form in Missouri. As mandolin maker John Wynn stresses, “Putting together a mandolin from a kit is not instrument making; it’s assembly. I make every part and decorative feature of my mandolins from beginning to end. I take pride in the quality of my work.”
This exhibition celebrates the work of six contemporary Missouri luthiers, all of whom participated in Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP). All are accomplished musicians, passionate about their music and instrument making. Each learned through a combination of sources: formal instruction, mentors and peers, books, imitation, and old-fashioned trial and error. Each begins his work with carefully selected wood. Each, by cutting, measuring, shaving, shaping, bending, tuning, and finishing, turns simple boards into intricate instruments that are pleasing to both eye and ear.
The Work of Art
Luthier techniques and approaches vary with each builder and instrument. Bernard Allen and Greg Krone use the patterns of European masters like Stradivarius, now readily available in books and on the Internet. Others, like Geoff Seitz and mandolin maker John Wynn, create their own patterns that they develop and perfect over time. Seitz, Krone, and Allen build their violins almost entirely by hand, using chisels, gouges, planes, files, knives, saws, and scrapers. Krone has an array of specialized modern hand tools, while Allen combines his love of hand methods and vintage tools.
Other luthiers incorporate power machinery along with some homegrown ingenuity. Bass maker Luther Medley and his partner, Ed Holden, opt for air-compressed tools. They engineer unique equipment powered by anything, from lawn mower to sewing machine motors. Meanwhile, Wynn blends fine handwork with creative uses of basic woodworking machinery. Instead of hand planes and chisels, Wynn uses an ordinary table saw in new ways, shaping the contoured arches of the instrument’s body before carefully perfecting it by hand.
Indeed, forming the arch out of the body’s wooden plates is a critical step to craft the best sound. In Medley’s basses, heat and pressure are used to bend the front plate into an arch. Seitz, Krone, Allen, and Wynn carve the arch into the wooden plates. As the arch’s shape and depth are slowly refined and thinned, meticulous measurements are made. Violin makers at work, like Krone, exude an air of precision. However, since “every piece of wood is different” measurements become guides rather than absolutes, and adjustments to the wood are carried out with the skill of a sculptor.
Different intuitive techniques are used to determine when the carved arch is ready. Wynn “tap tunes” by using his fingers to tap the top of the mandolin body, listening for the pitch of the wood. As he taps, he carefully adjusts the shape and thickness of the plate, which is complete when it is tuned to A. Seitz also taps on the plates but focuses more on flexibility, which allows the wood to vibrate freely when the instrument is played. Thus, Seitz thins the arches as much as possible to enhance flexibility, while preserving the strength of the wood.
Gregory Krone – Violin and Viola
Greg Krone shows a viola-in-process balanced lightly on his fingertips – a test of skilled carving. Before apprenticing with Geoff Seitz, Krone trained at the Violin School of the Americas in Salt Lake City, Utah, the first such institution in the United States. The violin school movement originated in Europe following World War II and continues to expand in the United States today.
Geoffrey Seitz – Violin, Viola, Cello
Geoff Seitz is the only urban-based luthier in the exhibition. Because of his location, his customers are quite diverse: young and old, amateur and professional, classical, oldtime, bluegrass, jazz, country, Irish, and others. In his shop, he displays a collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century violins by St. Louis luthiers who “created wonderful, wonderful instruments.”