Friday, October 11, 1996

Bonnie Workman lives to fiddle around

By BARTON CROMEENS
Staff Writer

RULE - A sibling rivalry rooted six decades in the past has Bonnie Workman burning up the roads most nights of the week.

The 66-year-old fiddle player is headed for her next gig, hungry for the adrenaline rush she gets from the people who enjoy her music.

She plays for anyone who asks, and almost everyone does.

She plays because her brother didn't want her to back in 1936.

"I started mostly out of spite, I guess," Workman said. "He had a violin, and he wanted to take lessons, but he said if I touched it, he wouldn't.

"That suited me fine. It was the only fight I ever won with him."

For Workman, it was the beginning of a love affair with music and the reaction she receives from her audiences.

From playing Little Brown Jug as an 8-year-old standing on top of a pool table surrounded by inebriated, dancing cowboys to performing in the Baptist church, Workman played anytime and anywhere she got the chance.

She still does.

"I think God gave me a talent, and if one person out there feels better or gets inspired, then I feel I've accomplished something. I just have a love of music and want to make people happy."

Senior citizen dances, local musicals, care homes, benefits, funerals - Workman said she plays wherever she is wanted and whenever she is needed. She plays at least four nights a week before working the night shift at Rice Springs Care Home in Haskell.

She has played in hospitals for people on their deathbeds who want to hear one last song, and more than once she has taken time out of her day to play requests for somebody who is feeling low.
Workman said she even fiddled her way out of a ticket once.

Driving home one night, Workman heard a bluegrass tune on the radio and began to zig-zag along with it before pulling off to the side of the road to see if she could play it on her fiddle.

A policeman pulled up and asked her if she was drunk.

"I said I wasn't drunk, that I just had to play that tune before it got out of my head," Workman said. "He told me to go ahead and try, so I played it and then played some other stuff for about 30 minutes. I guess he forgot about the ticket."

It wasn't always cookoffs, benefits and playing just for the fun of it, though.

Workman saw the big time, and she still catches glimpses of it now and then.

She played her first big dance when she was 10 years old. When she was 14, she won the annual fiddling contest in Lovington, N.M. At age 15, she played with Gene Autry in Chicago and began playing every week on the World-Wide Hook-Up in Clovis, N.M., for soldiers fighting overseas in World War II.

After graduating from high school, Workman married and moved to Las Vegas where she played dances while her husband dealt blackjack. She also played the nightclubs in Los Angeles for a while.
Workman has also played with Roger Miller, and in June, she was invited by Hank Williams' daughter to play at the Hank Williams Sr. Memorial in Georgiana, Ala.

She has played the Texas Cowboy Reunion fiddle contest in Stamford for 15 consecutive years and won it four times, including this year. Workman also returned to Lovington, N.M., this year for the first time since she was 15 and placed third in the annual fiddle contest.

"I've had my dose of the big-time, but it's too much pressure, and they expect perfection," Workman said. "Making folks happy is better than making money to me, so now I watch the people I play for, and as long as they're enjoying it and somebody will listen, I guess I'll keep fiddling."