Award-winning Missouri fiddlers revive decades-old traditional fiddle contest in Clinton

Top fiddle players from across Missouri and neighboring states will compete for hefty cash prizes and bragging rights Saturday, May 24 at the inaugural Lee Stoneking Memorial Fiddle Contest in Clinton.

The one-day event at the start of Memorial Day weekend is free and open to the public. It is expected to attract hundreds of spectators from throughout central and southwest Missouri and beyond.

Organizers Junior Marriott and Anna Lang, accomplished fiddle players and music instructors based in Marshfield, said the revived event was patterned after the historic fiddle contest in Henry County that attracted top players for decades, with participants including Alison Krauss, Monte Gaylord and Rhona Vincent, among many others.

The inaugural Lee Stoneking Memorial Fiddle Contest is scheduled for Saturday, May 24 at the Benson Convention Center in Clinton.

The original contest, started more than 60 years ago, was known as one of the "best paying" and most competitive fiddle contests in Missouri before dying out.

"It had the most renowned of the most renowned fiddlers there," said Lang, the 2022 Oklahoma adult state champion on the fiddle.

Interest in the contest was heightened over the years because the area was home to beloved fiddler Lee Stoneking, for whom the revived contest is named. Born in 1907, he recorded music and raised a large family of musicians, including son fiddler Fred, a fixture of festivals in Missouri and Arkansas. His granddaughter Alita Stoneking Weisgerber — who will attend the May 24 event — is also a contest-winning fiddle player.

"Clinton became a hot spot for the best players. It paid more than the Missouri State Championship. This was the place to go," Lang said.

The idea of re-establishing a traditional fiddle contest in Clinton was sparked at Olde Glory Days, an annual Fourth of July festival there that Lang and Marriott played.

Marriott, the 2024 Missouri State Fiddle Champion — who has won many contests including the state title in Kansas and Arkansas — recalled playing and winning the former event in Henry County.

"It is amazing to see (the contest) come back because it's keeping the Missouri culture of music alive," Lang said.

Three fiddle players will judge the contest and perform at the event:

• Ricky Turpin, a Grammy winner, is a two-time Texas State Fiddle Champion, and a World Series of Fiddling Champion. He has played with Johnny Bush, and Asleep at the Wheel, among others;
• Wes Westmoreland III, a four-time World Champion Fiddler, a seven-time Texas State Fiddle Champion. He worked in Branson for years, playing for Boxcar Willie and Mel Tillis;
• Mark Ralph is a multi-year winner of state fiddle championships in his native Kentucky as well as in Alabama, Indiana and Tennessee. He played with the Bar-J Wranglers and judged many contests including the Grand National Championship.

Fiddle players Junior Marriott and Anna Lang, who also teach the instrument, are organizers of the Lee Stoneking Memorial Fiddle Contest.

The event, sponsored by the Greater Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce, will start at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Benson Center, 1008 E. Sedalia Ave. and will likely run until late afternoon, when the Stoneking Memorial Fiddle Champion is named. The registration begins at 9 a.m. There will be food available.

The fiddle contest includes $7,500 in prize money in the open, senior, junior and junior junior categories. There are cash prizes for the top six players in each.

There is also a contest for the guitar or bass players that accompany the fiddlers.

The top prize is $800 for first place in the open division.

"You're going to get to meet some of the greatest fiddle players walking the earth right now. It's incredible," Lang said. "We're all here for one unified reason. We are here to see fiddling carried on and passed on to the next generation."

Each competing fiddler must prepare three tunes from memory: A breakdown, a waltz and a tune of their choice.

Junior Marriott, an organizer of the Lee Stoneking Memorial Fiddle Contest, with sons Tanner and Preston. They have all won fiddle contests in the Ozarks and beyond.

Contestants must play in standard tuning with no cross tuning or trick fiddling and contestants must avoid certain tunes such as "Black Mountain Rag," "Orange Blossom Special" and "Listen to the Mockingbird."

Lang said the organizers and judges have taught fiddle and are committed to keeping the musical artform alive.

"We really want young fiddlers ... and the audience to come listen to some of the best fiddlers in the country," she said. "We want to teach the younger generation and give the younger generation a chance to fiddle and get a feel for what it's like."

Lang said the inaugural contest has received a lot of support from local businesses and if it goes well, organizers will seek out sponsors to make it an annual event.

"We're hoping it will be a yearly deal, like it was in the past," she said. "So far, the response has been amazing."