Click to view “My West Virginia: Show 3″ on South Charleston instrument maker Harold Hayslett. The retired Union Carbide pipefitter has made 81 violins, 63 cellos, 13 violas, plus assorted bows and other instruments. He turned 90 on Dec. 26 and was honored with a West Virginia Cultural Center event , where some of the Mountain State’s finest musicians performed classical, old-time and contemporary music, almost all of it on hand-made Hayslett instruments. Our audio slideshow features more than 30 photographs of that day with music played on Hayslett’s creations.

A companion CD, “The Hayslett Collection ~ A Musical Tribute,” is available for purchase online at cdbaby.com/cd/hayslett. And locally at Taylor Books, Frog Creek Books, Fret’n’ Fiddle and Mountaineer Frames (both St. Albans), Ferguson’s Tea Room (Hurricane) and at Tamarack.

INTERVIEW: Listen to a West Virginia Public Broadcasting interview by Kate Long with Harold Hayslett and family.

Click the photo above or right here to watch  the 5-minute multimedia slideshow, ‘My West Virginia,”  about the debut induction ceremony on Nov. 16, 2007 for the new West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. See the post below for links to West Virginia Public Broadcasting interviews with inductees and with Hall of Fame Founder Michael Lipton.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting recorded several interviews and stories related to the recent debut of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Some links take you to the the W.Va. Public Broadcasting site, others to YouTube clips:

One-hour “Aging With Grace and Dignity” show featuring conversations with all five living members of first class inducted into new West Virginia Music Hall of Fame: (in order in photo above) George Crumb, Hazel Dickens, Little Jimmy Dickens, Billy Edd Wheeler and Bill Withers. Click here
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Interview with Music Hall of Fame founder Michael Lipton: Click here and here.
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Profile of new Hall of Fame member Hazel Dickens: Click here and here -
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A story on the making of the Blind Alfred Reed tribute album: Click here
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Profile of new Hall of Fame member Little Jimmy Dickens: Click here
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TO VIEW THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE’S  ‘My West Virginia’ multimedia slideshow on the Hall of fame induction ceremony, click here.

Photograph by Douglas Imbrogno. Click photos to enlarge

Eventgoers headed into the Nov. 16, 2007 West Virginia Music Hall of Fame debut induction ceremony at the state Cultural Theater first had to pass through a gauntlet of protesters. They were lined up to express their objections to the recent unceremonious ousting of long-times state Archives and History director Fred Armstrong by Division of Culture and History head Randall Reid-Smith.