Crooked Tunes show playlist
P Stamler
This was the long-promised "Crooked Tunes" show, for which I've been gathering
material these last several months. (I'll post the complete set of suggestions
in a separate message.).
Songs get crooked too, in all of the usual ways and more.
I decided to limit myself to pieces from the USA (and one from Canada); if I
started to go worldwide, no telling where I would have found myself. And doing
this sort of show with, say, Eastern European tunes would be just too easy,
like shooting fish in a barrel. So while I included some non-North-American
tunes in my database, I wound up not using them. As it turned out, there was no
shortage of material. In fact, I barely scratched the surface -- 35 cuts out of
some 180 suggestions.
I did the show on this particular weekend because yesterday was the anniversary
of the first fiddlers' convention held in North America, on August 30, 1736, in
Hanover County, VA. I also thought about dedicating it to Richard M. Nixon, but
it turns out his birthday is in January.
Phil Cooper & Margaret Nelson: "No Time to Tarry Here" (private) [theme]
Steve Mote & friends: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Take" (private tape)
[the late st. louis musician sings this classic crooked: 'take me out to the
ball game, take/me out on the town, buy/me some peanuts..." etc., with the
words always one note away from the tune]
Art Galbraith: "Billy in the Low Ground" ("Dixie Blossoms", Rounder)
[this retired postmaster from southwest missouri had a uniquely tuneful
playing style, more akin to violin than fiddle, and he took delight in turning
common tunes into crooked ones. gordon mccann played guitar. galbraith was a
national treasure]
-----
Bruce Molsky: "Jeff Sturgeon" ("Poor Man's Dream", Rounder)
[bruce plays a number of tunes from the great kentucky fiddler john salyer. i
don't have any of salyer's recordings, but this is a brilliant rendition. then
again, bruce is just plain brilliant]
French Carpenter: "Shelvin' Rock" ("Elzics Farewell", Kanawha)
[french carpenter of west virginia taught us a lot of great tunes, many of
them crooked, back in the 1970s]
New Lost City Ramblers: "Brown's Ferry Blues" ("Vol. 1: The Early Years",
Smithsonian/Folkways)
[crooked? yep -- the phrase 'lord, lord, i got them' is a measure of 6/4 in
the middle of a 4/4 song. goes by so smooth you don't notice]
-----
Bob Holt: "Doc Brown's Dream" ("Got a Little Home to Go To", Rounder)
[another treasure, from ava, missouri. in most of the country, contras are
clocked around 120 beats per minute. around here it's a little faster, often
128. bob holt has been clocked at 140. when you dance to him, you *dance*]
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys: "Hot Corn, Cold Corn"
("Flatt & Scruggs at Carnegie Hall")
['yes, sir' -- a 9th measure, again 6/4 instead of 4/4. the tune is quite
similar to the a part of the previous tune]
Will Adam(s): "Tie Your Dog, Sally Gal" ("Close to Home", Smithsonian/Folkways)
[one of mike seeger's first field recordings, at a horse barn in maryland.
it's still not quite clear whether the fiddler's name was adam or adams]
Bruce Greene: "Kentucky Winder" ("Five Miles of Ellum Wood", artist's issue)
[greene has put out several cds of unaccompanied fiddling, and it's quite
wonderful -- you'd expect it to sound irredeemably stark, but instead it's rich
and full. this was the 8-8-4-4-4 tune]
Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin: "Going to the West" ("Our Town", Rounder)
[first collected in a field recording from alabama, made popular by peggy
seeger. one of the saddest songs from the westward expansion; husband wants to
go west, wife wants to stay behind]
Ron Hughey: "Yellow Gals" ("Country Fiddlin', Ozark Style", American Heritage
Music Corp.)
[another great regional player, and a champion for many years. almost
certainly he wrote this tune, or someone in his family did]
Lynn "Chirps" Smith: "Old Red" ("Down in Little Egypt", Vigortone)
[jim nelson on guitar. colleted by chirps from ethel 'old red' abbott of
mattoon, illinois. have i mentioned that this is a superb new cd?]
