Keeping his music alive

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October 2, 2012

Keeping his music alive

By BRAD KELLAR Herald-Banner Staff The Herald-Banner Tue Oct 02, 2012, 11:41 PM CDT

GREENVILLE — Today is Alva Lorenzo “Trig” Ward Day in Greenville, as recognized by a 2009 City Council proclamation.

It was also the late Ward’s birthday and a memorial concert is planned Saturday at the Hunt County Fairgrounds, in tribute to Ward and his family’s musical heritage.

The Third Annual Trig Ward Memorial Scholarship Music Festival is set from 2 until 10 p.m. Saturday at the Fairgrounds.

Artists scheduled to appear include Steve Combs, Dr Steve Bander and Eleventh Hour, Landon Mozer & Layne Farr, Perry Jones, the Jeff Kessler Band, Mike Castleberry, Orage The Water and Colton Oneal. Admission will be $10 per person.

Trig’s sons, Donald and James Ward, organized the event to raise funds for a scholarship fund in Ward’s name, to benefit a local child wanting to attend to college to study music.

Alva Lorenzo “Trig” Ward, who passed away in July 2009 at the age of 84, was remembered for his legacy of playing guitar and teaching music to local residents of all ages throughout his life.

Music-making on mandolins, fiddles, banjos, organs, saxophones and guitars is a family tradition, which Ward had passed along to thousands of students.

Prior to his death, Ward said it was a persistent mother who convinced him to give lessons to her son.

“I started teaching guitar back in the ‘50s,” he said in an interview with the Herald-Banner’s entertainment writer Alice Reese. “One little boy wanted to take lessons and I told his mother that I didn’t have time to teach anybody. I named several guys that I knew who played guitar, but they didn’t want to teach.

“So the mother says, ‘Give him one lesson a week.’ I said that I didn’t have time for that. She said, ‘One lesson a month.’ So I said ‘Okay.’ I was just going to take that little boy, and he was going to be the only one. I started with him on a Monday night. I never will forget, I gave him the one lesson. First thing you know, that little boy had several of his friends playing with him.”

Ward said he began to play music when he was 11 and his father bought him a guitar for Christmas. He was taught by Abe Langston, who worked with his father. After Langston died, Ward put the guitar lessons on hold until he enrolled in Jarvis Christian College. It was there he met Jacob Bridges, who provided Ward with renewed inspiration.

While he appreciated all kinds of music, Ward said he considered himself to be a country artist.

“What I do is country,” he said. “In the time that I came along, that’s what everybody did. I still play a lot of country. I also like to perform the blues. If you’re going to play country, make it sound country. If you’re going to play blues, blues has a little different appeal, so give it a bruised sound.”

Ward also formed a country band known as The Rhythm Kings, playing guitar and singing lead.

Donald and James carried on the family tradition with the local favorite band known as The Blues Doctors.

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