Carl Koonce Crowther: guitar master

With his nimble fingers playing the sometimes soothing, perhaps stirring compositions of Mozart or Bachon on his guitar, Carl Koonce Crowther might just as easily switch to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” or “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Crowther is best known in music circles for his masterful playing of the classics, but he likes just about all types of music from blues and country to classical.

He grew up in Vicksburg, the son of Charlie and Annabelle Crowther. His schooling began in kindergarten at First Baptist Church, then elementary grades at Jett and high school at Vicksburg.

Carl comes from a musical background. His mother plays piano, and his father, now deceased, played violin.

‘He loved Irish fiddle tunes,” Carl recalled of his father. As a youth, he spent hours sitting on porches in Yazoo County where he grew up listening to old timers play their fiddles.

Even the name Crowther has a music-related background: It’s an English name that comes from the Welsh Crwth, which was a bowed stringed instrument similar to a violin in medieval England.

Carl got his first guitar, a J.C. Penny toy that was tuneable, when he was a mere child, and he spent hours in the afternoons teaching himself to play. It was with this guitar that he made his first public appearance in a kindergarten Christmas program.

He was 8 or 9 when he got his first real guitar, a Stella, from Michele’s Music Store in Vicksburg. He took lessons from Ralph Mason, and when the Boy Scouts in Troop 105 had a camp out, Carl took his guitar along and sang and played.

As a teen, when he was about 15, Carl taught himself to play rock guitar by listening to musicians such as Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He and other boys got together to form a group they named The Pharaohs. Carl calls them a garage band because “we met in the garage to practice and drove the neighbors crazy.” In 1980, he was in a band called The Triple Threat that played for parties and in festivals.

Carl went to Hinds Junior College (now Hinds Community College) for two years and then to the University of Southern Mississippi, a school noted for its music programs. There, his interest became more serious. He majored in psychology but needed an elective, “so, it was natural that I take guitar,” he said.

He was fortunate that his professor was Giovanni De Chiaro, a nationally acclaimed musician.

Carl isn’t restricted to playing just one type of guitar. His classical guitar is an Esteve, handmade in Spain with a cedar top. His electric guitars are a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster. He has a Guild, which is a six-stringed acoustic, and a Mitchell, which is a 12-string.

With all those instruments, “when I come home, my Subaru is loaded,” he said. “Any more, and I’ll need a tour truck.”

He sometimes plays locally, and he recalls playing at church with Rachael Seago, who was an organist, and later with Sheila Hess, also an organist at First Baptist. He has also played background music for silent movies at The Strand Theatre in downtown Vicksburg, which is a family tradition: His grandmother, Alice Koonce, played the piano for silent films and told Carl if no score was provided, “just improvise.”

He has played heavy metal and lead guitar at Anastasia in Meridian and at the Town Creek Saloon in Jackson and has also played cover music for Queensrÿche, Metallica and Iron Maiden.

His first public performances, other than when he was a child, were with a Christian punk rock band that played in King of Prussia, Pa., Peoria, Ill., and at the Texas Rock Festival.

Carl’s music took a decided direction toward classical when he moved to Austin, Texas, in 1991. He began work as a clinical psychologist but had time to take guitar lessons from Mike Harris, a master of classical guitar.

Carl has his favorites, though his repertoire is extensive. He likes Francisco Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” and “Capricho árabe,” and Issac Albéniz’s “Sevilla” and “Leyenda.” He also lists Bach’s “Cello Suite in D Major” as a favorite. Professionally, he is known by his middle name, Koonce.

He’s a regular performer—and has been for 15 years—at Mozart’s, a coffeehouse in Austin. The city is also a great place to hear live music, he said, and among the concerts he has attended were those by Gordon Lightfoot, B.B. King and Ringo Starr.

Carl still practices, he said, “when I have time.”

He and his cat, General Beauregard, come to Vicksburg to visit Carl’s mother and friends.

“When I’m crossing the river, heading back to Texas, I’m already planning my next trip home.”

Gordon Cotton is the curator emeritus of the Old Court House Museum. He is the author of several books and is a renowned historian.