-----
James Bryan: "Soapsuds Over the Fence" ("Lookout Blues", Rounder)
[alabama fiddler bryan's best known for being part of the rising fawn string
ensemble with norman and nancy blake. an alabama tune]
John Jackson: "Boat's Up the River" ("Don't Let Your Deal Go Down", Arhoolie)
[crooked tunes are certainly not confined to old-time music; here's a crooked
blues, from a master]
Bart Veerman: "Bunkyo" ("Some o' Mine and Some I Like", artist's issue)
[from a *brand* new recording -- it arrived in my mailbox the day i was
burning material for the show, although he'd been kind enough to send a
pre-production mp3. i haven't even had a chance to hear the rest of the disc,
but this cut -- named for a district of tokyo filled with excellent yakitori
stands -- says he's a heck of a good and subtle clawhammer banjo player. from
ontario]
Ed Haley: "Indian Squaw" ("Forked Deer", Rounder)
[another tune that has been picked up by a lot of fiddlers. from home
recordings]
Peggy Seeger: "Wedding Dress Song" ("The Folkways Years: Songs of Love and
Politics", Smithsonian/Folkways)
[wonderful banjo playing and fine crooked singing]
-----
Narmour & Smith: "Avalon Quick Step" ("Mississippi Breakdown", County)
[narmour and smith, of avalon, mississippi, are perhaps best-known for telling
the a & r guy at okeh, when he asked about other musicians they might know,
'oh, yeah, there's this guy who fills in on guitar for us sometimes when smith
can't play, black fellow named john hurt'. a magnificently crooked tune]
Carolina Buddies: "The Story That the Crow Told Me" ("The Story That the Crow
Told Me, Vol. 1", Yazoo)
[a silly song that gets a couple of extra beats and two caws per chorus]
Pete Seeger: "Mexican Blues" ("Darling Corey/Goofing-Off Suite",
Smithsonian/Folkways)
[pete has always had a weakness for latino and caribbean tunes -- see his
latest, for example, 'take it from dr. king' -- and irregular rhythms. someday
i'll learn to play this one]
Richard Greene & Grass is Greener: "Sales Tax Toddle" ("Sales Tax Toddle",
Rebel)
[this gave me the idea for the show, several months ago]
Henry Townsend: "Alley Strut" ("Mule", Nighthawk)
[st. louis blues pianist and guitar player -- and singer -- with an approach
to piano that's as much jazz as blues, very irregular rhythms and emphases,
extra beats everywhere. it's pure magic. he's in his 90s now, and played this
weekend at the st. louis blues festival]
Leadbelly w. the Golden Gate Quartet: "Midnight Special" ("Take This Hammer",
Bluebird)
[*this* is a crooked tune? yep. listen to the transition between the verse and
chorus]
-----
New Lost City Ramblers: "The Little Carpenter" ("Vol. 2: Out Standing In Their
Field", Smithsonian/Folkways)
[collected only once, in kentucky, from the same source that gave us 'the old
fish song']
Fuzzy Mountain String Band: "Santa Anna's Retreat" ("Summer Oaks and Porch",
Rounder)
[a band once played this tune for a contra dance i was at. the results weren't
pretty, although the tune certainly is. don't try this at home. on second
thought, do try it at home, not on a dance floor]
Stripling Bros.: "Lost Child" ("The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological
Order, Vol. 1", Document)
[alabama string band, wonderfully wild]
Margaret MacArthur: "The Major's Britches" ("Ballads Thrice Twisted", artist's
issue]
[from the helen hartness flanders collection of vermont ballads. flanders's
husband, by the way, was sen. ralph flanders, who was one of the few senators
to stand up to joe mccarthy]
Gene Goforth: "Emminence Breakdown" ("Emminence Breakdown", Rounder)
[more missouri fiddle music, from a mentor of john hartford's]
----
[the last set was all fiddle tunes, undiluted:]
Carter Bros. & Son: "Jenny on the Railroad" ("Mississippi Breakdown", County)
[another wild band, this one from mississippi. if this is a railroad, it had a
few extra ties]
Don Pedi w. Bruce Greene: "Dandy Lusk/Pucheon Floor" ("The Hog Went Through the
Fence Yoke and All", Class IV)
[superb mountain dulcimer playing and more of bruce greene's powerful
fiddling; the tunes came from kentucky]
Mark Campbell: "Melvin's Bonaparte's Retreat" ("Deep Roots", Campbell
Industries)
[from the legendary west virginia fiddler melvin wine. i didn't have access to
any of wine's recordings in air-quality form, but campbell learned several
tunes from him. this version of the tune mutates to 6/8, and a crooked 6/8 at
that. another unaccompanied fiddler, from virginia, with a rich tone]
Luke Hignight's Ozark Strutters: "Fort Smith Breakdown" ("Echoes of the Ozarks,
Vol. 1", County)
[arkansas tune; the name is often misspelled 'highnight']
John Hartford: "Flannery's Dream" ("Wild Hog in the Red Brush", Rounder)
[tune by ricky skaggs. had to play some harford]
J. P. & Annadeene Fraley: "Wild Rose of the Mountain" ("Wild Rose of the
Mountain", Rounder)
[a sweet, loping crooked tune, not the song by si kahn]
-----
[and to end, the crookedest tune i know -- at least in this version -- and one
of the most beautiful and haunting performances i've ever heard:]
Art Galbraith: "Flowers of Edinburgh" ("Dixie Blossoms", Rounder)
So that was the show; comments and questions always welcome. Deep thanks to all
the folks on the folkdj listserv and others, plus the
rec.music.country.old-time newsgroup, who contributed suggestions, to the
several artists who sent cds expressly for this project, and especially to Jim
Nelson (of the Ill-Mo Boys and the Vigortones), who was kind enough to lend me
a big grocery sack filled with CD and LP goodies. Thanks to all, and Keep It
Crooked!
