Biography:W.E. Claunch

Biographical notes
 W.E. "Ernest" Clauch (1894-1958) was the son and grandson of a fiddle players and the youngest of five brothers. His grandfather was from Nottingham, England, who emigrated in the 1800's to settle and cultivate land near Guntown, Mississippi. W.E.'s daughter, Christine Haygood (who accompanied her father on guitar on his 1939 recordings), maintained that there "was never an instrument he couldn't play. He played the piano, the guitar, mandolin, banjo and French harp--it was just natural, it was just a natural talent God given daddy." As a young man he "trooped" with a "circus", playing music. W.E.'s extended family were also musical, and the family often got together for musical gatherings. Claunch owned his own land where he raised cotton, corn and a "truck patch" and kept several milk cows. He regularly played fiddle for dances and at area fiddle contests, and for a time, played at the theater in Baldwyn, Mississippi, where he would station himself outside, playing to attract business for the newest movie in town. . W.E. and Christine recorded twenty-six tunes for Herbert Halpert and Albert Ferris of the Library of Congress, performed at the Claunch home.