Obits: Stepp, William Hamilton  1875 -1947 
Magoffin County, KY
August  2002
Submitted by ; Diane Montgomery Parsons
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Submitted by:  dyyanne@yahoo.com  (Diane Montgomery Parsons
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William Hamilton Stepp was in the Old -Time Fiddlers Hall Of Fame,
and was an influential Old-Time Fiddler.


William Hamilton Stepp was born at Proctor, Lee County, Kentucky 
in 1875, and removed shortly after 1900 to Magoffin County, settling 
near Salyersville. At this time, Magoffin had several outstanding 
fiddlers of the old style and it is possible that Stepp learned from 
this tradition rather than from his native county's. The oldest known 
fiddler of the area was Patrick Risner, born in Magoffin County in 1857.
 Risner was the mentor of Willie Fletcher and John Salyer, 
contemporaries of Stepp who also shared very similar repertoires. 
As Stepp and Salyer were good friends, it is natural to assume that
 they would have learned from one another. In later years, Stepp 
left his family and died in 1947, in Knox County, Indiana. 
  
—Guthrie Meade, 1982

A handful of the tunes Stepp recorded for the Archive of Folk Song,
 Library of Congress, are included on American Fiddle Tunes 
(Rounder) and The Music of Kentucky, volume 1 (Yazoo).


Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-1937

1. Called to the Foreign - Karnes, Alfred
2. Pretty Polly - Shelton, B.F.
3. The Ways of the World - Stepp, W.M.
4. The Unfortunate Brakeman - Kentucky Ramblers
5. I Want to Go Where Jesus Is - Phipps, Ernest & Hi
6. L and N Rag - Hood, Alex Railroad
7. I Am Bound for the Promised Land - Karnes, Alfred
8. Bonaparte's Retreat - Stepp, W.M.
9. With My Mother Dead and Gone - Kentucky Ramblers
10. A Little Talk With Jesus - Phipps, Ernest & Hi
11. Ned Went a Fishin - Walker's Corbin Ram
12. Darling Cora - Shelton, B.F.
13. Callahan - Stepp, W.M.
 14. Ginseng Blues - Kentucky Ramblers
15. If the Light Has Gone Out or Your Soul - Phipps, Ernest & Hi
16. We Shall All Be Reunited - Karnes, Alfred
17. The Old Hen She Cackled - Stepp, W.M.
18. Do Not Wait Till I'm Laid Beneath the Clay - Kentucky Ramblers
19. Oh Molly Dear - Shelton, B.F.
20. Don't Grieve After Me - Phipps, Ernest & Hi
21. Mud Fence - Stepp, W.M.
22. Where We'll Never Grow Old - Karnes, Alfred
23. Ruffles and Bustles - Walker's Corbin Ram
24. Shine on Me - Phipps, Ernest & Hi
25. Silver Strand - Stepp, W.M.
26. Glory to the Lamb - Kentucky Ramblers
 
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