July 2, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
A Normandy Tennessee boy earned the top Jamboree award Saturday as the best fiddler in the National Championship for Country Musician Beginners.
Finley Reed won the coveted James G. “Bobo” Driver Memorial Award, named for the man who started the children’s competition during the 1980’s as part of the annual Fiddler’s Jamboree and Crafts Festival.
Members of Mr. Driver’s family presented the award to Reed including Mickey and Jimmy Driver, sons of Bobo, and Adam Driver, his grandson.
Meanwhile Reagan Brown of Springfield was named winner of the Nolan Turner Memorial Entertainer of the Year award. The honor is presented to the best overall instrumental entertainer among winners in the dobro guitar, mandolin, five string banjo, and flat top guitar competition. Turner, who died in October 2017, was a long time Fiddlers’ Jamboree supporter and photographer. Brown won the Dobro Guitar competition, received second place in the Mandolin category, and Third Place in both the Five String Banjo and Flat Top Guitar Contests.
The National Championship for Country Musician Beginners showcases the talents of children up to age twelve in seven categories of competition.
This year’s winners are as follows:
Fiddle: First Place- Finley Reed of Normandy; Second Place- Ace Walters of Lebanon; and Third Place- Deacon Collier of Gallatin.
Buck Dancing: First Place- Colleena Ralston of Lebanon; Second Place Trebel Chunn of Greenbrier, and Third Place- Elizabeth Clark of Barren Plains, Tennessee
Clogging: First Place- Colleena Ralston of Lebanon; Second Place Trebel Chunn of Greenbrier, and Third Place- Aaliyah Flynn of New Johnsonville, Tennessee
Dobro Guitar: First Place- Reagan Brown of Springfield; Second Place- Eden Harris of Rockvale; Third Place-No Winner.
Mandolin: First Place-Ace Walters of Lebanon; Second Place- Reagan Brown of Springfield; and Third Place- Ty McMeans of Athens, Alabama.
Five String Banjo: First Place- Alex Davis of Madison, Alabama; Second Place- Will Turner of Brentwood; and Third Place-Reagan Brown of Springfield.
Flat Top Guitar: First Place- Ty McMeans of Athens, Alabama; Second Place-Regan Ray of Bloomington; and Third Place- Reagan Brown of Springfield.