AFP Guest Artists
In 2002, a group from Tucson's Old Time
Fiddler's Association came to the Arizona Folklore Preserve for a visit. Dolan
asked them to bring their fiddles along, and Chuck Camp did just that. His
wife, Mae, brought her guitar, and Dolan arranged to have them take the stage
to do a couple of numbers. They received a rousing round of applause
for Chuck's lively fiddling and Mae's expert strumming.
Chuck and Mae Camp are two very important
people in the Western Music industry, especially in and around Tucson. An
article in the October 2004 issue of the Tucson
History Forum, paid tribute to Chuck and Mae in this way:
Although Bob Nolan [who was a graduate of Tucson
High and is said to have written "Cool Water" while a student there]
was a founder of the Sons
of the Pioneers, their
tenure in Tucson began in 1984, four years after Nolan’s death.
Tucsonan Nick Curtralis
proudly tells the story of a talk with his friend Chuck Camp, who with
his wife, Mae, had started the Triple C Chuckwagon as an entertainment
and dining establishment in 1971. In the beginning, Chuck (on fiddle)
and Mae (on guitar) provided the entertainment with friends and family.
Nick suggested to Chuck that he hire the Sons of the Pioneers to play
at the Triple C. Chuck’s reply was that they couldn’t
possibly afford them. As it happened, they probably could not have
afforded NOT to contract with the Sons, who wintered at the Triple C from
1984 until its closing days a couple of years ago.
"Tucson's
Role in the Development and Continuation
of
the Western Music Genre" - by Bonnie Brock
Sadly, Chuck Camp passed away a few months
after their visit to the AFP. Mae has since returned several times,
once as a good friend of guest artist Tom Chambers, who credits Chuck with
helping to establish the Western Music Association and getting Tom elected
as its founding president.
After Chuck and Mae closed the Triple C,
they continued their work to help preserve the Western music traditions. Mae
still meets and makes music with the Old Time Fiddlers group, and is a member
of the Home Ranch Hands, the Tucson Chapter of the Western Music Association. They
have their big "Tucson Cowboy Roundup" every November. |
