The following is a special presentation of WTCI, Chattanooga, North Georgia, and the Tennessee Valley.

If it goes like this, it's going to be bad.

This week I sat down with real estate developer and Fiddler, the one and only Fletcher Bright.

That's not very good.

One of the founding members of the dismembered Tennesseans.

But I think the longevity of it, the fact that we are still at it, is truly remarkable.

Join us as we sit down for our very own jam session.

That's straight ahead on the A-list.

Yeah.

I did it.

I'm a fiddler.

Right?

Yeah.

Fletcher Bright, born and raised in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

He was married to Marshal Sawyer Bright for 46 years.

And together they raised five children.

By day, he's a real estate developer and civic leader.

But there's another side to this highly successful businessman.

He's considered a legend as a fiddler.

Well, Mr.

Bright, thank you so much for being on the A-list.

I'm glad to be here.

Now, anyone who knows you knows how you have fun.

I mean, to me, I would say that's playing your fiddle.

When when did that first become a passion for you?

You know, I started taking music lessons when I was oh seven, so maybe I can remember exactly.

And but my mother started all of us on music lessons, and it stuck with me.

Maybe better than some of the others.

And she started I started taking piano lessons with the lady that lived across the street.

And then she decided that maybe I would like to play the violin.

So I went down to Chadek Conservatory.

But I did kind of go downhill a little bit.

And, you know, my mother wanted me to play with the symphony, and I did play with the symphony, but not quite the way she thought I would go.

Those early lessons laid the foundation for what has become a lifelong love affair with music.

In the mid 1940s.

Schoolmates Fletcher Bright, Frank McDonald, Ainsley Moses and Sammy Joyce formed a band and found Sam and the dismembered Tennesseans.

Sammy Joyce was our leader at that time.

Sammy Jo was a great football player at Immokalee.

He could not play a musical instrument and he could not saying very well.

So he was a natural leader.

So why not make him head?

So he was our emcee.

And so we decided on opposites.

We said Found Sam and his dismembered Tennesseans being opposites from the lost John and his allied Kentuckians.

Okay.

And it was a bad idea.

And we should have changed the name.

But it's too late now.

Know a little too late.

60 years plus, it's stuck, right?

That's right.

In an era when jazz and musical legends like Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra topped the charts, the four young men chose a completely different musical direction.

They chose a genre known at that time as hillbilly music or mountain music.

They made called Hillbilly Music.

Okay.

You know, I mean, here were successful, nice, well-educated, you know, upstanding American boys with buttoned collars and the whole nine yards.

And they were out playing this country music.

Traditionally, bluegrass bands, you'll see a bank of microphones going across the stage five or six miles.

And people up there like window dressing in a store, no movement, no dynamics.

Now, when Sam, Sammy Joyce didn't stay with us after college.

So ironically, he became lonesome.

I guess he was.

And so we dropped that and just shortened it to the dismembered Tennessee.

Okay.

And then people always think that we are veterans of foreign wars with disabilities and.

The boys combine their music with humor, a dynamic that has held true through the years.

A natural comedian with quick wit and fire, Frank McDonald took to the emcee duties like a fish to water.

An album that unwittingly has turned out to be theft.

Proof.

None have been reported missing in the three years that we've been selling the thing.

And I believe I believe you could leave this album lying in the front seat of an unlocked automobile and come back.

Come back four days later, and you'll find this album right there where you left it.

Now, your car may be jacked up on cinder blocks and then they may have forcibly removed the radio from the dash panel.

But I can tell you that the album is right there.

Where are you on it?

But in 2001, Frank passed away, and although Fletcher had always been the band's marketing, managing and booking agent, he stepped in to carry the torch as the band's new emcee.

Doc started, of course, about 65 years ago.

Right now, 62 years ago.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

And he started out, of course, as a lonely, sad man playing the banjo.

Here he is, 62 years later, and he's playing the banjo.

