The Ballad of Kidder Cole by Felix Eugene Alley
The story behind how the Ballad of Kidder Cole came to be written involves aspects of old-time music traditions, the history of folk art instruments and the wide range of music venues on the Highlands Plateau, all in one boy’s amazing tale. Born in Whiteside Cove in 1873, Felix Eugene Alley was a boy of nine when his brothers made him a banjo from a cheese hoop, ground-hog skin and wood fashioned into a banjo neck. The banjo was then strung with “J & P Coat’s Spool Cotton” by twisting the thread into the necessary string sizes and coating them with beeswax. Alley learned to play his homemade banjo so well that he played for dances in both Jackson and Macon Counties, and as far away as South Carolina and Georgia.
One day, a flood occurred which filled the valley his family lived in and stranded a traveler by the name of Childs who was forced to stay in the Alley home for several days. Observing Alley’s banjo, Mr. Childs inquired if Felix would play a tune for him and he responded that he needed to fix a broken string. After grabbing the thread, waxing it and restringing his banjo, Alley’s curious guest asked to see the spool. Following his inspection, Childs proclaimed himself to be the chief stockholder of the company and promised Felix that he would send him new banjo strings upon his return to New York.
Not only did he receive the promised strings, but Felix was surprised to be sent a very expensive new banjo that he played for years at mountain dances in the area. Mr. Childs persuaded the company’s board of directors to use an image of Felix playing his banjo in future advertisements as a testament to the strength of the thread.
Felix composed the Ballad of Kidder Cole when he was sixteen as a result of his disappointment experienced at one of these mountain dances, as fully described in the lyrics of the song, itself. His nemesis in the song was his cousin, Charlie Wright, the same man who was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for miraculously rescuing Gus Baty from certain death on Whiteside Mountain. Yes, and the same Charlie Wright whose widow, Helen Wright, later opened Helen’s Barn with the award money received following Charlie’s death.
Oh, my sweet little Kidder girl!
You cause my head to spin and whirl,
I am yours, and you are mine
Long as the sun and stars shall shine.
My name is Felix Eugene Alley
My best girl lives in Cashiers Valley;
She’s the joy of my soul
And her name is Kidder Cole.
I don’t know—it must have been by chance,
‘Way last fall when I went to a dance.
I was to dance with Kidder the livelong night
But got my time beat by Charley Wright.
If I ever have to have a fight
I hope it will be with Charley Wright;
For he was the ruin of my soul
When he beat my time with Kidder Cole.
When the dance was over I went away
To bide my time till another day,
When I could cause trouble and pain and blight
To sadden the soul of Charley Wright.
But she came back the following spring
And oh, how I made my banjo ring;
It helped me get my spirit right,
To beat the time of Charley Wright.
Kidder came home the first of June,
And I sang my song and played my tune;
I commenced trying with all my might
To put one over on Charley Wright.
When the speaking was over we had a dance
And then and there I found my chance
To make my peace with Kidder Cole
And beat Charley Wright; confound his soul.
Charley came in an hour or so,
But when he saw me with Kidder he turned to go
Back to his home with a saddened soul,
For I’d beat his time with Kidder Cole.
I’ve always heard the old folks say
That every dog will have his day;
And now all of Charley’s joy has passed,
For I’ve succeeded in beating him at last.
Oh, yes Kidder Cole is sweet;
And it won’t be long until we meet
At her home in Cashiers Valley
And she’ll change her name to Alley.
The lyrics to the song should be read to see how the courtship of Kidder Cole unfolded. According to Felix Eugene Alley, later a Superior Court Judge for the State of North Carolina, they are completely accurate, with one major exception. In a 1933 article in the Asheville Citizen-Times, Alley admitted that he never married Kidder Cole, despite the song’s ending. But, he also pointed out that Charlie Wright did not, either. The ballad was first recorded and made popular by Bascom Lundsford in 1928 and has been re-recorded recently by the bluegrass band, Appalachian Roadshow.
A rewritten version of the ballad by Bascom Lamer Lundsford from 1928.
Modern rendition of "The Ballad of Kidder Cole" by Appalachian Roadshow.