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He gets down on 'The Orange Blossom Special'
All his life Bozeman has kept collecting those first place prizes and sharing his talent. Recently he celebrated his 80th birthday and he still considers that $5 first prize was a pretty good winning in 1941. Bozeman has never had violin lessons; is self-taught; but he knows how to win fiddling contests and has the trophies to prove it. In 1989 he performed at Jackson High School for the Tenn-Tom Opening Ceremony there, where his wife says "he brought home all the prizes." He has an impressive engraved trophy from that occasion. Throughout his lifetime of fiddle-playing, Bozeman has played at local schools, churches, and for many, many benefits. At one benefit in McIntosh, he said he helped raise $4,000 for a man in need. He has performed at the Jackson, Miss. State Fair and at the Tennessee Valley Fiddler's Convention at Athens University. The master fiddle player has two fiddles that he is especially proud of. He said "Those two fiddles are of priceless quality." Asked if it is the wood they're made from or the strings or the bow that makes him value the instruments so much, he replied "Oh, no, it is their pure quality of sound." Bozeman was in Selma one day and saw a fiddle advertised for sale in the paper. He went to the address and a woman was selling a fiddle that had belonged to someone in her family. She told him that another man had been by earlier and said he would come back to buy it. But Bozeman offered her money right then and she took it. He said,"I know she was telling me the truth because on Sunday afternoon after I got home, that man called and told me he'd give me $50 dollars more than I paid for that fiddle." Once he was playing that fiddle in Louisiana and a man came up afterwards and asked him what he would take for it. Apparently the man had an ear for the pure sound the valuable instrument makes. Bozeman didn't sell. The Bozeman's are a musical family with son Bob playing the guitar and daughter Charlene, a trained vocalist who plays the piano. Daughters Elaine and Joyce also sing. Bozeman has played alone as well as with accompanying instruments. His favorite tune is "Maiden's Prayer" and his favorite Gospel tunes are "What a Friend" and "Precious Memories." Because "The Orange Blossom Special" is such a popular and favorite fiddle tune, I said, tongue in cheek, "Mr. Bozeman, do you play The Orange Blossom Special? A family member spoke up, "He gets down on that one!" When asked if he knew why there is so much musical talent (largely without formal training) found in the community of St. Stephens-for in addition to his prize winning fiddle talent, there are the renown bluegrass Sullivan Family and the Singing MaHarry's-Bozeman said he just did not know. In 1934, Carl Carmer wrote a book called Stars fell on Alabama. In the foreword, he writes: "Alabama felt a magic descending, spreading, long ago. ...... once upon a time stars fell on Alabama, changing the land's destiny."
Perhaps one of those stars was a musical star and it spilled its contents into the community of St. Stephens.
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