Honored by National Endowment for the Arts : Renowned Fiddler Thomas Jarrell Dies

Fiddler Thomas Jefferson Jarrell, recognized by music critics for his electrifying style and honored in 1982 by the National Endowment for the Arts, died Monday. He was 83.

Jarrell, who mastered the art of fiddling from his father but put the instrument away for more than 40 years while he raised a family, died of heart failure.

“There’s hundreds of young fiddlers around the country whose playing has been influenced by Tommy Jarrell,” said Alan Jabbour, director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington.

“He was one of those key figures who in the last couple of decades changed people’s ideas about the art,” Jabbour said.

Jarrell worked on a road crew for the North Carolina Transportation Department while raising his family. After he retired in 1966 he returned to playing the old Southern fiddle tunes he learned as a youth.

Jabbour discovered Jarrell at a fiddlers’ convention, and his music was recorded for the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. Word spread and thousands of aspiring musicians flocked to his rural mountain home to learn from him.

His honors included the first Master of Folk Arts Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, an award he shared with 14 other American folk artists.