Photo by James Fox-Smith
Fifteen-year-old musician and historical actor James Linden Hogg plays banjo, bagpipes, piano, fife, and pennywhistle. But it was his 230-year-old Italian-made violin that he took to Natchitoches on July 18, when the Ascension Parish lad won the NSU Folklife Festival’s 2015 Louisiana State Fiddle Championship. With his father and fellow musician, Jim, Hogg was at the Folklife Festival to perform a concert of historic songs that recreate the soundtrack of early America.
“I especially love the eighteenth century,” noted James, when he stopped by our office to play some of the Scots-Irish songs he performed at the fiddle contest to winning effect. “I love that environment—when we were just getting out of the dark ages. I like to share the founding story of our country.” Clad in the breeches, frock coat, and tricorn hat that would have been an eighteenth century gentleman’s daily attire, Hogg looks the part. He sounds it too, from the moment he lifts that stunning instrument to his chin and begins to play.
Like his dad, who presents the Sunday Morning in Hogg Heaven musical variety show weekly on various local radio stations each week, James is a natural performer, and he rips into renditions of “Whiskey in the Jar,” and “Jefferson and Liberty” with a seasoned musicianship and powerful baritone voice that belie his tender years. With an extensive repertoire of folk, Celtic, and bluegrass songs and an encyclopedic knowledge of the country’s colonial period, Hogg is creating a name for himself in interpretive circles. In recent years, he has appeared and played at events including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the New Orleans Bicentennial celebration, and historical venues in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. In the video below, Hogg plays an impromptu porch concert at Country Roads.
