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Noah Lacy (1991)

Noah Lacy (1908 - 1993) exemplified the musical heritage of his native Sand Mountain as both an old-time fiddler and a Sacred Harp singer. Born in Jackson County to a family of musicians, Mr. Lacy took up the fiddle at age 15, learning to play by watching and listening to his father, uncle and older brother.

As a young man, he entered and won many of the fiddlers' conventions on Sand Mountain and in Fort Payne. In his later years, he played music everyday and his repertoire included rare, old tunes he learned as a teenager as well as more contemporary tunes he picked up from fiddlers younger than he. His interest in preserving the old tunes led to his participation in a documentation project on Alabama fiddlers. Recordings of his music are archived in the Birmingham Public Library and the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. One recording appears on the album Possum Up A Gum Stump: Home, Field, and Commercial Recordings of Alabama Fiddlers.

As an active Sacred harp singer Mr. Lacy traveled to singings all over the state with his wife Margie. This four-part a cappella music has been a Lacy family tradition on Sand Mountain for more than 100 years. Noah remembered his grandparents singing, and his father, John Mitchell Lacy, was a popular singing school teacher in Jackson and DeKalb counties. He instilled in his children and grandchildren the love of this traditional music as well as the old-time string band music.

To read an article in remembrance of Noah Lacy click> here.

Click >here to hear Alabama Folkways Radio Series program interview with Noah Lacy.