ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

"BEST BOOKS OF 2007"

"Fiddler's Ghost becomes a reflection on the eternal sources of the gift of art, and on the motives of those who would stifle it.”

 SEE MITCH'S SCHEDULE AT BOTTOM OF PAGE 

Thoughts from writer/reviewer Kevin Cook: Fiddler’s Ghost, the latest novel by Mitch Jayne, noted Ozark writer and humorist, is published by Wildstone Media of St. Louis, Mo. Mitch is perhaps best known as one of the founding members of The Dillards, the influential bluegrass group that appeared on The Andy Griffith Show as the Darlings, a family of musical hillbillies.

Brimming with suspense, whimsical characters and Mitch's masterful command of the Ozarks’ picturesque and earthy speech…the title character of Fiddler’s Ghost is the genteel spirit of Benjamin Springfield, a Confederate soldier and fiddler from Tennessee, who died before his time and has wandered the earth in a ghostly time warp for nearly a hundred years. In 1951, a young Missouri Ozarks couple befriends the ghost and discovers his violin hidden in a mysterious antique bed. The plot concerns the couple’s efforts to hide the true identity of their Uncle Hiram from the superstitious townsfolk of Indian Glade and the ghost’s realization that music is the key to his finding eternal peace.

As a founding member of The Dillards, one of the most innovative groups in bluegrass, Mitch played bass and regaled audiences with humorous stories of his beloved Ozarks. He wrote lyrics for numerous bluegrass standards, including The Old Home Place, Dooley, There Is A Time, and The Whole World Round. The Dillards appeared in six episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as the perennially tongue-tied Darling Boys.

Mitch is the author of acclaimed novels The Forest in the Wind (1966) and the Ozarks-set Old Fish Hawk (1969), which was adapted in 1979 movie Fish Hawk (with Native American actor Will Sampson in the title role). In 2000, Wildstone Media published Mitch's Home Grown Stories & Home Fried Lies, an autobiographical collection of Ozark humor.

Mitch and his wife, Diana--an accomplished artist who painted the evocative cover image for Fiddler’s Ghost, live in Shannon County Missouri. Mitch's humor column, Driftwood, appears weekly in Missouri newspapers: The Shannon County Current Wave, The Salem News, Farmington Press, and Kaleidoscope Weekly. Mitch also writes a monthly humor column for Today's Farmer magzine and formerly, The Missouri Conservationist magazine. When not writing, Mitch gives humorous talks throughout Missouri about the Ozarks, its irreplaceable and colorful language, and his travels and experiences being a Dillard.

 

Andy Griffith: I want to tell you how very much I enjoyed reading Fiddler's Ghost. Not only your description of everything had me living in the town and in every room of your ghost house. All the characters were splendid. Of course I love Uncle Hiram and even the trolls; I didn't love them, but I think I'll always think of them every time I fill up my car with gasoline.

 

Michael Patrick, emeritus historian/folklorist, University of Missouri: Fiddler's Ghost ...the rarest of books. I could hardly put it down... full of suspense and plot turns. Only Mitch Jayne could write a novel with a perfect understanding of the music and dialect of the Missouri Ozarks.

 

Bluegrass Unlimited: Fiddler's Ghost begins like a typical ghost story—a man and his wife move into an old haunted house—but quickly develops into a fascinating exploration of Ozark language and culture through a story about love, open-mindedness, and the power and beauty of music.

 

Joplin Independent: Jayne is a story of his own. In the tradition of famed writers-storytellers Vance Randolph and Mae Kennedy McCord, he keeps alive the spirit of the Ozarks, its roots and its uniqueness.... [Fiddler's Ghost] The setting is beautifully drawn, and Jayne expertly walks a thin literary line between science fiction/fantasy and reality.