In hockey terms, Murfreesboro fiddler Maddie Denton got a hat trick Saturday night, winning the grand championship of the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree for the third time since she defeated her mother in the finals in 2012.
Denton made it to the finals Saturday night from the Junior Fiddlers’ division, moving forward to face fellow Rutherford countian and Senior Champion Gail Johnson of LaVergne in the fiddle-off for the Berry C. Williams Memorial Award. Each competitor, in the finals, was directed to play three songs including a break-down, waltz and a song of their choice.
Johnson had made it to the senior finals (fiddlers 40 and over) by emerging from a field of three finalists, one of which was Denton’s mother, Marcia Denton. Maddie had claimed both of her prior titles by beating her mother in the fiddle-off finals in 2012 and 2014 but was denied a third family feud for all the marbles when Johnson was able to edge out Marcia Denton in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, Maddie’s path to the finals came over a couple of up-and-coming fiddlers including Giri Peters of Nashville and Hillary Klug of Shelbyville. The former winner of the grand championship, Ivy Phillips, competed in other divisions but was not allowed to defend her title this year because of the rule that require consecutive winners to sit out a year before getting another crack at the title.
Earlier in the day, another up-and-comer claimed the James G. (Bobo) Driver Memorial Award for beginning fiddlers. The award is named for Driver, who started the children’s competition back in the 1980s. Uma Peters won the award after wowing the crowd with her sawing of the fiddle in the Beginner division. Joshua Palmore of Springfield was given the “Entertainer of the Year Award” in the Beginner division, the win getting him the Nolan Turner Award.