Right now I am looking up on the wall above my desk. There is a photo I took, in a frame there, of the lower half of the back of one of John's fiddles. It's a beautiful fiddle that was lovingly made for him by a fan and friend. A multicolored, inlaid wooden riverboat is pictured there. Below and around the bottom half of the picture are these words from John's mentor, Captain Fred Way: "NOTHING IS REAL BUT THE RIVER AND ALL ELSE IS SHAM".

All around the sides of the fiddle are the words:"EVER SMILIN' EVER GENTLE ON MY MIND".

The tuning stock is the carved figure of John wearing his nearly ever-present derby.

Art Thieme