Most music lovers in Texas knew Nobles, affectionately
called "Bones" for his eclectic choice of instrument - a pair of cow
ribs, one black, one white.
Like many traditional musicians, John Nobles learned to play
music during childhood. Playing rhythm sticks with other boys inspired him to
create a unique sound to earn more money shining shoes and playing in a small
combo.
Playing bones has African and
Afro-Caribbean antecedents, and the improvisation and syncopation required to
play bones are hallmarks of African music. Likewise, as in the song John Nobles
sings about Miss Possum and Miss Toad, during the 19th and early 20th
centuries, African American stories, songs, and toasts featured animals, which
many scholars think is an African influence.
John Nobles’s creativity led him
to make his own bones and develop a secret salve with which to cure them. His
musical gifts led him to mastery and allowed him to play many types of
traditional ensembles, from bluegrass to zydeco.
Growing up in rural Alabama
and Texas as the child of a sharecropper, John Nobles demonstrates how
traditional culture enriches life and builds resilience.
He died in October 1997 at age 95, and played the bones in
the hospital before his death, his daughter, Ethel Franklin, told The
Enterprise in 1997.
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