Kristen Senz, Special to The Herald-Times
Throughout his music career, Ray Major played traditional music for fun and to make a buck. He never intended to preserve German American cultural heritage or insulate himself against the downsides of aging.
But with his harmonica and his curiosity, he ended up doing both.
That’s why Jon Kay, an Indiana University professor and director of Traditional Arts Indiana (TAI), chose Major to record the latest installment of TAI’s Elder Music Series. Produced by Kay and his students, the series features older musicians and aims to capture and celebrate not just individual creative expression, but also its community impact.
A harmonica player and multi-instrumentalist from Bath, Indiana, Major lived for 24 years in Ferdinand, in rural Dubois County, where waves of German immigrants began setting down roots in the mid-1800s. Major, who calls learning to play different instruments and styles of music his “old bad habit,” learned traditional German American tunes in the early 2000s, sitting in the Ferdinand living room of Hilary and Laverne Begle, who were about 15 years his senior.
A retired coalminer, Hilary Begle played harmonica and guitar. His wife Laverne played percussion on Stumpf fiddle. Clarence played box accordion. Laverne led the singing – first in English, then German – among an audience of mostly older people. “The younger people who were musicians at the time didn’t seem to care about that music at all,” Major recalled.