Violin, sing: Magic returns to this Texas city with annual Cowboys' Christmas Ball
ANSON — She looked 138 years-old. A small crack in her body, most of the inlaid pear on the back of the instrument missing, her finished edges looking worn, it was easy to believe this violin had played at the first Cowboy Christmas Ball back in 1885.
From its case near the door at Pioneer Hall, the instrument looked brittle, delicate, like an aging great-grandmother you’re frightened of hugging too tightly for fear of injury. You might have wondered about the last time someone heard her voice, and a passing regret for not having been there to hear it yourself.
But then, as does happen at this time of year, a miracle seemed to happen.
The 89th reenactment of that first dance in 1885 (though some say it was in 1887) was held Dec. 14. The dance was immortalized by Larry Chittenden, five years later when his poem “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball” was published in Anson’s Texas Western newspaper.
The dance would have faded into history were it not for Chittenden’s poem, which was republished in his 1893 book, "Ranch Verses." Then in 1934, the dance was resurrected and soon after, a mural depicting the ball was placed in the Anson Post Office where it remains to this day.
Pioneer Hall was built in 1940 as a permanent home for the dance as the event became more popular. Then in 1985, country artist Michael Martin Murphey put “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball” to music, rejuvenating the tradition which now occurs each December before Christmas.
The dance runs three nights, and, as he has done every year, Murphey performed on the opening night this year with Jody Nix playing the other two evenings. Men and women wear traditional attire characteristic of that first dance — and alcohol, cussing and rude behavior is prohibited.
As the ball treasurer Rhonda Weaver put it: "When you walk in here there's just an air about it. You walk into a different era, when women were ladies and men were gentlemen."
Christmas magic
But about that miracle.
The violin had belonged to and was played at that first 1885 dance by a man known as “Cross-P Charlie.” The fiddler’s descendent, Hunter Johnson, brought the instrument to this year's ball first night as a nod to not only the ball, but to the history the violin and his family had literally played in.
It was then that Murphey’s own fiddle player, Kyle Dillingham, asked a favor: Could he try playing Johnson’s heirloom that night?
The instrument needed tuning, and there were some concerns because of the instrument's age. But Johnson let Dillingham take the violin in hand and do what he could.
The fiddle was strung but very much out of tune. Dillingham took her to the stage, sitting on the red carpet on the edge of the drum stand. Hunched over, he twisted the pegs at the top of the violin's neck, head bent down as he listened and coaxed the strings into tune.
This instrument was made before electricity so, unlike his own violin, there were no electric pickups for the amplifiers to plug into. A nearby microphone would have to suffice.
And then, it was time to dance. Suddenly, a sound that had first rung across this ball over 100 years earlier, bounced from the mistletoe-laden rafters in clear, powerful notes wrought by Dillingham’s masterful fingers as the crowd of 260 dancers barreled into the Virginia Reel with gleeful abandon. So strong was the fiddle's voice, you wondered why she needed a microphone at all.
Was it really a miracle? Who's to say?
But the magic in the moment was undeniable.
As Chittenden put it:
The music was a fiddle an’ a lively tambourine,
And a “viol came imported,” by the stage from Abilene.
The room was togged out gorgeous-with mistletoe and shawls,
And candles flickered frescoes, around the airy walls.
The “wimmin folks” looked lovely-the boys looked kinder treed,
Till their leader commenced yellin’: “Whoa! fellers, let’s stampede,”
And the music started sighin’, an’ awailin’ through the hall
As a kind of introduction to “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Magic returns to this Texas city at annual Cowboys' Christmas Ball
