Frank O. Moon
Frank Moon was born in North Kingstown, RI in 1916, he joined the Old Fiddler’s Club of Rhode Island at 17, and made such an impression on his elders that only four years later he was elected club secretary, a post he held until his death seventy years later.
After Army service from 1942 to 1946, he was back with the Fiddlers’ Club and was also featured soloist of a popular local C & W group, Eddy Zack and the Hayloft Jamboree, that played on Providence and Boston radio and television stations and cut records for Decca until 1952.
With the Fiddlers’ Club he played all over southeastern New England, leading concerts at fairs and granges all over Rhode Island, yearly concerts at Hamburg, Brooklyn, and Woodstock Fairs in Connecticut (the latter for over fifty consecutive years) and Dudley Grange and Freetown’s Heritage Days in Massachusetts. Besides, he was always ready to join others in small groups for “gigs” ranging from antique car shows and retirement homes to receptions at the Rhode Island State House.
Not only was he far and away the best fiddler in the group, he was universally admired for his gentlemanly character and total modesty. We all marveled at his ability to play the most difficult of pieces, adding grace notes and flourishes, while all the time performing effortlessly. Both as a fiddler and as a human being he was world-class.