"No Time to Tarry Here" airs Sundays from 2-4 pm central daylight time
(1900-2100 GMT) on KDHX-St. Louis, 88.1FM, and over the net at
http://www.kdhx.org .
Peace,
Paul
David 'Gus' Garelick
> I did the show on this particular weekend because yesterday was the anniversary
> of the first fiddlers' convention held in North America, on August 30, 1736, in
> Hanover County, VA. I also thought about dedicating it to Richard M. Nixon, but
> it turns out his birthday is in January.
Nixon and fiddling? A 'crooked' president, perhaps? I don't know if anyone ever named a
fiddle tune after him, but there is indeed a real tune called "Kicking George Bush
Upstairs." (On Peter Ostrousko's recent CD, "Coming Down from Red Lodge"). Written long
before the (s)election. It probably should be crooked, but it's not.
A great idea to do a program of crooked tunes. I do a similar radio program here in
Northern California and I did a crooked show one time, but I'd have to dig out my playlist
and see what I played. It's probably wise to confine it to North America. If you get
into Greek or Balkan music, crooked is the norm, as you probably know. In Canada, quite a
lot of the Metis fiddling is crooked, and likewise many Quebecois tunes. The music of the
Gu-Achi fiddlers of Southern Arizona can be very crooked, not to mention a large portion
of West Virginia tunes. It makes you wonder, where did the notion of a "straight" tune
come from? Contra dance callers require it, but it probably wasn't always that way.
Balkan dancers have done very well with 7/8 and 9/8 etc for centuries. I notice you did
not include any Cajun tunes, which are deceptively crooked. Dancers in Louisiana have no
trouble keeping up with a strong 2/4 beat, even if the phrases are of differing
lengths. Wish I could hear your program out here. Keep it up.
GUS GARELICK
sundog
10 bars.Many people recorded it & it should be on your list......
Tony Spadaro
Johnny" for me. He had a fifth beat in the first bar of the first verse. The
extra beat was in no other verse. He had played with a dance band in the
late 20s and early 30s.
I always assumed the extra beat was what happens when an old man's
memory begins to play tricks on him. Then one day I was looking through
Lomax's book and found the first or second version of "Frankie and Johnny"
in the book had the extra beat.
--
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"P Stamler" <psta...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030901023630...@mb-m25.aol.com...
Nancy
where we did nothing but circle up four all night) with the Laurel
Creek String Band. As they were warming up, they played an incredible,
and incredibly crooked, version of Mississippi Sawyer. It dropped a
beat each time, so that instead of 16 beats per part, there were 15.
When they were done, I asked Cecil Gurganus (the fiddler) where he got
it from, and he pointed to Gil Adams, who was playing banjo with the
band on Saturday, but is the fiddler for the Corklickers. Apparently,
this exchange happened about 20 years ago, so some of you may know
this version already, but I was blown out of the water!
While I have your attention, the Corklickers are about to release a
new cd- the title will be "Un-Corked".
Nancy Mamlin
Ulf Jagfors
'rec.music.country.old-time' message about your "Crooked Tune" show.
One good, very crooked tune by the Stripling Brothers that you
missed is "Rangers Hornpipe". Their "Kennedy Rag" is another, though not
quite as wild as "Ranger's Hornpipe" and "Lost Child". Still, I suppose it
wouldn't have done to include 3 numbers by the Striplings. What makes
"Ranger's Hornpipe" so wild is that the A part is just the A part from
"Flop-Eared Mule" and the B part resembles the B part of "F-E M", but with
a fair bit of it omitted, as if they tried to play "F-E M" from written
music, but the mule had eaten half the page with the B part, so they just
played the remaining notes . . . 13 measures representing twice through the
B part!
