Joe Nathan Stephenson - Music

This picture is not of Joe Stephenson as stated  on the picture.  This is a picture of my brother, Henry Stephenson, taken in the summer of 1963, sitting on the back of our 1959 Chevrolet.  According to Henry the picture was taken in Roswell, New Mexico at Uncle Bill Rich's house.  The sun was in Henry's eyes so Uncle Bill gave him his hat to shade his eyes for the picture.  However, the music below is played by my uncle, Nathan Stephenson, and my cousin, Joe Stephenson.  In my opinion both were great musicians.  I, Jenk Stephenson, grew up with their music.  I'm only about seven years older than Joe.  The fiddle playing is either by Uncle Nath or cousin Joe.

 Uncle Nath introduced most of the music, but Raymond Brown, a neighboring farmer introduced Leather Britches, Over the Waves, and Sally Gooden.

Uncle Nath died March 6, 1972 and had cancer for about a year before, so I'm guessing that this music was recorded in about 1970.  At that time Joe would have been about 18 years old and Uncle Nath about 57 years old. At the age of 14 Joe won the Texas state fiddling championship.  Uncle Nath learned to play from his father, Samuel Walter Stephenson (Papa), my grandfather.  And Joe learned from his father, William Nathan Stephenson.  Neither had any formal training. Uncle Nath was born in Arkansas, but grew up on a farm in McAdoo, Texas and Joe grew up on the farm--hence the name "McAdoo Fiddles."