Sad man.

Over the last two decades, the band has evolved.

Even more and with new additions.

Yet the remaining original members, a little older and a bit wiser and more experienced, are still together.

After more than 60 years.

Fletcher has always had a constant need to learn.

After graduating from the McCallie School, he attended Davidson College near Charlotte, North Carolina.

He earned his MBA at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and also a law degree from McKinsey School of Law.

It was in 1953.

Fletcher returned to the scenic city and joined his father's real estate company.

Was it important to you to stay in Chattanooga, or was that just something the way your life kind of panned out?

I never thought about doing anything else, really.

When I got back, my father had been in the real estate business since the late twenties and I had decided to go in with him.

So I graduated one day and came home the next day and started work.

And that's where I've been ever since.

Now, is that something that he really talked to you about as a teenager that you would always come back in the family?

No, no.

As a matter of fact, that was in the days of the Hamilton National Bank.

I worked in the head tellers cage every summer at Hamilton National Bank and really was considering going into the bank.

And as a career.

And I decided to go in with my father, and I'm glad I did.

Most of the time I'm glad I did.

What was it like in the family business?

It was very, very satisfying, I think.

And I got to know my dad better in that seven years.

He came back in 1953.

He died in 1960.

So in those seven years, I got to know him better than I had for the preceding 20 something years.

And we had a good relationship.

Even though your business has has grown substantially since you and your dad were just you and your secretary, is there a part of the philosophy of Fletcher Bryant that still is maintained the way your dad would have wanted it to be?

I hope so.

The there are few ideas that I've tried to carry forward, and they're pretty simple.

And one of them is to have fun.

And, you know, we spend particularly, you know, when we were doing residential and the office still does residential work, but when I was out showing property, literally, you know, putting you in the car and going out, it was a seven day a week job.

And if you didn't enjoy it, you were pretty unhappy person.

So I tried to have fun and not take it too seriously.

And I sort of said it this way, You know, real estate is up and down and there have been many times when I thought I was rich, but then I find out that I never was.

It can it can change pretty quick.

Keep it at a 90 degree angle.

Like many who find something fulfilling in life, Fletcher's love of music advanced beyond performance into teaching.

Okay, he's a master teacher, but he does it quietly, sharing this joy he has for this music that he adores with with an entire new more than one several generations of young fiddle players.

But then you go and then you do the double shuffle, you know.

I have always enjoyed teaching.

I taught at the university some places, but that was in real estate, real estate.

Law, real estate appraisal.

And then I taught the channel tech for a while.

I went down to Dalton and taught.

But then I thought, well, why not combine the fiddle, which I really love with teaching?

And I started assisting these workshops, week long workshops.

And then I started doing them on my own.

And I have done that for I guess 20 years.

But it's taken me to Oregon and to Canada and to England and to West Virginia pretty much everywhere, teaching a classroom.

Of people to play the Fifth.

And it's fun.

The big thrill is to open somebody's window if they learn one good trick.

I feel like the week is a success.

Now, I must tell you, I grew up in Alabama, so I'm a little embarrassed that I have to ask you this question.

What is the difference between a violin and a fiddle?

Okay.

I've always wanted to know.

So finally, the answer.

I've heard that definition only yesterday.

Well, perfect timing them.

Perfect timing.

A violin has strings, okay?

And a fiddle has string strings.

Now we'll get serious.

There's no difference.

It's just the way you play it.

Yeah.

Okay.

And what about your bow?

Bows are the same.

Okay, They're the same.

So, you know, fiddlers used to play it down here, you know, can do like this.

But most of the players today are awfully good at a 90 degree.

Maybe with his guidance.

Could I become awfully good as well?

So hold it about.

My first.

Lesson is on as he shows me.

That's not very good.

And shows me again how to hold a fiddler's bow.

Okay, now.

That's not all of and after a few moments of fine tuning.

That's going to come down here by the next one.

Next one.

