North Carolina old-time fiddler Benton Flippen (1920–2011) hailed from Mt. Airy, North Carolina, and was associated with the generation of “Round Peak” fiddlers that included Tommy Jarrell, Kyle Creed, Fred Cockerham, and other influential purveyors of that rich tradition. In describing Flippen’s fiddle style, musical colleague Paul Brown wrote, “It cries the blues, shouts a spiritual message, resounds with the celebration of a square dance or house party. It's full of syncopation and stretch, yet solidly down-to-earth." In this lesson, Bruce teaches “Benton’s Dream”, one of Flippen’s original tunes. Bruce begins this video with a play-along demonstration of Flippen’s unique bowing pattern and then teaches the A part of the tune. “Benton’s Dream” is in standard GDAE tuning and played in the key of A.