Other favorite crooked tunes are "The Last Shot Got Him" by the
Mississippi Possum Hunters, but Mississippi seems to be a hotbed of
crookedness, in tunes, as well as politicians. (Maybe the schools there
never taught people to count to four.) and "Old Christmas" by the Deseret
String Band (with an A part that sounds crooked, but isn't, and a real
extra measure in the B part)
I'm fond, too, of "Louis' First Tune" by the Riendeau Family (where
the crookedness consists only of the second part having FIVE lines of four,
instead of the usual four lines)
Somebody (I don't recall who.) recorded the song "In the Shadow of
the Pines" with the verses in 2/4 (or 4/4?) and the chorus in 3/4. (Does
that count as crooked?) The Carter Family's "Girl on the Greenbriar Shore"
is wildly crooked, including (among other things) a measure of 3/4 in the
middle of the 4/4 (or 2/4?) guitar break. When we (the NLCR) recorded
"Goober Peas" for Moe Asch, we changed the chorus into 3/4-time. "Goober
Peas" was a Confederate march and I'm still amused by the image of the
Georgia Militia marching down a dusty road and intermittently switching to
a waltz step. I once heard somebody (I don't remember who it was, but it
was clearly somebody with a touchingly childlike faith in the authenticity
of everything the NLCR did) bringing it up in a serious discussion, and I
had to admit to the fraud.
Don't let me get started on crooked Scandinavian tunes!
Best Regards,
Tom Paley
Paul Mitchell
> One good, very crooked tune by the Stripling Brothers that you
> missed is "Rangers Hornpipe".
A wonderfull tune.
> Somebody (I don't recall who.) recorded the song "In the Shadow of
> the Pines" with the verses in 2/4 (or 4/4?) and the chorus in 3/4. (Does
> that count as crooked?)
I believe that this was Kelly Harrell
Paul
Library Guy
>> Somebody (I don't recall who.) recorded the song "In the Shadow of
>> the Pines" with the verses in 2/4 (or 4/4?) and the chorus in 3/4. (Does
>> that count as crooked?)
>
>I believe that this was Kelly Harrell
Hey, Kelly Harrell was one of the straightest guys ever to record!
Although once in Boonton, NJ, I picked up a couple of his old 78s in a
shop, and the woman at the register said: "Oh, Kelly Harrell! She's
one of my favorites!"
LG
Joel Shimberg
>> the Pines" with the verses in 2/4 (or 4/4?) and the chorus in 3/4. (Does
>> that count as crooked?)
>
>I believe that this was Kelly Harrell
>
Yes, but I have seen this song in books, where it is always set up the
same way. Of course, versions might have all been collected from
people who learned it from the Harrell recording. I haven't checked
for sheet music in LC.
Joel Shimberg
Joel Shimberg
>same way. Of course, versions might have all been collected from
>people who learned it from the Harrell recording. I haven't checked
>for sheet music in LC.
>
>Joel Shimberg
But now I have. LC led to the Scriptorium at Duke Univ., which has it,
and it's the very version that Kelly Harrll recorded. It was published
in 1890.
<http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/b/b07/b0732/>
Joel
P Stamler
Thanks for all the good comments. I've posted a tab-delimited text file
containing the complete database of crooked tunes at:
http://members.aol.com/pstamler/crooked.txt
It's not huge -- about a 29k file.
Also, for those who missed the show, I will probably be rebroadcasting it
sometime in late January or early February of next year. We webcast via
RealAudio at www.kdhx.org .
Thanks again to the list members who helped make all this madness possible!
Peace,
Paul
Lyle Lofgren
The Red Fox Chasers' "Stolen Love" also has verse in 4/4 and chorus in
3/4. I wonder if this wasn't a minor cliche on Tin Pan Alley at one
time? It's crooked, certainly, but a little outside the definition
that was previously used to define the term. Of course, crooked is as
crooked does, and I'm not sure even the more restrictive definition is
of much value, unless you're a contra dancer.
Lyle
Joel Shimberg
>3/4.
>
The Red Fox Chasers did a lot of crooked tunes, didn't they? I haven't
had a chance to check out the data base yet.
