TOTFA Stories
Rebekah Enright ~ Eight Years Old From Appleby, Texas
In the February issue of the newsletter, mention was made of the number of fiddlers who helped out with the entertainment at the December Benefit in New Waverly. There was one however, who was overlooked as a major contributor to the entertainment and in an effort to correct this oversight, this issue of the newsletter is dedicated to Miss Rebekah Enright, one of our more youthful rising stars in the realm of Texas fiddling.
Rebekah lives in Appleby with her father and mother, Arthur and Leslie Enright, along with three younger brothers, David (Rooster), age 6, also a fiddle player, Mark who is 3 and Francis Jack, age 5 months. The Enrights are originally from Burleson and relocated to Mt. Enterprise just north of Nacogdoches where Rebekah was born, later moving to Appleby. (Appleby used to be a thriving little village but "the train don't stop there anymore" and now is a northeast suburb of Nacogdoches.)
Rebekah began taking violin lessons at age 5 from Ms. Brenda Josephsen music professor at the Stephen F. Austin State University Music Preparatory Division. She is currently studying the Suzuki method and has reached the Book #5 level that has led her into playing a variety of classical violin compositions by Bach, Beethoven, and Vivaldi, (Roy Acuff?), but her greatest love is the Texas-style of traditional old time fiddling. Rebekah's Mom, Leslie, was responsible for introducing her to old time fiddling. Leslie played fiddle while a student at TCU, went to contests, became acquainted with Terry Morris, and has passed this along to daughter Rebekah along with help from a number of fiddlers especially Valerie O'Brien. Other teachers include Wes Westmoreland who was one of the instructors last summer at Randy Elmore's fiddle camp where Rebekah was in attendance. Among her favorite fiddle tunes are "Cattle in the Cane," "Brilliancy" and the "Jesse Polka." Her favorite contests include the one at Nacogdoches because it is at home and her Mom gets to help run the contest and the contest at the annual convention at Burleson where again, Mom is called upon to render help. Favorite fiddlers include Terry Morris, Wes Westmoreland, Smokey Butler and loves to watch Anthony Wilson because "he is so funny." She is also a frequent performer at the 4th Saturday Sacul, Texas, "blowout and shindig" where she opens the show with a number of fiddle tunes accompanied by Bryan Jimmerson on guitar and Charles Gardner on bass.
Rebekah is home-schooled and is currently at the fourth grade level. If she doesn't "make it in the music business" she wants to be a relic hunter (archeologist?). The Association members do indeed, hope that you "make it big" as a fiddler in the Texas tradition and wish you much success in this direction. We need young people in the organization, like you, Jordan Franklin, the Wallace gang, the Urbanek kids, just to mention a few. We hope you stay with it in order to help reinforce the continuity and perpetuity of the tradition.
Charles Gardner