I'm not feeling too bad about my first lesson.

Then again, I'm not too sure I'll be going on the road any time soon.

Okay, that's awesome.

Now, did you instill this love of music in your kids?

I know.

I think George plays in the dismembered Tennesseans.

Hee hee Hee is a good musician.

He plays the guitar and is good.

He is not a ham like perhaps his father.

He does not enjoy performing them one way.

Fletcher and his family share their love of music was starting and assisting in the operations of an annual festival, which brings hundreds of visitors and musicians to the riverfront, all for the love of bluegrass.

But what about your Three Sisters festival?

That is a real trip.

George conceived of the idea of having a bluegrass festival.

He got Carla Pritchard of the Downtown Partnership to organize and coordinate and so they collaborate.

They don't pay much attention to what I say, but they come up with some pretty good bands, some of the best in the country.

And the sisters are my daughters.

My daughters.

And nice.

Tribute.

To.

Thank you.

Now, I have to ask you if you can choose.

What do you think?

You love more real estate or your fiddle?

Better.

More fun.

More fun.

Of course.

You know, I'm not as active.

I've been trying to do less and less real estate.

And George runs the show now.

He really does.

And so I've enjoyed having more time for the music.

He is a recognized civic and business leader in the East Tennessee community, and along with his band, was a recipient of the 2009 Chattanooga History Makers Award.

It is the words of dear friends and fellow musicians that seemed to be the most revealing windows into the life he lives and the lives he touches with each day.

He he just does so much for the common good of people.

So James Fletcher is a consummate musician.

First of all.

Ostensibly, he's a fiddle player, but this guy plays guitar, piano, arranges music.

Well, I don't know many people like Fletcher.

I that he would truly be.

I think, if we had such categories.

We still do a little bit.

Today he's a Renaissance man in a lot of ways.

He's for some reason, he has this amazing business mind that so acute and so alive and brilliant.

He was just a lifelong friend.

He's the most generous person and caring person about other people that I've ever seen.

Most wonderful business man and finest fiddle player, greatest fisherman.

He just doesn't know how to fail at anything.

And he was brought up a wonderful family and all this stuff.

So that's why I describe him.

But just the greatest friend in the world to me.

Being his friend is one of the greatest gifts that I have.

Could you ever have imagined, as a 14 year old at McCallie, creating a name that was, you know, the antithesis of your heroes with the foundations that the dismembered Tennesseans would be so iconic now, and not just in Chattanooga, but really, you know, on a regional and national scale.

Well, we don't want to over play that idea, but it's nice to hear.

But I think the longevity of it, the fact that we are still at it, is truly remarkable.

And the fact that we still have a lot of fun with it.

And as soon as it is no longer fun, but we would not want to do it.

Well, I read somewhere that you will play a fiddle for anyone who asks you to.

Is that true?

I think I know where this is going.

I. I can't have you on the air without asking you to play a little fiddle.

Okay.

Would you do us the honor?

I'll be glad to.

I'll be back.

You know, it just so happens I have a fiddle here.

Well, look at that.

Yeah.

Coincidental.

Well, I can feel the joy.

Well, thank you so much for being on the A-list.

And thank you for showing us what it means to play on the real strings.

All right.

It's been fun.

It's been a pleasure, Mr. Wright.

Thank you.

All right.

After just one lesson with Mr.

Bright, I think I got the hang of it.

You ready?

Oh, well, maybe next time.

Fletcher Bright, a true ambassador of bluegrass music.

He has made a lasting contribution to the music world, preserving the styles and techniques he's picked up over many years of travels.

Whether it's performing or teaching, this fabulous fiddler with a penchant for fun shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Be sure to join us for our next edition of The A-list as I hit a high note with Maestro Bob Bernhardt.

I'm Allison Leibovitz.

See you soon.

Perfect.

I think you should take the show on the road.

We can do this.

We can do this.

Coach.

Put me in.