Joel Shimberg
Joseph Scott
Re John Jackson's "Boat's Up The River," I'd call it old-time, and I
wouldn't call it a blues.
E.g., the chord progression of the main strain is basically a
dressed-up variation on your general I-I-I-I-I-I-V-V-I-I-IV-IV-I-V-I-I
type of 16-bar pattern (e.g. "Crawdad"), which was very common around
1900 in folk music, and isn't closely associated with "blues" songs.
(More generally, strains of "blues songs" are very rarely on V as the
first half of the strain ends.) The use of ...III-III-IV-IV... at all
seems to be more associated with the 12-bar-bad-man-ballad-era than
the 12-bar-"blues song"-era. The lyrics don't have the kind of repeats
that were closely associated with "blues songs" such as AAB, AAAB, or
AAA.
John Hurt's "Ain't No Tellin'" makes an interesting comparison to this
one. Also "The Bully" as done by Henry Thomas, which is at the end of
his "Bob McKinney." (Elizabeth Cotten, Thomas Burt, Bo Carter, Mance
Lipscomb, Sam McGee would be others who sometimes used III's moving to
IV's or from V's sounding much like Jackson's playing here -- all of
them were much older than Jackson.)
Anyway, in my opinion "Boat's Up The River" the song in general is
old, was likely being sung before any blues songs were.
Best,
Loquacious Joe Scott
bosco
> > I also thought about dedicating it to Richard M. Nixon, but
> > it turns out his birthday is in January.
>
> Nixon and fiddling? A 'crooked' president, perhaps? I don't know if anyone ever named a
> fiddle tune after him,
There was a tune named "Nixson's Farewell". It's on the Lp called "An
Anthology:Old Style, Old Time Fiddling" which was produced by Jeff
Claus. I'm pretty sure that some one who plays it wrote the tune but I
only have a tape copy which doesn't have player's names. Does anybody
still remember the tune?
bosco
Andy
Curt Bouterse, the author of the oft-waited for Nancy, wrote "Nixon's
Farewell". I don't remember it as being crooked though (the tune, not
the president).
Andy Alexis, ndlxsATyahooDAWTcom
Carl Baron
Bouterse, Curt / Nixon's Farewell, Bouterse 198?
from <http://folkindex.mse.jhu.edu/sorcbks.htm>
performance
I believe it was Michael Springer. Can check when I get home.
Carl
Jack Aldrich
P Stamler
>old, was likely being sung before any blues songs were.
You're almost certainly right -- sloppy terminology on my part.
Peace,
Paul
P Stamler
>Bouterse, Curt / Nixon's Farewell, Bouterse 198?
The folkindex is wrong in this case; we played in around 1979 in a band I was
in, the Blackberry Blossoms. One of those bands that rehearsed a lot, played
out a few times, and vanished into thin air.
Peace,
Paul
Library Guy
And Jeff Claus recorded it from Mike Springer (whatever happened to
him?) in 1976 for the "Anthology of Old-Style Old-Time Fiddling" LP,
so it was written pre-that. It probably didn't tale a long time to
compose, either.
- Dept. of Redundancy Dept.
LG
Jack Aldrich
timey world. I played in the Last Straw String Band with Mike, Charlie
Seamon (currently the host for the cowboy poetry gathering in Elko) and
Andy Denes from 72-74. I'm pretty sure it was Kurt who wrote it.
Mike Schway
Jack Aldrich <john.w....@boeing.com> wrote:
> Nope. By the time Nixon's Farewell occurred, Mike had left the old
> timey world. I played in the Last Straw String Band with Mike, Charlie
> Seamon (currently the host for the cowboy poetry gathering in Elko) and
> Andy Denes from 72-74. I'm pretty sure it was Kurt who wrote it.
>
> Carl Baron wrote:
> >
> > author
> > Bouterse, Curt / Nixon's Farewell, Bouterse 198?
> > from <http://folkindex.mse.jhu.edu/sorcbks.htm>
> > performance
> > I believe it was Michael Springer. Can check when I get home.
> > Carl
Yup, Curt Bouterse wrote it. Right after Nixon's resignation in late
summer '74. I believe I heard the seminal performance of the tune at
Lou Curtis' "Folk Arts" shop in San Diego. Curt on Frank Profitt-style
fretless banjo and Brian Steeger on fiddle.
As far as I can remember (which is less and less these days), most folks
play the tune reversed. As I heard it, the high part was first, the low
part (with the revealing vocal) is the B part.
