If Trouble Don't Kill Me

Ralph Berrier's book, If Trouble Don't Kill Me, is a biography of his grandpa, Clayton Hall and Clayton's twin, Saford. The twins grew up in Carroll County, played music, lived a hardscrabble life, played music, survived WWII, and played music.

I enjoyed the down-home feel of this book. It captures a bit of music history as well as the culture of rural Carroll County, Virginia.

The neatest thing about reading this book is that I recognized some of the names—including the name of a girl who was a year ahead of me in high School. I grew up watching "Top of the Morning" on WDBJ (Channel 7) every morning, so I was familiar with Irving Sharp. In fact, my mama and her brothers were childhood friends of the Sharps.

In this video, Berrier reads a passage from his book:



Berrier's book came out from Random House last summer, so it's already been reviewed and written about quite a bit. You can find some in-depth articles and reviews about If Trouble Don't Kill Me here, here, and here.

One of the interesting thing revealed in the book is that the Hall twins were actually Smiths.  My daddy, a  Smith from Franklin County, used to play the fiddle on the radio in Roanoke in the late 30s or early 40s. I'm not sure which station—it was several years before I was born. He knew some of the other musicians who played country music; I remember he was a fan of Tommy Magness, whom Berrier mentions in If Trouble Don't Kill Me. Like the Hall boys, my daddy had a lanky build, dark eyes, and dark hair.  Here's a picture of him:

Although the Halls and my Smith family were a couple of counties apart,  I can't help but wonder if there's some kinship way, way back. 

Ralph Berrier will be one of the authors at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival in downtown Rocky Mount, VA, on October 1, 2011. Y'all stop by his table and take a look at his book. I highly recommend it.

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