The tune isn't crooked, but the subject matter CERTAINLY was!
--Mike
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Schway | [Picture your favorite quote here]
msc...@nas.com |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Library Guy
<john.w....@boeing.com> wrote:
>Nope. By the time Nixon's Farewell occurred, Mike had left the old
>timey world. I played in the Last Straw String Band with Mike, Charlie
>Seamon (currently the host for the cowboy poetry gathering in Elko) and
>Andy Denes from 72-74. I'm pretty sure it was Kurt who wrote it.
Kurt wrote it, but I swear that Springer recorded it for Jeff Claus.
LG
Mike Schway
psta...@aol.com (P Stamler) wrote:
I think the index is referring to Curt Bouterse's banjo tune book which
really did have a pub. date of 198x. The tune is from 74.
Jack Aldrich
74, although (as most bands go) things were getting pretty shaky then.
I left sometime in late 74, and Mike left soon after. Mike certainly
would have heard it from Brian Steeger or Mike Schway at Sweet's Mill
that year - all 4 of us were there. That's when I learned it.
David 'Gus' Garelick
Carl Baron wrote:
> author
> Bouterse, Curt / Nixon's Farewell, Bouterse 198?
The tune is included in a book called "The Portland Collection, Contra Dance Music in the Pacific
Northwest" - edited by Clyde Curley and Susan Songer and published in1997. According to Clyde's
notes, the tune was composed in 1974, and was also recorded on a solo mandolin CD by Clyde Curley
called "Tunes of the Gods."
Since I brought up the subject of Nixon and fiddling, I should have thought of this tune, but it
wasn't exactly on my "A List" of great fiddle tunes. I doubt if there are too many others about
Richard Nixon, although there was an opera called "Nixon in China"- but that's a whole 'nother thing.
GUS GARELICK
Ericplatt
Ostroushko and recorded by Norman Blake and Peter Ostroushko.
Eric
Steve Goldfield
Curtis mentions that some Bay Area women were already playing
it but didn't know the name until he told them. In the early
days of this newsgroup, we were discussing the tune and had
two independent accounts of its first public performance in
1973.
Steve
In article <3F5769E0...@boeing.com>,
Steve Goldfield
has 15 beats in the A part. Somebody recorded a version like
that in the 1920s, but I don't recall who it was.
Steve
In article <94b40f98.03090...@posting.google.com>,
Mike Schway
Steve Goldfield <stev...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> In the early
> days of this newsgroup, we were discussing the tune and had
> two independent accounts of its first public performance in
> 1973.
If true, that would be very interesting, especially in light of the fact
that RMN resigned in 8/74. :-)
I'm still thinking I must have heard its first performance (at "Folk
Arts") in San Diego. It was within a week of the resignation.
WB Reid: If you're lurking, were you there that night?
--Mike
Carl Baron
Nancy wrote:
> I just called a square dance (yes, an actual mountain square dance
> where we did nothing but circle up four all night) with the Laurel
> Creek String Band. As they were warming up, they played an incredible,
> and incredibly crooked, version of Mississippi Sawyer. It dropped a
> beat each time, so that instead of 16 beats per part, there were 15.
> When they were done, I asked Cecil Gurganus (the fiddler) where he got
> it from, and he pointed to Gil Adams, who was playing banjo with the
> band on Saturday, but is the fiddler for the Corklickers.
Other version, also crooked, from
Wade Ward (Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward, Folkways FA 2363 (1962)
Carl
Gillespie Gail
Interesting. Miss. Sawyer, though it's found just about everywhere there's
fiddling in the US, seems to be crooked just about as often as not. I
believe sandhills NC fiddler Lauchlan Shaw's version had some kind of
wackiness in the A part that would throw anyone who knew the "regular"
version. Must go back & give it a listen.
Also, some years ago I went to a square dance at Heaters, W. Va. where Sara
Singleton & Ernie Carpenter were the fiddlers. They played nothing that was
"regular" if you counted beats but of course no one was counting. The beat
was driving & steady & everyone just danced. Now it's funny they're called
square dances isn't it--- because there's really nothing square about them.
Gail
in article 3F589ADF...@mail.med.upenn.edu, Carl Baron at
cba...@mail.med.upenn.edu wrote on 9/5/03 10:17 AM:
Gillespie Gail
in article BB7E1AEF.4412B%gai...@mindspring.com, Gillespie Gail at
gai...@mindspring.com wrote on 9/5/03 10:50 AM: