BLACKBIRD, THE [1] (An Londubh). AKA and see "Once On a Morning of Sweet Recreation," "Bonny Lass of Aberdeen." See "Napoleon Crossing the Rhine" [2] for an American version of the same tune. Irish, English; Slow Air, Set, Long or Country Dance (4/4 time), Reel, Hornpipe. D Major (Allan, O'Neill/1850): D Major/Mixolydian (Cranitch, Moylan, Mulvihill, O'Neill/1001): D Mixolydian (Breathnach, Kennedy, Kerr, O'Neill/1915 & Krassen, Raven, & Roche). Standard. AB (Moylan): AAB (Kennedy, Raven, Roche): AABB (Allan, Breathnach, Cranitch, Mulvihill, O'Neill {4 editions}): AABCBC (Roche). The original song from which the instrumental versions take the title was written c. 1707 in praise of the Old Pretender, according to Flood (1906), who found reference to it as early as 1709 and who noted its printing by Alan Ramsay in 1724 in his Tea Table Miscellany. Other sources date the words from the war of 1688-90. So well understood was the nickname The Blackbird as applied to James I, Flood says, that the Jacobite Earl of Thomond, in 1704, had a horse of that name. Caoimhin Mac Aodha points out that the image of the blackbird, An Lon Dubh, is that of a melodious harbinger of joy in Irish folklore, unlike the raven, crow, rook or jackdaw, which are all associated with death and misfortune. In this spirit of hope the 'Blackbird' name was applied after the Old Pretender to James II and, in the 19th century, to Charles Stewart Parnell.
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The melody itself became known as a harp air of the latter Jacobite period. Cooke included it in his Selection of Favourite Original Irish Airs arranged for Pianoforte, Violin or Flute (Dublin, 1793). O'Neill (1913) finds a simple setting of the melody in A Pocket Volume of Airs, Songs, Marches, etc., Vol. 1, published by Paul Alday at Dublin about 1800-1803. Breathnach (1963) printed a verse of the song that was in his source's (George Rowley) family:
***
The Maytime is come and the gay flowers are springing,
The wild birds are singing their loving notes o'er;
But all the day long through my lone heart is ringing,
The voice of my blackbird, I'll never so more.
***
Later the melody gained currency as a set-dance tune, and the Scottish editor Kerr noted that the tune was the "Chef D'oeuvre of all the Irish fiddlers" in the latter 1800's, although he never heard any two of them play the tune exactly alike. He claims his version to be a composite of the styles and embellishments he heard. About the year 1930 an itinerant schoolteacher told a young John Kelly: "There are a lot of people playing 'The Blackbird' who can't play it right, but I'm warning you, my boy, never play 'The Blackbird' unless you have all the parts right and the proper tempo. It's the one tune you will always be picked up for if you play it wrong" (quoted in Dal gCais, 1979, pg. 35). James Cowdery (1990) states that it is one of the few tunes found in all parts of Ireland with the same title and the same melodic structure, though variations abound. Donegal fiddler Neillidh Boyle, for example, played an intricate version of "An Londubh" which included a birdsong imitation generated by playing the melody on the bottom strings with the bow and fingering and plucking chords on the top two strings with the left hand at the same time (Mac Aoidh, 1994). An interesting tracing of the aural tradition was outlined by Mac Aoidh who remarks that southwest Donegal fiddler Frank Cassidy learned the tune from the lilting of John Lyons or Teelin. The famous musician and collector Séamus Ennis learned this version, which in turn was passed onto fiddler Tommie Potts, who made a historic recording of the tune. Elsewhere Mac Aoidh states that in south Donegal the air/hornpipe is associated with John and Mickey Doherty and James Byrne as well as Cassidy.
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In modern titles the song is seldom sung, though the tune is frequently played as a slow air as well as a set-dance and other settings. Breandan Breathnach (1971) states that the original set dance was "said to have been composed by Keily, a Limerick dancing master, over 150 years ago." Cowdry (1990) points out the set-dance's structure--fifteen bars for the 'A' part and thirty for the 'B'--is unique in Irish traditional music. Reel and hornpipe versions are not nearly so widespread in this century, "until some recent recordings (such as "The Bothy Band" in 1977) brought them to more prominence" (Cowdery). Cowdery provides extensive musical analysis of a number of different versions of this tune and tune family in his work The Melodic Tradition of Ireland.
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Sources for notated versions: Chicago police sergeant and fiddler James O'Neill, Francis O'Neill's collaborator, who learned the tune from his father in County Down [O'Neill]; fiddler George Rowley/Seoirse Ó Roghallaigh (Ireland) [Breathnach]. James Cowdery, in his book The Melodic Tradition of Ireland, has transcribed fifteen versions of the tune from Irish musicians (some contributed more than one version): whistle player Cathal McConnell (a slow-air setting credited to a Fermanagh musician Pat McKenna), fiddler John Kelly (a slow-air setting learned from Donegal fiddler John Doherty), fiddler Denis Murphy, piper Paddy Keenan, piper Seamus Ennis, fiddler Tommy Potts, flutist Peter Broderick, fiddler Michael Coleman, piper R.L. O'Mealy, and piper Johnny Doran. The piece is a popular slow air in County Donegal. Allan's Irish Fiddler, No. 111, pg. 28. Breathnach (CRE I), 1963; No. 207, pg. 84. Cowdery (The Melodic Tradition of Ireland), 1990; pgs. 134-168. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 95, pg. 164. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 6. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; pg. 41. Mallinson (Enduring), 1995; No. 100, pg. 42. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 230, pgs. 132-133. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 2, pg. 109. O'Farrell, 1804-10, Vol. 1, Book 2; pg. or No. 132. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 386, pg. 184. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 222. O'Neill, 1910; No. or pg. 343. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1793, pg. 336. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 985, pg. 169 (set dance). O'Neill (1913), pg. 131. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 172. Roche Collection, 1982; Vol. 1, No. 56, pg. 28. Roche Collection, 1982; Vol. 2, No. 270, pg. 29. Gael-Linn CEF 045, "Paddy Keenan" (1975). Intrepid Records, Michael Coleman - "The Heyday of Michael Coleman" (1973). Leader LEA 2004, Martin Byrnes. North Star NS0031, "Dance Across the Sea: Dances and Airs from the Celtic Highlands" (1990). RCA 09026-61490-2, The Chieftains - "The Celtic Harp" (1993). Shanachie 97011, Duck Baker - "Irish Reels, Jigs, Airs and Hornpipes" (1990). Shanachie 79093, Paddy Glackin & Robbie Hannan - "The Whirlwind" (1995. Slow air and set dance/hornpipe). Shaskeen Records OS-360, Andy McGann, Joe Burke & Felix Dolan - "A Tribute to Michael Coleman" (c. 1965).
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BOYNE WATER, THE [1] (Briseadh na Bóinne). AKA and see "As Vanquished Erin," "The Battle of the Boyne Water," "Bayne Water" (W.Va.), "Barbara Allan" (Pa.), "The Bottom of the Punch Bowl," "Boyne Water Quickstep," "Cameronian Rant," "The Cavalcade of the Boyne," "Come Kiss Wi' Me, Come Clap Wi' Me," "Findlay," "King William's March," "Lass If I Come Near You," "Leading/Driving the Calves," "Leading the Calves in the Pasture," "Native Swords," "One Pleasant Morning Beside the Glen," "Playing Amang the Rashes," "Praises of Limerick," "The Rashes," "Rosc Catha na Mumhan," "Sheila Ni Gowna," "Song of the Volunteers," "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation," "To Look for My Calves I Sent My Child," "The Wee German Lairdie" "Wha the Deil Hae We Gotten For a King," "When the King Came O'er the Water." Irish, Air or March (4/4 time). A Dorian (Breathnach, O'Neill, Perlman, Roche): E Minor (Joyce). Standard. AB (most versions): AA'BB (Breathnach). The name Boyne itself is derived from the name of the goddess Boinn, literally 'cow-white', "a name well suited to a pastoral people whose wealth was chiefly in cattle" (Matthews, 1972). The name of the tune, however, commemorates the Battle of the Boyne (named for the Boyne River in County Meath, eastern Ireland, though the battle itself was fought three miles west of Drogheda), fought July 1st, 1690, in which the English monarch King William III defeated the Irish forces under King James II. "It has always been, and still is, very popular among the Orangemen of Ulster (for it dashed the hopes of the Irish for religious freedom and the Stuarts for Kingship). The ballad follows the historical accounts of the battle correctly enough. The air is well known in the south (of Ireland) also, where it is commonly called Sebladh na n-gamhan, 'Leading the Calves,' A good setting is given by Bunting in his second collection: the Munster and Connaught versions are given by Petrie in his Ancient Music of Ireland, vol. II, p. 12. I print it here as I learned it in my youth from the singing of the people of Limerick, not indeed to 'The Boyne Water' of Ulster, but to other words (given below). My setting differs only slightly from that of Bunting; and it is nearly the same as I heard it played some years ago by a band on a 12th of July in Warrenpoint" (Joyce).
***
Samuel Bayard (1981) believes "Boyne Water" was composed in the seventeenth century, and thinks it has always been more of a vocal air rather than an instrumental tune. As witnessed by the myriad of titles in the beginning of this entry, it has been a popular air in the British Isles and, as Bayard states, "altogether, the forms suggest that it has undergone a long traditional development." He believes the second half may have been the original tune, with the first half being fashioned out of elements from earlier strains. Bronson discerns the origins of the whole tune family in a Scottish melody found in the Skene Manuscript of c. 1615. Flood (1913) dates the tune from c. 1645, long before the famous battle, though how he arrived at this date is obscure. Cowdery (1990) believes it may be from a reference to a melody published by Petrie (1855), called "To Seed for the Lambs I Have Sent My Child," in which the latter writer declared, "in its superior purity of expression, and in its passionate depth of feeling, affords intrinsic evidence of an original intention, and consequent priority of antiquity, which will not be found in that which I consider to be the derived from of it called 'The Boyne Water.'" O'Neill (1913) concludes the same Gaelic airs printed by Petrie are early antecedents of "Boyne Water," Nos. 1529 ("A Long mo Gamain" {To look for my calves I sent my child"}) and 1530 ("An Tuainirc na nGainna". Breathnach (1985), in CRE II (No. 124), gives a polka setting and remarks it was used for the last figure of the Clare polka set, and says that "Rosc Catha na Mumhan" (The Munster War-Cry) is sung to this air.
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However old it actually is in oral tradition, Bayard (1991) finds the earliest printed appearances of the tune in William Graham's Lute Book of 1694 (as "Playing Amang the Rashes") and in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (where it appears as an untitled air). The melody remained in popular usage throughout the British Isles for well over two hundred years. Robert Burns set three songs to it in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, and it was the vehicle for the Scots songs "The Wee, Wee German Lairdie" and "Andro and His Cutty Gun" (the latter from Alan Ramsay's 1740 edition of the Tea-Table Miscellany). In Ireland, Sir Thomas Moore used the melody for his c. 1825 song "As Vanquished Erin." The air was widespread in American usage, often heard as the tune the popular song "Barbara Allan" was sung to, which fact has been noted by several writers (Bayard, Cowdery, Cazden). It is, for example, identified by Cowdery (1990) as one of four tunes which carry the tale of "(Bonny) Barbara Allen" (the second strain of both Joyce's version and Bunting's "To seek for the Lambs..." is the portion of the Irish tune which corresponds to the America "Barbara Allen"). As "The Battle of the Boyne" it was included in a Philadelphia chapbook of 1805, and, under the title "The Buoying Water," as an instrumental piece in the 1790 Whittier Perkins Book (Cazden, et al, 1982). According to Bronner (1987), it was used for an 1815 hit American blackface minstrel song by Micah Hawkins called "The Siege of Plattsburgh" or "Backside Albany." Cazden prints it with the Catskill Mountain (N.Y.)-collected song "A Shantyman's Life," which he states can be found in most collections of lumber camp songs. O'Neill (1913) lists "Boyne Water" as one of the "splendid martial airs" of Irish music.
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The political connotations of "The Boyne Water" long remained attached to the melody, even after it was imported to North America. Bayard (1981) relates that the mere playing of the tune in the presence of Catholic Irish in western Pennsylvania "could bring on a mass attack," and repeats the Fayette County story of an old Irishman digging potatoes in the garden while his wife followed along beside him picking the up in a sack. She absent-mindedly began singing the air, upon which he turned around and, incensed, brained her with one blow of his spade. In fact, Pennsylvania fifers declined to play the tune for Bayard at gatherings, fearing to destroy the harmony of the group with "political pieces." Sources for notated versions: George Strosnider (Greene County), Hiram Horner (Westmoreland County), Mrs. Sarah Armstrong (Westmoreland County) {All Southwestern Pa.} [Bayard]; flute and whistle player Micko Russell, 1969 (Doolin, Co. Clare, Ireland) [Breathnach]; Sterling Baker (b. mid-1940's, Morell, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island; now resident of Montague) [Perlman]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 317A-D, pgs. 271-273. Breathnach (CRE II), 1976; No. 124, pg. 66. Gow (Beauties), 1819. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 151 and No. 377, pgs. 183-184. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 204 & No. 260, pg. 45. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 208. Roche Collection, 1982; pg. 8, Vol. I, No. 4.
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M:C
S:Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music
K:E Minor
ED|B,2 B2 B>cdB|AGFE D2 E>F|G2 FE BAGF|(E3D) B,2 E>D|B,2 B2 B>cdB|
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(e3d B2) Bc|dcde d2 cB|A>GFE D2 EF|G2 FE B>A GF|E4E2||
BULLY OF THE TOWN. Old-Time, Country Rag and Song Tune. USA; Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Missouri, northeast Tenn. G Major. Standard. AABB. The song "Bully of the Town" was originally written by Charles E. Trevathan (a southern sports writer, horse judge and amateur musician) in 1895 for the stage show "The Widow Jones" which opened at the Bijou Theater, New York City that September. It was sung in the production by Trevathan's girl-friend, May Irwin. "Bully of the Town" is mentioned as one of the frequently played tunes in a 1931 account of a LaFollette, northeast Tennessee fiddlers' contest. It was in the repertoire of Skillet Licker fiddler Clayton McMichen (Ga.) who recorded the tune with that group in a triple fiddle version at their first recording session in 1926. Musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph recorded the tune from Ozark Mountain fiddlers for the Library of Congress in the early 1940's.
**
John Garst finds that the song "Bully of the Town" was developed from an earlier blues ballad called "Ella Speed," based on a real-life incident in New Orleans in the middle years of the "Gay 90's." Garst relates that in September, 1894, Ella was a twenty-eight year old black or mullato prostitute living in a "sporting house" on what is now Iberville Street in the French Quarter. She was the object of the obsessive attentions of Louis "Bull" Martin or Martini, a bartending white Italian-American whom she had met several months previously at another establishment, and who wanted to set her up in an apartment as his mistress, a not uncommon arrangement at the time. Ella, however was lukewarm to him-she liked his money, but didn't care much for the man-and at any rate, she already had a husband, one Willie Speed. Louis was a bully who had been arrested and tried on three separate occasions on assault and battery charges, and who at the time of the murder was wanted by the constable for yet another brutal beating, that of an elderly black man near his place of work. Louis reportedly became enraged at the thought that she might be fond of another man (whether Willie or not). One night, after a day spent recreating, dining and drinking, they returned late to the bordello in which she was staying and, feeling the effects of their partying, retired at around 2:00 AM. The next time Ella was seen was in the morning when she screamed and emerged from her second story room, saying "Help me, Miss Pauline!, Louis shot me!" She collapsed in the hallway, just as the onrushing Madame spied Louis in the doorway, holding a smoking pistol. Louis disappeared, and soon a deputy arrived followed by an ambulance; but too late, for Ella had been shot through the breast with the bullet piecing her heart, left lung and liver, from which wounds she soon bleed to death.
**
A manhunt was raised to find Louis, who after a day turned himself in at the residence of a police Captain. He was arrested, held and charged with murder. After a trial a jury found him guilty of manslaughter, despite Louis's claim the shooting was an accident, and if Louis had counted on getting off easy with the reduced finding he was mistaken, for Judge John H. Ferguson (originally from Massachusetts) sentenced him to twenty years in prison, which Garst says was a stiff sentence for the time.
**
Garst thinks that the song "Ella Speed" appeared soon after the initial shooting and was based on newspaper accounts. "Ella Speed" appears in the collected papers of John A. Lomax (in a Texas version from 1909) and Carl Sandburg included it in his volume American Songbag (1927). Under the title "Bill Martin and Ella Speed," it was recorded several times by Leadbelly between 1933 and 1950, and in fact was recorded by several blues performers, including Mance Lipscomb, Tom Shaw, Tricky Same, Finious Rockmore, Lightnin' Hopkins and Jewel Long (as researched by John Cowley). Garst bases his hypothesis that "Ella Speed" was the model for "Bully of the Town" on three points: 1) the fact that "Bully" appeared a year or two after the "Ella" song, 2) the fact that Louis was a bully and the subject of a massive police hunt, as intimated in both songs, and 3) the similarity between the melodies of "Ella" and "Bully." He believes Trevathan heard "Ella Speed" from a black musician friend named Cooley, and that Trevathan substantially rewrote it, ending up with "Bully of the Town" (Trevathan gave several accounts of how he came to write the song).
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Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 26. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 96, pg. 34. County 526, "The Skillet Lickers, Vol. 1" (1973. Orig. rec. 1926). Gennett 6447 (78 RPM), 1928, Tweedy Brothers (W.Va. brothers Harry, Charles, and George who played twin fiddles and piano). Marimac 9017, Vesta Johnson (Mo.) - "Down Home Rag." Rounder Records, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers - "The Kickapoo Medicine Show" (appears as the 4th tune of the Kickapoo Medecine Show skit). Tradition TLP 1007, Etta Baker - "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956).
T:Bully of the Town
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S:Viola "Mom" Ruth - Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948)
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CAULD BLAWS THE WIND FRAE EAST TO WEST. AKA and see "Up in the Morning Early."
COLD AND RAW. AKA - "Cold and Rought." AKA and see "Stingo," "Oil of Barley," "Lulle Me Beyond Thee," "The Farmer's Daughter." English, Scottish, Irish; Country Dance and song tune. The air was published by Playford in his Dancing Master (1651) under the title "Stingo, or Oyle of Barley," and it carried that title through all editions until 1690, when the name is changed to "Cold and Raw." The Dancing Master kept the latter until the last, 1728, edition. Kidson (Groves) thinks the "Stingo" title may have originated with a ballad called "A Cup of Old Stingo" printed in Merry Drollery Complete. The "Cold and Raw" title comes from D'Urfy and is the beginning of a song called "The Farmer's Daughter."
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As with many popular ballad tunes, many songs were set to it, leading to a variety of titles. In different editions of D'Urfy's Pills to Purge Melancholy it appears as the aformentioned "The Farmer's Daughter," a song whose first appearance was in D'Urfy's Comes Amores (1688). John Gay printed the tune under his song title "If any wench Venus's girdel wears," from The Beggar's Opera (1729). Emmerson {1971} claims Gay's song is a parody of the 'Scottish' song "Cold and Raw," however, Sharp (1907) declines to believe the Beggar's Opera version is a parody, and points out that Gay was not a musician but rather employed the services of a German, Pepusch, by name, to note down and arrange the airs which Gay sang to him. "It needs but a cursory examination of this opera to see that the airs are anything but faithful transcriptions of genuine peasant-tunes...'Cold and Raw' is converted to a minor tune with a minor 6th and a sharpened leading tone..." Scottish versions are usually called "Cold and Raw," but it can also be found as "Up in the Morning Early." Grattan Flood (1906) characteristically identifies the melody as an Irish bagpipe tune of the mid-17th century, though Kidson (1922) and most writers ascribe Anglo-Scottish origins.
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The English composer Henry Purcell used the tune as a bass part for a Royal Birthday Ode in 1692. Kidson refers to the "well-known" anecdote related by Sir John Hawkins who recalled that Queen Mary asked Mrs. Arabella Hunt, in composer Purcell's presence, if she could not sing "Cold and Raw," one of her favorite melodies. This was seen (by Hawkins) as an affront to Purcell and an indication that the Queen was tired of Purcell's compositions. His response was to use the tune in her next, 1692, birthday ode.
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One of the "lost tunes" from William Vickers 1780 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript is called "Cauld and Raw the Wind Doth Blaw," and is presumably this tune (see note for "Up in the Morning Early"). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 50 ("Cold and Raw"), pg 37 ("Stingo"). Flying Fish FF-407, Robin Williamson - "Winter's Turning" (1986).
DAY DAWS, THE [4]. English, Scottish. One of the earliest dance melodies mentioned in old accounts. Emmerson (1971) relates it was mentioned in the early 16th century by William Dunbar in Satire on Edinburgh as one of the tunes of the the 'common minstrelis' of that town. Somewhat later Gavin Douglas described minstrels welcoming a June morning with "The joly day now dawis'. Chappell has found English verses on the theme in the Fayrfax MS, while it was often included in early anthologies of old Scots poetry (including "elegant" verses by Alexander Mongomerie *c, 1556-1610). Emmerson (1972) finds mention of it in a poem by Robert Sempill of Beltrees, Renfrewshire (1595-1668), called "The Elegy of Habbie Simpson Piper of Kilbarchan," which goes, in part:
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Now who shall play The Day it Daws,
Or Hunts up when the Cock he craws?
Or who can for our kirk-woen cause
Stand us in stead?
On bagpipes now nobody blaws
Sin' Habbie's dead.
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The song did not survive the Reformation, possibly, suggests Emmerson, because the subject matter elaborated on the ancient custom of the lovers' night visit. The music did not survive intact either, and was lost from memory by the 18th century. Why this is so is curious, since it appears to have been a commonly known and well-established tune, a type of reville played by town pipers for several centuries. Believing it unlikely the tune disappeared forever Stenhouse suggested that the missing tune was in fact the melody called "Hey Tutti Taiti," or "Scots wha hae" (from Burns's lyric).
DRUNKEN HICCUPS [1]. AKA- "Drunkard's Hiccups," "Drunken Hiccoughs." AKA and see "Rye Whiskey," "Jack of Diamonds," "Way Up on Clinch Mountain," "Clinch Mountain," "The Mocking Bird" (Pa.), "My Name is Dick Kelly" (Ire.), "The Lame Beggar" (Ire.), "The Cuckoo" (Ford). Old-Time, Texas Style; Air, Waltz, Jig, and Song Tune (3/4 time). USA; Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona. A Major. AEAC# (Brody, Jarrell, Reiner & Anick, Shumway): AEAE (Ford). AABCC (Brody, Ford, Thede): AA'BB'CC'DD' (Reiner & Anick, Shumway). Paul Clayton identifies the tune as "old and of English origin." Arizona fiddler Kartchner called it a "favorite from the South." The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph. It was listed by the Tuscaloosa News of March 28, 1971, as one of the specialty tunes of Tuscalosa, Alabama, fiddler "Monkey Brown," who frequently competed in fiddlers' contests in the 1920's and 30's (Cauthen, 1990), and it was recorded by Herbert Halpert for the Library of Congress in 1939 on two separate occasions by Mississippi fiddlers Charles Long and W.E. Claunch. Mt. Airy, North Carlolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell knew the melody as a show piece in a repertoire heavy with dance tunes, having learned it from his father, Ben Jarrell (who recorded it with Frank Jenkins in 1927). Ben Jarrell, according to Tommy, had the tune from "old man" Houston Galyen at Low Gap, North Carolina. Bayard (1981) states it was a vocal piece before it was an instrumental one, and identifies the following songs from the British Isles and America as using the tune: "Johnnie Armstrong," "Todlen Hame," "Bacach," "Robi Donadh Gorrach," "The Wagoner's Lad," "Clinch Mountain," "The Cuckoo," "Rye Whiskey," "Jack of Diamonds," "Saints Bound for Heaven," "Separation," "John Adkins' Farewell." Instrumental variations from the British Isles he has identified include "Drunk at Night and Dry in the Morning" (noted variously in 3/4 and 6/8 time) and "Lude's Lament." Two and a half pages of the song can be found in "The Oxford Book of Light Verse." In Pennsylvania, reported Bayard, it was customary for fiddlers to sing the repeated line:
***
Oh, I will never get drunk anymore!
***
to the first (or sometimes second) strain. Most American versions include a part that is supposed to suggest hiccups.
***
I'm a rambler and a gambler a long ways from home,
And them that don't like me can leave me alone.
***
I'll take up my fiddle and rosin my bow,
I'll make myself welcome wherever I go.
***
I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry,
If a tree don't fall on me I'll live till I die.
***
Its beefsteak when I'm hungry and whiskey when I'm dry,
Money when I'm hard up, sweet heaven when I die.
***
I'll cross the wide ocean my fortune to try,
And when I get over I'll sit down and cry.
***
It isn't the long journey that troubles me so,
Its leavin' the darlin' I've courted so long.
***
Hic-cough, O Lawdy, how bad do I feel,
Hic-cough, O Lawdy, how bad do I feel.
***
Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, you're no friend to me,
You killed my poor daddy, goddam you try me.
***
Raw whiskey, raw whiskey, raw whiskey, I cry,
Sweet heaven, sweet heaven, whenever I die. (Thede)
***
Rye Whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I crave,
If I don't get rye whiskey I'll go to my grave.
***
I eat when I'm hungry, and drink when I'm dry,
And if whiskey don't kill me I'll live till I die. (Ford)
***
Way out on Clinch Mountain I wander alone,
Drunk as the devil and can't find my home.
***
Oh Lordy, how drunk I do feel {Hic}
Oh Lordy how sleepy I feel. (Clayton)
***
Played cards in England, I've gambled in Spain,
Goin' back to Rhode Island, Gonna' play my last game.
***
I'll tune up my fiddle, and rosin the bow,
Make myself welcome, wherever I go.
***
Jack o' diamonds, jack o' diamonds, I know you from old,
Robbed by poor pockets of silver and gold.
***
Corn whiskey and pretty women, they've been my downfall,
Beat me and they bang me, but I love them for all.
***
My shoes is all tore up, my toes're stickin out,
Don't get some corn whiskey, I'm agoin' up the spout.
***
Gonna' beat on the counter, or I'll make the glass ring,
More brandy, more brandy, more brandy to bring.
***
Gonna' drink I'm gonna' gamble, my money is my own,
Them that don't like me can leave me alone. (T. Jarrell)
***
Sources for notated versions: Benny Thomasson (Texas) [Brody]; 'old man' Houston Galyen (Low Gap, N.C.) via Ben Jarrell via his son Tommy Jarrell (Mt. Airy, N.C.) [Reiner & Anick]; Louise and W.S. Collins (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; Kenner C. Kartchner (Arizona) [Shumway]; Emery Martin (Dunbar, Pa., 1946) [Bayard]; John Wolford (elderly fiddler from Fayette County, Pa., 1944) [Bayard]; Mary Ann Rogers (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 646, pgs. 566-567. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 92. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 126. Reiner & Anick (Old Time Fiddling Across America), 1989; pg. 93. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 17, pg. 8. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 54-55. County 519, Reaves White County Ramblers - "Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 2." County 723, Tommy Jarrell - "Down at the Cider Mill" (appears as "Jack of Diamonds"). County 756, Tommy Jarrell (N.C.) - "Sail Away Ladies" (1976). Rounder 0421, Bruce Molsky - "Big Hoedown" (1997. Appears as "Clyde's Hiccups" as version was from Clyde Davenport). Voyager 304, Ora Spiva- "More Fiddle Jam Sessions" (appears as "Rye Whiskey"). County 724, Benny Thomasson (Texas) - "Country Fiddling." Tradition Records TLP1007, Hobart Smith - "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956). Recorded for Victor in 1928 by Jilson Setters (as Blind Bill Day) {b. 1860, Rowan County, Ky.} under the title "Way Up on Cinch Mountain."
T:Drunkard's Hiccoughs
T:Rye Whiskey
L:1/8
M:3/4
S:Viola "Mom" Ruth - Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948).
K:G
(GA)|:B2G2 (GE)|D2B,2D2|E2G2G2|B4(GA)|B2G2 (GE)|D2B,2D2|
E2G2A2|G4 (GA):|
|:G2A2 (Bc)|d2G2A2|B2c2B2|A4 (GA):|
B2G2(GE)|D2B,2D2|E2G2A2|G4 B,2||
|:C[CE] [CE][CE][CE][CE]|B,[B,D] [B,D][B,D][B,D][B,D]|
E[B,G [B,2G2] [B,2G2]|[G4B4] B,2|C[CE] [CE][CE][CE][CE]|
B,[B,D] [B,D][B,D][B,D][B,D]|E2G2A2|[B,4G4]:|
EIGHTH OF JANUARY. AKA and see "Jackson's Victory." Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown. USA, Widely known. D Major. Standard or ADAE. AABB (Brody, Christeson, Phillips, Ruth, Sing Out, Sweet): AABB' (Krassen). One of the most popular and widespread of Southern fiddle tunes. Ken Perlman (1979) reports that the melody was originally named "Jackson's Victory" after Andrew Jackson's famous rout of the British at New Orleans on January, 8th, 1815. Around the time of the Civil War, some time after Jackson's Presidency, his popular reputation suffered and the tune was renamed to delete mention of him by name, thus commemorating the battle and not the man. Despite its wide dissemination, Tom Carter (1975) says that some regard it as a relatively modern piece refashioned from an older tune named "Jake Gilly." Not all agree-Tom Rankin (1985) suggests the fiddle tune may be older than the battle it commemorates, and that it seems American in origin, not having an obvious British antecedent, as do several older popular fiddle tunes in the United States. A related tune (though the 'B' part is developed differently") is Bayard's (1981) Pennsylvania collected "Chase the Squirrel" (the title is a floater).
***
"Eighth of January" was recorded for the Library of Congress from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, and from Mississippi fiddlers (John Hatcher, W.E. Claunch, Enos Canoy, Hardy Sharp) in 1939 by collector Herbert Halpert. It was in the repertoire of Cuje Bertram, an African-American fiddler from the Cumberland Plateau region of Kentucky who recorded it on a home tape in 1970, made for his family. In the 1950's Jimmy Driftwood famously refashioned the tune with new lyrics into his best-selling song "The Battle of New Orleans."
***
Missouri fiddler Glenn Rickman, born in 1901, was featured in an article in Bittersweet magazine and played "The Eighth of January" as part of his core repertoire. He had a seemingly curious habit:
***
I play the 'Eighth of January' over the telephone to a department store
here. Every eighth of January I call up the department store and they
put in on their loud speaker. This time I had it taped. I played 'Carroll
County Blues,...Sally Goodin',...Forked Deer' and 'Eighth of January.'
I'm glad to get to do this. The 'Eighth of January,' that was known way
back before my grandpa was born...
***
Rickman's playing over the phone for a department store audience is less curious when one considers that playing over the phone was at one time not unusual:
***
When the party line came in, telephones were used sort of like the radio
was later. Ten to fifteen families on a line could all listen in. On lines
like Slim Wilson's line, the neighbors would get a treat. The Wilson
family that lived near Nixa, Missouri, were all good musicians, and
when they were ready to play, they'd signal over the telephone line.
Everyone would take down the receivers and listen to the Wilson
family fiddling. Some would let the receiver hang down in a bucket
to help amplify the sound. (Allen Gage, Bittersweet, Volume IX, No. 3, Spring 1982)
***
Sources for notated versions: Charlie Higgins (Galax, Va.) [Krassen]; Cyril Stinnett (Oregon, Missouri) [Christeson]; Tommy Jackson [Phillips/1994]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 99. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddler's Repertory, Vol. 2), 1984; pg. 65. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 63. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pg. 39. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 50. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; pg. 17. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 80. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 15, pg. 7. Sing Out, Vol. 36, No. 2, August, 1991; pg. 77. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 76. Brunswick 239 (78 RPM) {1928}, Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters (Nashville, Tenn. Bill Barret was the fiddler for the tune, not Bate's regular, Oscar Stone). Caney Mountain Records CLP 228, Lonnie Robertson (Mo.) - "Fiddle Favorites." County 518, Arkansas Barefoot Boys- "Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 1." County 531, "Old TIme String Band Classics" (1975). County 541, Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters - "Nashville; the Early String Bands, Vol. 1." County 727, John Ashby- "Old Virginia Fiddling." Heritage 060, Major Contay and the Canebreak Rattlers - "Music of the Ozarks" (Brandywine, 1984). Kicking Mule KM-301, "Happy Traum, American Stranger" (1977). Marimac 9017, Vesta Johnson - "Down Home Rag." Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Hardy C. Sharp (Meridian, Mississippi) - "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" (1985). Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Bob Walters (b. 1889) - "Drunken Wagoneer." Morning Star 45004, Ted Gossett's String Band (western Ky., originally recorded Sept., 1930) - "Wish I Had My Time Again." Ok 45496 (78RPM), The Fox Chasers. Rounder 0085, "Tony Rice." Rounder 7002, Graham Townsend--"Le Violin/The Fiddle." Spr 2655 (78 RPM), Buddy Young's Kentuckian's (AKA the Ted Gossett Band, originally recorded Sept. 1930). Spt 9775 (78 RPM), The Country String Band (AKA the Ted Gossett Band/Buddy Young's Kentuckian's/Tommy Whitmer Band). Voyager 340, Jim Herd - "Old Time Ozark Fiddling."
T:Eighth of January
L:1/8
M:2/4
K:D
e/a/|f/e/f/a/ f/e/d/f/|e/f/e/d/ BB/d/|ee/f/ e/d/B/A/|d/B/A/F/ De/a/|
f/e/f/a/ f/e/d/f/|e/f/e/d/ B/d/e/f/|a/f/e/a/ f/e/c/A/|d/B/A/F/ D:|
|:A/A/|AA/B/ AA/A/|A/d/B/A/ F/E/D/F/|AA/B/ AA/d/|B/A/F/E/ DD/F/|
AA/B/ AA/A/|A/d/B/A/ F/E/D/F/|AA/A/ A/d/f/e/|d/B/A/F/ D:|
FIRE ON/IN THE MOUNTAIN [1]. AKA and see "Sambo," "Hog-Eye," "Betty Martin." Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown. USA, widely known. A Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part). Standard, AEAE or ADAE. AAB (Brody, Krassen): AABB (Lowinger): AABB' (Phillips/1994). The tune usually goes at breakneck speed, giving rise to popular folklore for the reason for its name: the fiddler plays so fast the fiddle catches on fire and lights up the woods (Lowinger, 1974). The title may be Celtic in origin: Scottish clans often used blazing bonfires on highland hills as gathering signals (ironically, this also may be the origin for the Ku Klux Klan's blazing crosses). Krassen (1973) notes his 'B' part has similarities with a 78 RPM recording of Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers' "Hog-eyed Man," and Bayard (1981) also recognizes the similarity between the second parts of the same tunes, though a closer match to "Fire On the Mountain" he believes to be "Betty Martin," which is "reminiscent all through." Guthrie Meade (1980) links the Kentucky version of the tune (which also goes by the name "Big Nosed Hornpipe") to the "Sally Goodin'" family of melodies. Winston Wilkinson, in the Southern Folklore Quarterly (vol. vi, I, March, 1942), gives a bar-for-bar comparison of the tune with a Norse 'halling' tune, set by the Norwegian composer Greig and published in Copenhagen in 1875 (Norges Melodier, 1875 & 1922, iv, pg. 72). The tunes are so close as to be almost certainly cognate. Bayard records the tune's earliest American publication date is 1814 or 1815 in Riley's Flute Melodys (where it appears as "Free on the Mountains"), and as "I Betty Martin" in A. Shattuck's Book, a fiddler's manuscript book dating from around 1801. The piece was recorded in the early 1940's from Ozark Mountain fiddlers by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph for the Library of Congress. Lowe Stokes (1898-1983), one of the north Georgia band 'The Skillet Lickers' fiddlers, remembered it as having been fiddled by his father.
***
Verses are sometimes sung to the melody, especially in the variants by other names such as "Betty Martin," "Pretty Betty Martin" and "Hog-eye." Wilkinson (1942) says that the following verse made its way into some editions of Mother Goose:
***
Fire on the mountains, run, boys, run,
Fire on the mountains, run, boys, run.
***
Other verses (some of which are floating) have been:
***
Fire on the mountain, run boy run;
Sal, let me chaw your rosin some.
***
Fire on the mountain, run, boys, run;
Fire on the mountain till the day is done.
***
Fire on the mountain, water down below;
Never get to heaven 'less you jump Jim Crow.
***
Fire on the Mountain, fire on the hillside
Fire on the Mountain, run, boys, run.
***
Old Uncle Cyrus fished all night,
Never caught a fish on a crawfish bite.
***
Old mother Taylor she drinks whiskey,
Old mother Taylor she drinks wine.
Old mother Taylor she got drunk,
Swung across the river on a pumpkin vine.
***
Two little Indians lying in bed,
One turned over and the other one said,
Fire on the mountain coming son,
Fire on the mountain run boy run.
***
Two little Indians and their squaw
Sittin' on a mountain in Arkansas.
***
All little Indians gonna drink whisky
All little Indians gonna get drunk.
***
Sources for notated versions: Highwoods String Band (N.Y.) [Brody]; Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers (Ga.) [Krassen]; Clayton McMichen (Ga.) [Kaufman]; James H. "Uncle Jim" Chisholm (Greewood, Albermarle County, Virginia) [Wilkinson]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 106. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pgs. 76-77. Krassen (Masters of Old Time Fiddling), 1973; pg. 72. Lowinger (Bluegrass Fiddle), 1974; pg. 17. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; pg. 18. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 85. Wilkinson, Southern Folklore Quarterly, Vol. VI, pg. 9). Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 39. Briar 4202l, The Kentucky Colonels- "Living In the Past." Brunswick 470 (78 RPM), The Red-Headed Fiddlers (1929). CMH 9006, Benny Martin- "The Fiddle Collection." Columbia 15185-D (78 RPM), Riley Puckett (fiddled by Clayton McMichen). County Records, Kyle Creed and Fred Cockerham. Flying Fish 065, Buddy Spicher- "Me and My Heroes" (appears as the third tune of 'Fiddle Tune Medley'). King Records (78 RPM), Curley Fox (Greysville, Tennessee). Library of Congress Records, The Red-Headed Fiddlers - "Dance Music, Breakdowns and Waltzes." Morning Star 45004, Ted Gossett's String Band (western Ky.) - "Wish I Had My Time Again" (originally recorded Sept., 1930, probably with fiddling by Tommy Whitmer instead of Ted Gossett, although the recording was issued under the band name Buddy Young's Kentuckians). OKeh 45068 (78 RPM), John Carson. Rounder 0023, Highwoods String Band- "Fire On the Mountain." Rounder 0035, Fuzzy Mountain String Band- "Summer Oaks and Porch" (1973. Learned from Henry Reed, Glen Lyn, Va.). Rounder 0197, Bob Carlin - "Banging and Sawing" (1985. Appears as "Far in the Mountain," learned from the Red-Headed Fiddler's record). Rounder C-11565, Bob Potts & Walt Koken - "Rounder Fiddle" (1990). Starday SLP 235, Curly Fox {Ga.} (1963). Stoneway 148, E.J. Hopkins- "Fiddle Hoedown." Vetco LP 104, Clayton McMichen - "The Wonderful World of Old-Time Fiddlers" (orig. rec. 1928). In the repertoire of black string band John Lusk Band (as "Sambo") from the Cumberland Plateau region of Ky./Tenn.
T:Fire on the Mountains
L:1/8
M:2/2
S:James H. "Uncle Jim" Chisholm, Greenwood, Albermarle County, Va.
K:A Mixolyidan
efed c2A2|B2G2B2d2|efed c2A2|B2G2 A4:|
|:efed c2d2|e2f2g2g2|efed c2d2|e2a2 a4:|
FORKED DEER, (THE). AKA - "Forked Buck," "Forky Deer," "Forked-Horn Deer," "Forked Deer Hornpipe," "Long-Horned Deer." AKA and see "Deer Walk," "Bragg's Retreat," "Van Buren." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Widley known. D Major. Standard or ADAE. AABB (most versions): AA'BB (Phillips) {Many older versions have several more parts than the two that are commonly played in modern times. Clay County, W.Va., fiddler Wilson Douglas, heir to an older tradition, plays the tune in three parts, as did his mentor French Carpenter. Roscoe Parish of Coal Creek, Va., also had a third part. Blind northeastern Kentucky fiddler Ed Hayley played a five part version, as did Charlie Bowman and Kentuckian J.W. Day}. John Johnson, an itinerant man originally from West Virginia who had artistic talent in several areas, had a version that had six parts, played ABACCDEFDEF (son of a jailer, he was said to have "fiddled his way in and out of most jails from West Virginia to Abiline"). Johnson (1916-1996) visited Kanawha County, West Virginia, fiddler Clark Kessinger (1896-1975) just a week before he died, an encounter from which he remembered:
***
I went and played the fiddle for him, played The Forked Deer.
Clark said, "That's not The Forked Deer." "Well," I said, "I
don't know whether it's The Forked Deer or not, but I learned
it from a record Arthur Smith made when I was a kid, and I
know the tune's way older than I am." And Clark said, "That
ain't The Forked Deer." But you see, I play six parts of The
Forked Deer and he just played two. So I suppose that's the
reason why he said that wasn't The Forked Deer. I learned that
whole tune just like Arthur Smith played it. I've heard lots of
other fiddlers put just two parts to it. (Michael Kline, Mountains of Music, John Lilly ed. 1999).
***
R.P. Christeson (1973) notes that the tune bears considerable resemblance to a Scottish tune named "Rachel Rae," which can be found in some of the older Scottish tune collections (and which in America was printed in such collections as White's Solo Banjoist, Boston, 1896). He notes that some fiddlers play the first part of this tune differently than the Missouri version he gives, and use a portion of "The Forked Deer" as published in George Willig's or George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels (Vol. 1, No. 4, Baltimore, c. 1839)--which appears to be the first time the "Forked Deer" tune appears in print. It has been suggested (by William Byrne) that the title "Forked Deer" is a corruption of 'Fauquier Deer', referring to the name of a county in northern Virginia. Others believe it may have derived from association with the Forked Deer River in Tennessee. Apparently, it was asserted in a fictionalized traveller's account (published in the late 1880's by Dr. H.W. Taylor) entitled "The Cadence and Decadence of the Hoosier Fiddler" that the title referred to a Deer river and its tributaries (i.e. 'the forks of the Deer'). John Hartford and Pat Sky have speculated the original title may have been "Forked Air," meaning a crooked melody. Indeed, Paul Tyler reports the "Forked Air" title was used in a 1950 notebook in which A. Hamblen noted down tunes played by his grandfather and brought to Brown County, Indiana, from Virginia in 1857. The tune, as "Forkadair," appears in W. Morris's Oldtime Viloin Melodies: Book No. 1, and the "Forkedair Jig" is a title Gerry Milnes (1999) says was used in a minstrel-era version.
***
Miles Krassen (1973) remarks the tune is very popular through most of the southern Appalachians, though it was not played for the most part by Galax, Va., style bands. Tommy Jarrell, quintessential Round Peak (near Mt.Airy, N.C./Galax, Va.) fiddler learned the tune in Carroll County, southwestern Virginia, where he listened to his father-in-law, Charlie Barnett Lowe play it on the banjo with local fiddlers Fred Hawkes and John Rector. It is one of the tunes mentioned in the humorous dialect story "The Knob Dance," published in 1845, set in eastern Tenn. (C. Wolfe), and was also known before the Civil War in Alabama, having been recalled by Alfred Benners in Slavery and Its Results as played by slave fiddler Jim Pritchett of Marengo County. The tune was mentioned by William Byrne who described a chance encounter with West Virginia fiddler 'Old Sol' Nelson during a fishing trip on the Elk River. The year was around 1880, and Sol, whom Byrne said was famous for his playing "throughout the Elk Valley from Clay Courthouse to Sutton as...the Fiddler of the Wilderness," had brought out his fiddle after supper to entertain (Milnes, 1999). Charles Wolfe (1982) remarks it was popular with Kentucky fiddlers, especially in eastern Kentucky (a remark probably based on recordings of regional fiddlers Ed Hayley and J.W. Day). It was one of the few sides cut in the first recorded session of American fiddle music in June, 1922, for Victor--a duet between Texas fiddler Eck Robertson and Henry Gilliland (though unissued). The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph in the early 1940's from the playing of Ozark Mountain fiddlers. Alternate titles "Forked-Horn Deer" and "Forked Deer Hornpipe" appear in a list he compiled of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes.
***
Ira Ford's (1940) rather preposterous story of the origins of the title is as follows: "The old dance tune, 'Forked Deer', is easily traceable to the days of powder horns, bullet molds and coonskin caps. Like many other very old tunes of American fiddle lore, it had its origin on the isolated frontier and this one has been traced to the first settlers along the Big Sandy River, the border line of Virginia and Kentucky. In the family which preserved this tune, the story, handed down through several generations, credits the authorship to a relative, a noted fiddler of pioneer days. This kinsman was also a famous hunter. There was a spirit of friendly rivalry in the hunt, much the same as there were championships in other lines of activities, and he had established a reputation as a champion deer hunter by always bringing in a forked deer. The forked deer, or two-point buck, was considered prime venison. As a token of admiration for the hunter as well as the fiddler, his friends set the following words to this popular dance tune which comes down to us as 'Forked Deer'.
***
There's the doe tracks and fawn tracks up and down the creek
The signs all tell us that the roamers are near,
With the old flint-lock rifle Pappy's gone to watch the lick,
With powder in the pan for to shoot the forked deer.
***
Sources for notated versions: J.P. Fraley (Ky.) and The Highwoods String Band (N.Y.) [Brody]: Will Hinds (Haskell County, Oklahoma) [Thede]: George Helton (Dixon, Missouri) [Christeson]; Frank George and John Rector (W.Va., Va.) [Krassen]; Charlie Bowman (Ga.?) [Phillips/1989]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 110. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 1), 1973; pg. 64. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 45 (the first part is similar to some versions of "Grey Eagle"). Frets Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 7, July 1981. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), No. 2, 1982/1988; pg. 5. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 43 (includes one 'B' part variation). Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook: Old Time), 1989; pg. 20. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 91. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 135. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 80. Cassette C-7625, Wilson Douglas - "Back Porch Symphony." Columbia 15387 (78 RPM), Charlie Bowman (1929). Condor 977-1489, "Graham & Eleanor Townsend Live At Barre, Vermont." County 202, "Eck Robertson: Famous Cowboy Fiddler." County 527, Charlie Bowman (East Tennessee) and His Brothers- "Old-Time Fiddle Classics, Vol. 2." County 707, Major Franklin- "Texas Fiddle Favorites." County 756, Tommy Jarrell- "Sail Away Ladies" (1976. Learned from Fred Hawks, though Tommy's father Ben Jarrell also played it). Flying Fish FF-009, Red Clay Ramblers - "Stolen Love" (1975). Flying Fish FF-055, Red Clay Ramblers - "Merchant's Lunch" (1977). Front Hall FHR-021, John McCutcheon - "Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (1981. "Inspired by" J.P. Fraley and Tommy Hunter). June Appal 007, Tommy Hunter- "Deep in Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, James W. Hunter of Madison County, N.C.). Kanawha 301, French Carpenter (W.Va.). Library of Congress (2742-A-3), 1939, by H.L. Maxey (Franklin County, Va.) {as "Forky Deer"}. Marimac 9000, Dan Gellert & Shoofly - "Forked Deer" (1986. Ed Haley's version, "without the 5th part"). Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Cyrill Stinnett (1912-1986) - "Plain Old Time Fiddling." Morning Star 45003, Taylor's Kentucky Boys - "Wink the Other Eye: Old Time Fiddle Band Music from Kentucky, Vol. 1" (1980. Originally recorded in 1927 for Gennett). Ok 45496 (78 RPM), The Fox Chasers. Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley- "Wild Rose of the Mountain." Rounder 0045, Highwoods String Band- "Dance All Night." Rounder 1010, Ed Haley- "Parkersburg Landing" (1976). Rounder 0047, Wilson Douglas- "The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek" (1975. Learned from French Carpenter, the tune appears as "Forked Buck"). Rounder 0058, John Rector (western Va.) - "Old Originals, Vol. II" (1978). Rounder 0194, John W. Summers - "Indiana Fiddler." Vetco 506, Fiddlin' Van Kidwell- "Midnight Ride." Vetco 102 (reissue), Jilson Setters (under the name Blind Bill Day). Victor 21407 (78 RPM), Jilson Setters (Blind Bill Day, b. 1860 Rowan Cty., Ky.), 1928. Voyager 340, Jim Herd - "Old Time Ozark Fiddling." Also recorded by Frank George and John Summers, French Carpenter and Uncle Am Stuart (b. 1856, Morristown, Tenn.){for Vocalation in 1924 under the title "Forki Deer"}.
T:Forked Deer
L:1/8
M:C|
K:D
|:(3ABc|defg a2fa|g2gb agfe|defg a2fa|gfed cABc|defg a2fa|g2gb agfe|
dAFD GBAG|FDEF D3:|
|:(A|A2)A2c4|ABAF E2 EF|A2AB c2cA|BAFE FD3|A2A2c4|ABAF E2FE|
D2ED FDGD|FDEF D3:|
GOLDEN SLIPPERS. American; Reel, Two-Step, Polka, and Song Tune. USA, widely known, esp. in the northern tradition. D Major (Brody, Ford): C Major (Jarman): G Major (Bronner, Phillips, Reiner, Shaw, Sweet). Standard. AB (Bronner): AAB (Phillips, Shaw): AABB' (Brody, Reiner): AABB (Jarman, Ford): AABB' (Sweet). Originally a song composed in by prominent black minstrel songwriter and banjo player (with Haverly's Minstrels) James A. Bland in 1870 as "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers," which later passed into folk and fiddling tradition (Bland also wrote "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" and "In the Evening by the Moonlight"). Due to this dissemination it appeared in song collections without credit to Bland, and was noted by several collectors in folk tradition in the early twentieth century (e.g. Frank C. Brown's Folk Songs from North Carolina). Played in the key of F Major by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner, who played the tune in harmony with another fiddler for dances in the early 20th century (Shumway). In repertory of Buffalo Valley Pa. dance fiddler Ralph Sauers. This was one of the tunes described by the Clarke County Democrat (southwest Alabama) of May 9th, 1929, that "assuredly would be rendered in the most approved fashion" at a contest in Grove Hill, Alabama. One version of the lyrics goes:
***
Oh my golden slippers are laid away,
Cause I don"t expect to wear them til my wedding day,
And my long-tailed coat that I love so well,
I will wear up in the chariot in the morning
***
Chorus
***
And the long white robe that I bought last June,
I'm goin to get it changed cause it fits too soon,
And the old grey horse that I used to ride,
I will hitch up to the chaiot in the morning
***
Chorus
O dem golden slippers, O dem golden slippers
dem golden slippers I'm gwine to wear cause they look so neat;
O dem golden slippers, O dem golden slippers
dem golden slippers I'm gwine te wear to cross the golden street.
***
Oh, my old banjo hangs on the wall,
'Cause it ain't been tuned since way last fall,
But the old folks say we will have a good time,
When we ride up in the chariot in the morning,
***
Chorus
***
There's old Brother Ben and Sister Luce,
They will telegraph the news to Uncle Bacco Juice
What a great camp meeting there will be that day,
When we ride up in the chariot in the morning
***
Sources for notated versions: Fennigs All Stars (N.Y.) [Brody]; Clyde McLean, 1976 (New York State) [Bronner]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 123. Bronner (Old-Time Music Makers of New York State), 1987; No. 24, pg. 105. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 113 (appears as "Dem Golden Slippers;" song lyrics on pg. 410). Jarman (The Cornhuskers Book of Square Dance Tunes), 1944; pg. 9. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician's No. 7: Michigan Tunes), Vol. 7, 1986-87; pg. 1. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; pg. 28. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 99. Reiner (Anthology of Fiddle Styles), 1979; pg. 77. Shaw (Cowboy Dances), 1943; pg. 383. Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 19. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 6. Biograph 6008, Delaware Water Gap- "Fox Hollow String Band Festival." Brunswick 313 (78 RPM), Lonnie Austin (1929). County 705, Buddy Pendelton- "Virginia Breakdown." Folkways FA 2337, Clark Kessinger- "Live at Union Grove." Fretless Records 101, "The Campbell Family: Champion Fiddlers." Front Hall 01, Fennigs All Stars- "The Hammered Dulcimer." Front Hall 023, Michael, McCreesh & Campbell - "Host of the Air" (1980). Gennet 14060 (78 RPM), The Tweedy Brothers (Wheeling, West Virginia brothers Harry and George on fiddles, Charles on piano), 1928, unissued. Kicking Mule 204, John Burke- "The Old-Time Banjo in America." Mag 3901, Sumner and McReynolds- "Old Friends." Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Vee Latty (1910-1956) - "Fever in the South." Okehdokee Records, Deseret String Band - "The Land of Milk and Honey" (c. 1974). Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Lester Bradley & Friends - "Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire" (1999).
T:Golden Slippers
L:1/8
M:C
K:D
de|f2f2 fede|f2f2f2de|f2f2 fedf|e2e2e2cd|e2e2 edcd|e2e2e2 cd|e2g2f2e2|1 e2d2d2:|2
d2d2B2_B2||
|:A3A A2d2|f2e2d2A2|B3B B2e2|g2f2e2d2|c2cc c2d2|1 e2 ee e2A2|d2 dd d2e2|
f2e2B2_B2:|2 e2 ee e2ee|e2g2f2e2|e2d2d2||
GREIG'S PIPES (Píopaí Greig). AKA and see "Cobbler's Hornpipe," "Connolly's Reel," "Craig's Pipes," "The Fiddler is Drunk," "The Foxhunters," "Greg's Pipe Tune," "Gregg's Pipes," "Gun Do Dhuit Am Bodach Fodar Dhomh" (The Old Man Wouldn't Give Me Straw), "The Kerry Huntsman," "Kregg's Pipes," "The Manchester," "Píopaí Greig," "Willy Wink(ie)'s Testament," "Willy Wilky." Scottish, Shetland, Canadian, Irish; Reel. Shetland, Whalsay. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. G Major (Breathnach, Mulvihill, Taylor, Tubridy): A Major (Athole, Cranford, Hardie, Perlman). Standard, AEAE or AEAC#. AABB (Taylor): ABC (Feldman & O'Doherty, Tubridy): ABBC (Mulvihill): AABBCC' (Perlman): ABBCCDD (Cranford/Fitzgerald): AABBCCDD (Athole, Gow, Hardie): AABB'CDE (Breathnach). AEAC# tuning was preferred for "Greig's Pipes" in the 18th century (Johnson, 1983) as it is set, for example in Neil Stewart's 1761 collection, but it is also played in ADAE tuning. Played in AEAE tuning, the tune was employed on the island of Whalsay, Shetland, by fiddlers John Irvine and Andrew Polson as one of the tunes for the "bedding the bride" ritual (Cooke, 1986). AEAE is also a common tuning for the piece on Cape Breton Island, especially with the early-mid 20th century generations of fiddlers, such as Mary Hughie MacDonald and Donald MacLellan (Paul Cranford, 1997) {Winston Fitzgerald, however, played it in standard tuning}. "Greig's Pipes" is a double-tonic tune that is also in the pentatonic scale; a characteristic now-a-days recognized as Scottish, but the double-tonic was also common in English music prior to 1700 when it dropped out of favor in that part of the island. To avoid the need to tune up and retune after playing the piece, it was, according to Charles Milne of Dufftown, the last item of an evening's program (Collinson, 1966). The melody appears in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth, 1768, and Joshua Campbell's 1778 Collection of Newest and Best Reels (pg.11), though John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing in Neil Stewart's 1761 collection (pg. 44). A Cape Breton bagpipe setting was printed by Barry Shears in his Gathering of the Clans Collection (1991) under the title "Gun Do Dhuit Am Bodach Fodar Dhomh" (The Old Man Wouldn't Give Me Straw), and Perlman (1996) adds that another Cape Breton title is "Greg's Pipe Tune." A dorian setting of the tune also goes by the name "Gregg's Pipes" in Kerr's 4th. Several Irish versions are found as "Craig's Pipes."
***
In Ireland the tune appears in print in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion, a setting reprinted by O'Neill in Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (288, 1922). O'Neill printed the tune elsewhere under the title "Limber Elbow" (a poor version, says Breathnach), and the first part of the tune appears in his "Edenderry Reel." Other Irish names include "The Kerry Huntsman" and "Connolly's Reel."
***
Sources for notated versions: accordionist Sonny Brogan (County Sligo/Dublin, Ireland) [Breathnach]; Mary MacDonald (Cape Breton) [Dunlay & Greenberg]; John Clancy (Bronx, New York) [Mulvihill]; Hughie McPhee (b. 1924, Elmira, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island; now resident of Priest Pond) [Perlman]; Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford]; set dance music recorded live at Na Píobairí Uilleann, mid-1980's [Taylor]; fiddlers Francie and Mickey Byrne (County Donegal) [Feldman & O'Doherty]. Breathnach (CRE I), 1963; No. 96, pg. 41. J. Campbell, Newest and Best Reels (c. 1778). Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 100, pg. 42. Dunlay & Greenberg (Violin Music of Cape Breton), 1996; pg. 136. Feldman & O'Doherty (The Northern Fiddler), 1979; pg. 169. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 24. Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1992; pg. 122. Lowe, Collection of Reels and Strathspeys, 1844. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 6, pg. 2. O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody); No. 288. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 104. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 16. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Yellow Book), 1995; pg. 20. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Vol. 1), 1999; pg. 24. Celtic SCX 57, Dan R. MacDonald et al - "The Fiddlers of Cape Breton." Green Linnet GLCD 1128, Brendan Mulvihill & Donna Long - "The Morning Dew" (1993). Rodeo RLP 107, Joe MacLean - "And His Old Time Scottish Fiddle" (c. 1967. Appears as "Athole Reel"). Rodeo RLP 59, Dan R. MacDonald - "Fiddling to Fortune with..." Rounder 7009, Doug MacPhee - "Cape Breton Piano" (1977).
X:1
T:Greig's Pipes
L:1/8
M:C|
S:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:A
f|eAcA eAAf|eAcA BFFf|eAcA eAcA|B/B/B (cA BFF:|
|:B|cAcA cAAB|cAcA BFFB|cAcA EacA|B/B/B (cA BFF:|
|:A|EA,CA, EA,A,F|EA,CA, FB,B,F|EA,CA, EA,CA,|B,/B,/B, (CE FB,B,:|
|:G|A2 A>E CA,A,E|A2 (AE FB,B,G|A2 A>E CA,EC|B,/B,/B, (CE FB,B,:|
X:2
T:Greig's Pipes
L:1/8
M:C|
K:G
B3 B BAGA|B2 GB AGEG|B3 B BAGB|A2BG AGEG|B3B BAGA|
B2 dB AGEG|B~d3 eBdB|AcBG AGEG||DG G2 DGBG|DGBG AGEG|
DG G2 DGBG|dBAc BGGE|DG G2 DGBG|DGBG AGEG|DG G2 DGBG|
DBAc BGGB||d2 Bd egge|d2 BG AGEG|d2 Bd eg g2|agbg ageg|
D2 Bd egge|d2 BG AGEG|d2 Bd eg g2|a2 bg aged||
HUNT IS UP (WHEN THE COCK HE CROWS), THE. English, Scottish; Air and Dance Tune (4/4, 6/4 and 6/8 times). G Major (Merryweather): C Major (Emmerson/Pickering, Kines, Chappell/Pickering). Standard. One part (Emmerson/Pickering, Kines, Chappell/Pickering): AABBCCDDEE (Merryweather). This old English tune, one of the most popular of the early ballads, a dance tune and reville, was mentioned by Shakespeare in "Romeo and Juliet" (act III, scene 5). Its age is attested to, not only through its appearence in old music manuscripts, but also by mention in literature. The English collector Chappell (1859) notes that one John Hugan was arrested in London in 1537 for singing with a "crowd" or fyddyl (fiddle) a political song to a tune with this title, while in 1565 William Pickering paid for a licence to print the ballad. Emmerson (1971) finds an even earlier reference to the melody in Scotland in Robert Henryson's fable 'The Wolf, the Foxe and the Cadzear' -- "The Cadzear sang Hunts up, up on hie." Chappell remarks that wide differences are found in the various variations of the tune that appear around 1600 and explains them as alterations brought on by the popularity of a tune where "the greater part of each section lies upon one harmony." Chappell, Merryweather (1989) and Kines (1964) explain that "The Hunt is Up" is actually a genre of tunes, the earliest of which stem from the early 16th century, around 1534; they say that any song intended to arouse in the morning, even a love song, was at one time called a 'hunt's-up'. These tunes originated with the town waites, or musicians, whose duties included playing for church rites, processionals, banquets, Royal visits, etc., but whom could also be hired by individuals to play early morning wake-up calls. "These musical aubades became known as 'Huntsups' and a ground bass 'ye Hunte Yis Uppe' a popular inspiration for descants and ballad tunes for many years" (Merryweather, pg. 20). These calls have entered English folk tradition, and Merryweather says fragments have even been identified in Cumbrian folk music in the 20th century. Emmerson finds another trace tradition from the 19th century in Cumberland where there existed a custom called 'hun-sopping' (i.e. 'hunt's up-ing') in which revelers traversed the town on Chrismas morning playing on instruments and shouting greetings. The tune Merryweather gives is actually a suite of such pieces from several sources. The air appears in Jane Pickering's Lute Book (1615), a lute MS of the Cambridge University Library, The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (where a "fantasia" based on the tune appears rather than the air itself), Lady Neville's Virginal Book, Musick's Delight on the Cithern (1666 or 1667), Anthony Holborne's Cithern Schoole (1597), Sir John Hawkin's transcripts (as "Pescod Time"), and the Leyden Lute MS (as "Soet Olivier"). Kines gives the version as given by Hullah from Musick's Delight on the Cithern (1667), which resembles closely Chappell's example from Jane Pickering's Lute Book (1615). Emmerson, suggesting Scottish origins for the air, finds it in the Scottish Gude and Godlie Ballates (Pickering's version resembles this, he says). He notes was frequently recorded as a dance tune in the 1600's and that it was in the repertoire of Habbie Simpson, the piper of Kilbarchan in the early part of that century (which Emmerson {1972} gives in the poem by Robert Sempill of Belgrees, Rendrewshire {1595-1668} called "The Elegy of Habbie Simpson Piper of Kilbarcan," said to be a favorite of Robert Ferguson and Robert Burns)-
***
Now who shall play 'The day it daws',
Or 'Hunt's up when the cock he craws'?
Or who can for our kirk-town cause
Stand us in stead?
On bagpipes now nobody blaws
Sin' Habbie's dead.
***
By the end of the 16th century, says Chappell, the tune became known as "Pescod Time" after a ballad sung to it, and under this title "it was appropriated for two very important and popular ballads--'The Lady's Fall' and 'Chevy Chase.'" One melody by the title "Huntsuppe" was by John Whitfield (1588-1616). Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol. 1, 1859; pg. 86 (Jane Pickering's version, 1615). Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 5, pg. 17 (Jane Pickering). Kines (Songs From Shakespeare's Plays and Popular Songs of Shakespeare's Time), 1964; pg. 49. Merryweather (Merryweather's Tunes for the English Bagpipe), 1989; pg. 20. Harmonia Mundi 907101, The King's Noyse - "The King's Delight: 17c Ballads for Voice and Violin Band" (1992).
KATE LAY SLEEPING. AKA and see "Kate's Laid in the Hay," "Round and Round the Green Sugar Tree," "Whitewashed Kate." American, Reel and Air. USA, southwestern Pa. A Dorian. Standard. AB. There are more vocal than instrumental versions of this air which was often used for playparty and shanty ditties, according to Bayard (1981). One of the playparty songs collected in Pennsylvania goes:
***
Say, pretty Belle, has your beau come (x3)
To help us with our dancing?
Yes, he'll come if yous say so (etc.)
Go give him a kiss and bring him in (etc.)
***
A shanty version has:
***
Way hay and up she rises (x3)
Early in the morning.
***
And and Irish one:
***
You are my love in the hay all night (x3)
Till six o'clock in the morning.
Sources for notated versions: Harry Wingrove (Westmoreland County, Pa., 1946), Charles Clark (Fayette County, Pa., 1946), Eben Patterson (Allegheny County, Pa., 1930's), Samuel Losch (Juniata County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 251, pgs. 214-215.
KEVIN BARRY. Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard. One part. A famous ballad on the theme of Irish patriotism during the "troubles" of the early 20th century. Kevin Barry was hung on Nov. 1st, 1920.
***
In Mountjoy jail, one Monday morning, high up on the gallows tree,
Kevin Barry gave his young life, for the cause of liberty;
But a lad of eighteen summers, yet no one can deny,
As he walked to death that morning, he proudly held his head on high.
***
Roche Collection, 1983, Vol. 3; No. 52, pg. 14.
LARK IN THE MORNING [3] (An Fuiseog Air/San Maidin). AKA and see "The Trip to Sligo." Irish, Double Jig or Set Dance. E Minor. Standard. AABB. Not version #2. "Bardic poets were much enamoured of intricate wordplay based on tables of correspondences and relationships known as 'ogham'. There were many kinds of ogham: tree ogham, castle ogham, fruit ogham, fish ogham, bird ogham, etc. In bird ogham, the lark is associated with the letter U (Gaelic uiseog = a lark), also with the day of the summer solstice and with the colour of resin. This ogham was probably based on the observation that the lark flies highest towards the sun, singing as he ascends, upon the day when the sun is highest in the heavens" (Williamson, 1976). O'Neill (Irish Minstrels, 1913) states there was a special dance performed to this "special tune of ancient lineage,... "the rarest and certainly not the least interesting in its class, for it possesses marked individuality all its own." In Irish Folk Music he says he has "a recollection of hearing it alluded to as an old Set-Dance." O'Neill obtained the melody from Quebec native James Carbray (who was then living in Chicago), who had picked up some tunes from a Kerry fiddler named Courtney (a longtime resident of Canada), via Chicago fiddler John McFadden who gave it to Sergeant James O'Neill, Francis O'Neill's collaborator. In Irish Folk Music O'Neill states that McFadden's playing partner, piper Sergeant Early, picked up the tune from an Edison record Carbray made while in Québec. The melody printed in O'Neill is usually now-a-days called "The Trip to Sligo." O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1019, pg. 190 (1st setting). O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 240, pg. 54. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; pg. 76.
T:Lark in the Morning [3]
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (240)
K:E Minor
B,|[B,2E2]c BGE|D2d AFD|[B,2E2]c BAF|GFE e2 e/f/|
gfe dcB|A/B/AG FED|EFG ABc|BGF E2:|
|:B|eBe g<be|dAd f<af|eBe g<be|f<af g<be|
f<af gfe|dcd AFD|EFG ABc|BGF E2:|
MACPHERSON'S LAMENT. AKA and see "Antarctic Ice," "Macpherson's Rant," "Macpherson's Farewell," "McFarsance's Tes(ta)ment," "MacFossett's Farewell," "The Freebooter." Scottish (originally), English; Air or Lament. England, Northumberland. F Major (Gow, Neil): G Major (Hardie, Skinner): D Major (Lerwick): A Major (Carlin). Standard. AB (Skinner): ABCD (Hardie): AABBCCDD (Gow, Neil): ABCDEF (Lerwick). Though there is no proof, the melody is popularly thought to have been composed by one of Scotland's first so called fiddle composers, the legendary James Macpherson, "on the eve of execution, by Himself, 1700" (Skinner). It appears in a manuscript by an anonymous publisher, c. 1730, under the title "MacFossett's Farewell," and, still earlier, in the Margaret Sinkler Manuscript (1710) under the title "McFarsance's Tes(ta)ment." MacPherson was born in Banffshire about 1675, the son, it is said, of a beautiful gypsy woman and a Highland laird, MacPherson of Invershire, Inverness-shire. He was raised by his father who unfortunately died young, at which time he went to live with his mother (whose good looks he had inherited, though perhaps he acquired his immense physical presence and strength from his father). As MacPherson grew to adulthood he was lured to the wilder life and became the leader of a lawless gypsy roving band, and he developed a reputation as a freebooter who operated in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Moray. Highwaymen were not rare in Scotland, and once he was captured and condemned it is likely he would have been forgotten, but MacPherson insured his lasting fame with a grand gesture on the cold November morning of his execution (11/7/1700) on the scaffold at Market Cross in Banff.
***
Though various legends differ in the details the main thread has MacPherson, with his fiddle in his hand, stepping onto the platform whereupon he took up his bow and proceeded to play his last communication to the world, his rant (or sometimes three tunes: "MacPherson's Rant," "MacPherson's Pibroch" and "MacPherson's Farewell"). At the conclusion of his performance he offered his violin to the assembled spectators (or, as one version goes, "to anyone in the crowd who would think well of him"), but either no one was brave enough to take it from the hands of a condemned man, or he had no well-wishers in attendance, or no one wished to implicate themselves by receiving the instrument. He looked around scornfully, lifted the fiddle and broke it over his knee in a grand gesture of contempt, though (as if the shattering were not dramatic enough) some versions have him dashing the instrument over the head of his executioner and flinging himself headlong off the scaffold and into oblivion. At least one version has him throwing the pieces of the instrument into his awaiting grave, though the broken remains of the fiddle he supposedly played that day can be seen in the Macpherson Clan Museum at Newtonmore.
***
It seems the best legends are those that embroider true facts, and that a freebooter named MacPherson was hanged in Banff in 1700 is a matter of record. It is a matter of belief, however, that he composed and played the rant which now bears his name. Alburger (1983) finds that there is no contemporary evidence that the outlaw was a fiddler, much less a composer:
***
Turning to the trial records, published in 1846, one finds this sole reference
to MacPherson and anything musical: 'M'Pherson...wes one night in the
house at that tyme, and drunk with the res, and danced all night.' The only
musician mentioned in this account is Peter Broune, who 'went sometymes
to Elchies, and played on the wiol' and 'got money sometyms for playing on
the wiol...' (He may have been one of the 'Browns of Kincardine' referred to
later in this chapter as early strathspey players and composers.) Nor is the
earliest broadside helpful. 'The Last Words of James Macpherson, Murderer',
printed about 1705, contains nothing about the dramatic gesture with which
he is thought to have ended his life, and nothing about fiddling. Apparently
there is a later version, which adds to the title the words 'To its own proper
tune'. It is quite likely that the tune was written after the event to suit the
broadside, for it fits the words perfectly...It may be that over the years
tradtional memory fused MacPherson's story with the musical facts about
Peter Broune, who was on trial at the same time.
***
There is another legend also connected with the execution which states that the local powers that were, being cognisant that a reprieve was on the way, moved the town clock ahead one hour so that it would arrive only after the hanging. Neil (1991) reports that the magistrates of the town were punished for this perfidious act for many years in that they were forced to keep the town clock 20 minutes behind the right time, and remarks that even to this day jests are still made about the veracity of the time in Banff. Collinson (1966, pgs. 210-211) also gives a similar thorough treatment of the legend of the highwayman and his melody.
***
The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. Robert Burns also wrote a famous song to the tune, called "MacPherson's Farewell," which begins
***
Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong,
The wretch's destinie!
MacPherson's time will not be long
On yonder gallows-tree.
Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
Sae dauntingly gaed he,
He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round
Below the gallows-tree.
***
D.K. Wilgus, in his article "The Hanged Fiddler Legend in Anglo-American Tradition," finds evidence of an earlier MacPherson in Ireland with an almost identical story. He cites a chapbook called The Lives and Actions of the Most Notorioius Irish Highwaymen Tories and Rapparees, from Redmond O'Hanlon to Cahier Na Gappul, printed in Dublin in the early 19th century which contains a section entitled "Some Passages of the Life of Strong John Macpherson, a notorious Robber." The chapbook relates that the Irish highwayman, at the age of nineteen inherited:
***
A pretty little income1/4which he made a shift to spend in the company of
pert women and gamesters, in less than three years, during which he was
always a leading man at hurlings, patrons, and matches of foot-ball1/4He
was accounted in his time the strongest man in the nation; he could hold
a hundred weight at arms' length in one hand, and would make little or
nothing of twisting a new horse-shoe round like a gad; yet nothwithstanding
all this activity he was soon reduced to poverty, and so, from one step after
another, brought to the gallows1/4He was never known to murder anybody;
nay he was very cautious of striking unless in his own defence; though in
his time he committed more robberies single handed by far than Redmond
O'Hanlon did, with whom he was acquainted, but with none of his gang.
However, he was at last taken by treachery, and after being tried and found
Guilty was despatched by the common finisher of the law about 1678. As
he was carried to the gallows, he played a fine tune of his own composing
on the bagpipe, which retains the name of Macpherson's tune to this day.
***
Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 131, pg. 81. Gow (Complete Collection), Part 1, 1799; pg. 4. Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1992; pg. 115. Lerwick (Kilted Fiddler), 1985; pg. 76-77. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 80, pg. 107. Skinner (The Scottish Violinist, includes the 'traditional' and 'unwritten' melodies), pg. 40.
T:MacPherson's Lament
L:1/8
M:C
S:Gow - 1st Repository
K:F
(C/D/E)|F3G F2A2|GFGA {A}G2FE|F3G (AG)(FE)|{E}D4 D2 (C/D/E)|F3G F2A2|
{A}G>FGA {A}G2FE|F2 ED (GE)(FD)|C4 C2:|
|:d2|c2F2c2d2|c3A (GA)Bd|c2F2(c2d2)|D4 ~D2d2|c2F2c3A|{A}c3A (GB)AG|
F2 ED (GE)(FD)|C4 C2:|
|:(c/d/e)|f3g f2a2|{a}gfga {a}g2 fe|f3g (ag)fe|d4 d2 (c/d/e)|f3g f2a2|{a}gfga {a}g2fe|
f2 ed (ge)(fd)|c4c2:|
|:a>g|f2F2 (BA)(GF)|{AB}c2 F2F2 a>g|f2 F2 (c2d2)|D4 ~D2 a>g|
f>F (F2 {EF}A>)F (F2{EF})|{=B}c3A G2A2|F2 EF (GF)(ED)|C4 C2:|
MAID OF MOUNT KISCO (Gearrchaile Shliabh Cisco). Irish, Reel. A Dorian. Standard. AABCC (Tubridy): AA'BCC: AA'BB'CC' (Alewine). The tune is named after a woman who resided in Mount Kisco, a town of approximately 10,000 souls in Westchester County, north of New York City. Paddy Killoran has generally been credited with the composition of the tune, although there is some doubt about this. 'Tune lore' has it that Killoran either named or renamed an existing tune when playing near Mount Kisco when he was asked the name of the piece by either a young lady or a barmaid (depending on the version of the tale). Not knowing the correct title, on the spot he made up "Maid of Mount Kisco" in her honor. However, New York accordion player Jim Coogan says that Killoran wrote it for a friend, Ann Mulligan, who resided in Mount Kisco. Killoran recorded the tune for Decca in 1937, and Philippe Varlet could find no recorded version of the tune which predated it. He did find subsequent versions by another Decca Irish artist, Joe Maguire (1945), Leo Rowsome (London, 1947), and the Kincora Céilí Band, led by Kathleen Harrington (Dublin, 1952). Two relatively early versions can be found by older groups on the RTE compilation video "Come West Along The Road". The title is sometimes irritatingly misspelled "Mt. Cisco," perhaps from its appearance in Brendan Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hErineann where Kisco is spelled Cisco because in the Irish language there is no letter 'K'. In Ireland the name is pronounced as "Sisco" although name of the Westchester town in pronounced with a hard 'K'. Sources for notated versions: piper Mattthew Tiernan/Maitiu Mac Tighearnain (Ireland) [Breathnach]; piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell]. Alewine (Maid that Cut Off the Chicken's Lips), 1987; pg. 23 (appears as "Maid of Mt. Cisco"). Breathnach (CRE I), 1963; No. 118, pg. 49. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 93, pg. 82. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; pg. 21. Shanachie 79095, Arcady - "Many Happy Returns" (1995). Tommy Keane - "The Piper's Apron." Michael McGoldrick - "Morning Rory."
T:Maid of Mount Kisco, The
L:1/8
M:C|
K:A Dorian
AG|EA (3AAA BGAG|EA (3AAA BGAG|EG (3GGG BGAG|EG (3GGG EG D2|
EA (3AAA BGAG|EA (3AAA BABd|edef ~g3e|1 dBGB A2 AG:|2 dBGB A2 z2||
|:A3B dBAB|G2 BG EG B2|A3B d2 (3Bcd|1 efge dBGB:|2 efge d2 (3Bcd||
|:ea (3aaa bgag|{a}gedB GA (3Bcd|ea (3aaa bgag|{a}gede ~g3 z|
a3e ~g3e|dedB GA (3Bcd|eA (3AAA efge|1 dBGB A2 (3Bcd:|2 dBGB A2 z2||
MAIDEN'S PRAYER. Old-Time, Western Swing; Dance piece. USA, Texas. A Major. Standard. AB (Christeson), One part (Brody). A favorite tune of Texas swing fiddler Bob Will's father, fiddler John Wills, "who would get up early in the morning, around four A.M., and sit out in the front yard to the Wills farm as the dawn crept up off the plains, and play the melody to himself" (Charles Wolfe, The Devil's Box, June 1982, pg. 20). Florida fiddler Chubby Wise (1916-1996) earned a gold record for sales of his recording of the tune, while Wills' 1938 version became the third best-selling country music record for that year. Lyrics to the tune are attributed to Bob Wills:
***
Twilight falls - Ev'ning shadows find
There 'neath the stars - a maiden so fair - divine
All alone I seem to see her there
In her eyes is a light shinning ever so bright
She whispered a silent prayer.
***
Ev'ry word revealed her empty broken heart
Broken by fate that holds them so far apart
Lonely there she kneels and tells the stars above
In her arms he belongs, in her heart is a song
An undying song of love.
***
Sources for notated versions: Red Williams (Dallas, Texas) [Christeson]: Bob Wills (Texas) and Jay Ungar (West Hurley, N.Y.) [Brody]. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 2), 1984; pg. 128. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 182. Stoneway 104, Chubby Wise- "Chubby Wise and His Fiddle." MGM MG-2-5303, Bob Wills- "24 Greatest Hits By Bob Wills." Philo 1040, Jay Ungar and Lyn Hardy- "Catskill Mountain Goose Chase." County 772, Bobby Hicks- "Texas Crapshooter." Rhino CD #R2 70744, Bob Wills Anthology (originally recorded 1935). Asleep at the Wheel - "Ride with Bob."
MON CHERE BEBE CREOLE. Cajun. Composed by Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee, who said, "I dreamed the tune in my sleep, and when I woke up I caught the violin and played the tune." Morning Star 45002, "The Early Recordings of Dennis McGee (La.) 1929-1930."
PADDY IN LONDON [1] ("Paidin Ann Lungoun" or "Paidin i Lungdun"). AKA and see "Piper Hick's Favorite," "Jackie Fitzpatrick's Reel." Irish, Double Jig. D Major. Standard. AABB'CC (O'Neill/1850 & Krassen): AABCC (O'Neill/1915). Despite the number of Irish musicians hired on the Chicago police force, Captain Francis O'Neill generally did not allow himself to be distracted from his work by music, which he kept to home and while visiting friends, however, there were occasions when this was impossible, as O'Neill describes:
***
One Monday morning I unexpectedly encountered John McFadden
in the corridor outside my office in City Hall, and wondering what
could have happened since we parted the evening before, I asked,
'What brings you here so early, John?' 'I wanted to see you privately
in your office, Chief', he quietly replied. To my suggestion that we
could transact our business just as well where we were as in my
office, where so many others were waiting, he did not agree, so in
we went through three intervening rooms. When the door was closed
behind us Mac did not keep me in suspense. 'Chief, I lost the third
part of 'Paddy in London' which you gave me last night1/4when I
got up this morning, all I could remember were the first and second
parts, and I want you to whistle the missing part for me again.'
***
Source for notated version: John Hicks (c. 1880's), "celebrated from Washington to Boston as a great Irish piper, a protégé of 'Sporting' Captain Kelly of the Curragh of Kildare [O'Neill]. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 136, pg. 79. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 60. O'Neill (1850), 1979; No. 1040, pg. 194. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1986; No. 250, pg. 55.
T:Paddy in London [1]
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (250)
K:D
G|FDF ABc|ded def|AGF G2A|BGE E2G|FDF ABc|ded def|AGF BAG|FDD D2:|
|:g|fdf agf|gfe dBG|AGF G2A|BGE E2[Gg]|1 fdf agf|gfe dBG|AGA BAG|FDD D2:|2
DFD ABc|ded def|AGF BAG|FDD D2||
|:g/f/|eAA Agf|edc d2B|AGF G2A|BGE E2 f/g/|agf gfe|ded def|AGF BAG|FDD D2:|
SISTER JEAN [1]. Shetland (originally), Jig. D Dorian. Standard. AAB. Shetland jigs are a rare breed, but this is "a very attractive and unusual 6/8 tune from Unst. Can be used as a tune for 'Boston Two-Step'" (Anderson). Shetland fiddler John Stickle from Unst played this tune, which was noted by the collector Patrick Shuldham-Shaw in 1947. The melody has been characterised as a Scandinavian-accented elaboration of "Up in the morning early," thought to be a derivative of a seventeenth-century tune published by Playford as "Lulle me beyond thee." Anderson (Ringing Strings), 1983; pg. 27. Front Hall 018, How to Change a Flat Tire - "Traditional Music From Ireland and Shetland" (1978).
SPAILPÍN FÁNAC(H), AN. AKA and see "As Slow Our Ship," "Brighton Camp," "The Girl I Left Behind Me," "The Rambling Labourer," "The Wandering Labourer." Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard. One part.
***
AN SPAILPÍN FÁNACH
***
Go deo deo arís ní raghad go Caiseal
ag díol ná ag reic mo shláinte,
Ar mhargadh na saoire im shuí cois balla
nó im scaoinse ar leataoibh sráide;
Bodairí na tíre ag tíocht ar a gcapaill
á fhiafraí an bhfuilim híreáilte;
'Téanam chun siúil, tá an cúrsa fada!'
-seo ar siúl an spailpín fánach.
***
Im spailpín fánach a fágadh mise
ag seasamh ar mo shláinte,
Ag siúl an drúchta go moch ar maidin
ag bailiú galair ráithe;
Ní fheicfear corrán im láimh chun bainte,
súist ná feac beag rámhainne,
Ach colours na bhFrancach os cionn mo leapa
is pike agam chun sáite.
***
Go Callainn nuair théim 's mo hook im ghlac is
mé ansúd i dtosach gearrtha,
Is nuair théim go Dúilinn 's é clú bhíonn acu
'Seo chúibh an spailpín fánach!';
Cruinneoidh mé ciall 's triallfad abhaile
is cloífead seal lem mháithrín,
's go bráth arís ní ghlaofar m'ainm
sa tír seo 'an spailpín fánach'.
***
Mo chúig chéad slán chun dúthaigh m'athar
'gus chun an Oileáin ghrámhair,
's chun buachaillí na Cúlach ós dóibh nár mheasa
in aimsir chasta an gharda ann;
Ach anois ó táimse im thráill bhocht dhealamh
i measc na ndúthaí fáin seo,
Is é mo chumha croí mar fuair mé an ghairm
bheith riamh im spailpín fánach.
***
I gCiarraí an ghrinn do gheofaí an ainnir
go mb'fhonn le fear suí láimh léi,
'na mbeadh lasadh trí lítis 'na gnaoi mar eala,
is a cúl fionn fada fáinneach;
A cruinne-chíocha riamh nár scaipeadh,
's a mala chaol mar shnáthaid,
's mór go mb'fhearr í ná sraoill ó Challainn
'na mbeadh na céadta púnt le fáil léi.
***
'S ró-bhreá is cuimhin liom mo dhaoin' bheith sealad
thiar ag Droichead Gáile,
Faoi bhuaibh, faoi chaoirigh, faoi laoigh beag' geala
agus capaill ann le háireamh;
Ach b'é toil Chríost gur cuireadh sin astu
's go ndeaghamar i leith ár sláinte,
Is gurbh é bhris mo chroí i ngach tír dá rachaim-
'Call here you, spailpín fánach!'
***
Dá dtigeadh an Francach anall thar caladh
is a champa daingean láidir,
'gus Bóic Ó Gráda chúinn abhaile
is Tadhg bocht fial Ó Dálaigh,
Do bheadh barracks an rí go léir á leagadh
agus yeomen 'gainn á gcarnadh,
Clanna Gall gach am á dtreascairt-
sin cabhair ag an spailpín fánach!
***
This is taken from Nua-Dhuanaire, Cuid III. A Connaught version is also
cited, and the following verse quoted:
***
Tá na Franncaigh anois istigh i gCill Eala
agus béidhmuid go leathan láidir;
Tá Bonaparte i gCaisleán an Bharraigh
ag iarraidh an dlighe a cheap Sáirséal;
Béidh beairicí an ríogh is gach éan-oidhche thrí lasadh
agus yeomen againn á gcarnadh;
Puiceanna an Bhéarla go síorruidh d'á leagan-
sin cabhair ag an Spailpín Fánach.
***
THE ROVER (George Sigerson)
***
No more, no more in Cashel town
I'll sell my health a-raking,
Nor on days of fairs rove up and down
Nor join the merry making.
There, mounted farmers come in throngs
To seek and hire me over,
But now I'm hired, and my journey's long,
The journey of the Rover.
***
I've found, what rovers often do,
I trod my health down fairly;
And that wand'ring out on morning dew
Will gather fevers early.
No more shall flail swing o'er my head,
Nor my hand a spade-shaft cover,
But the banner of France will float instead,
And the Pike stand by the Rover!
***
When to Callan once, with hook in hand,
I'd go for early shearing,
Or to Dublin town-the news was grand
That the "Rover gay" was nearing.
And soon with good gold home I'd go,
And my mother's field dig over,
But no more-no more this land shall know
My name as the "Merry Rover!"
***
Five hundred farewells to Fatherland!
To my loved and lovely Island!
And to Culach boys-they'd better stand
Her guards by glen and highland.
But now that I am poor and lone,
A wand'rer-not in clover-
My heart it sinks with bitter moan
To have ever lived a Rover.
***
In pleasant Kerry lives a girl,
A girl whom I love dearly;
Her cheek's a rose, her brow's a pearl,
And her blue eyes shine so clearly!
Her long fair locks fall curling down
O'er a breast untouched by lover-
More dear than dames with a hundred poun'
Is she unto the Rover!
***
Ah, well I mind, my own men drove
My cattle in no small way;
With cows, with sheep, with calves, they'd move
With steeds, too, west to Galway.
Heaven willed I'd lose each horse and cow,
And my health but half recover-
It breaks my heart, for her sake, now
That I'm only a sorry Rover.
***
But when once the French come o'er the main,
With stout camps in each valley,
With Buck O'Grady back again,
And poor brave Tadhg Ó Dálaigh-
Oh, The Royal Barracks in dust shall lie,
The yeomen we'll chase over;
And the English clan be forced to fly-
'Tis the sole hope of the Rover!
***
Ó Canainn (Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland), 1995; No. 94, pg. 81. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 972, pg. 167.
T:Spalpeen Fanach, The
T:Spailpín Fánach, An
L:1/8
M:C
R:Set Dance
S:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (972)
K:G
gf|efed B2A2|GABG E2 EF|G2 GF GABc|dedc B2 gf|
efed B2A2|GABG E2G2|FGAF DEFA|G3 G2:|
|:GA|Bdef g2 fg|agfe d2 Bd|edef gfed|e2f2g2 fg|efed BcBA|
GABG EDEG|FGAF DEFA|G3G2:|
TIPPITY WICHET. AKA - "Tippitiwitchet." English, Air and Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). C Major. Standard. One part (Scott): AB (Raven). This is one of the early 19th century singer Grimaldi's most famous songs, who sang it in Thomas Dibdin's "Bang up or Harlequin Prime," for which William Reeve wrote the music (including the tune for this song). It was later sung famously by Sam Cowell.
**
This morning early My malady was such
I in my tea took brandy, And took a drop too much.
Tol lol lol (hiccup),
Tol lol lol de rol de lay.
Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 148. Scott (English Song Book), 1926; pg. 56.
UP I(N) THE MORNING EARLY. AKA - "Cauld Blaws the Wind Frae East to West," "Up in the Morning's No for Me." Scottish, English; Air (6/8 time) or Jig. England, Northumberland. E Minor (Kerr): G Minor/Dorian (Gow). Standard. AABB. Kidson (Groves) says the tune is a version of an old melody called "Stingo" (AKA "Cold and Raw") that had sustained much alteration in Scotland. It is based on an imported Italian chord progression from the 16th century called passamezzo antico (though slightly altered), and is said by some to be the song "Johnny Cope" was created in parody of. Jack Campin believes the melody to be part of a 'wildly ramified tune family' which includes "Lulle me beyond thee" and "Stingo" in Playford, and "Katherine Ogie" as well as a "Johnny Cope."
***
"Up in the Morning Early" appears in the Bodleian Mancuscript (in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), inscribed "A Collection of the Newest Country Dances Performed in Scotland written at Edinburgh by D.A. Young, W.M., 1740," in McGibbon's third Collection (1755), and in the 1768 (James) Gillespie Manuscript of Perth. James Oswald included the melody in his Caledonian Pocket Companion, published in London in 1760. The title "Up in the Morning Early" appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. A song by this name (set in D Minor) appears in the George Skene manuscript, 1715
***
Words and music for "Up in the Morning" appear Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (vol. ii, 1788), said to have been written by the poet Robert Burns, stated in the music volume to be an old song with additions. It goes:
***
Cauld blaws the wind frae north to south,
The drift is drivn sairly;
The sheep are cowerin' in the heugh,
O sirs, 'tis winter fairly.
Then up in the mornin's no for me,
Up in the mornin' early;
I'd rather go supperless to my bed,
Than rise in the mornin' early.
***
The sun peeps owre yon southland hills
Like any timorous carlie;
Just blinks a wee, then sinks again,
An' that we find severely.
Now up in the mornin's no for me,
Up in the mornin' early;
When snaw blaws in at the chimley cheek,
Who'd rise in the mornin' early?
***
A cosy house and cantie wife
Aye, keep a body cheerly;
An' pantries stowed wi' meat and drink,
The answer unco rarely.
But up the the mornin'--na, na, na!
Up in the mornin' early;
The gowans maun glent (daisies must shine) on bank an' brae,
When I rise in the mornin' early.
***
Gow (Complete Repository), Part 3, 1806; pg. 4. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 298, pg. 32.
T:Up in the Morning Early
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:Gow - 3rd Repository
K:G Minor
D|G2A B2c|~d>=ef F2F|G>AG d>cB/A/|G3 d2D|G2A B2c|~d>=ef F2F|
G>AG d>cB/A/|(G3 d2):|
|:(F/2G/2A)|B>cB B2B|c>dc c2c|~d>ef gfe|(d3f2)F|B>cB ~c2B|cdf gfe|
d>cB A>G^F|(G3 d2):|
UP IN THE MORNING'S NO FOR ME. AKA and see "Up in the Morning Early."
WATERBOUND. AKA and see "Stay All Night," "Way Down in North Carolina." Old-Time, Song/ piece. USA, Virginia. A Major. Standard. AABB. This piece is originally from Roscoe Holcomb, though the Bogtrotters also recorded an early version of the song. Source for notated version: Art Rosenbaum [Kuntz].
***
Chickens crowin' in the old plowed field, (x3)
Down in North Carolina.
***
Refrain (Verses 1-3)
Waterbound and I can't go home, (x3)
I have to stay till morning.
***
Bill and Charlie lets go home, (x3)
Before the water rises.
***
The water's up and I can't get across, (x3)
I'll ride the old white horse.
***
The old man's mad but I don't care, (x3)
Just so I get his daughter.
If he don't give her up I'm a-gonna run away, (x3)
Down in North Carolina.
***
Waterbound and I can't go home, (x3)
Down in North Carolina. (Kuntz)
***
Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 315-316. Carryon Records 005, "The Renegades" (1993). County 534, Fields Ward- "Round the Heart of Old Galax, Vol. II" (various artists). Kicking Mule 203, Art Rosenbaum- "The Art of the Mountain Banjo." Rounder CD 0383, Mike Seegar and Paul Brown - "Down in North Carolina" (appears as "Way Down in North Carolina").
T:Waterbound
L:1/8
M:2/4
B:Kuntz - Ragged but Right
K:A
c/c/B AA/B/|c/d/c/B/ AA|BB/B/ Bc/B/|A/B/A/F/ E>(E|E)F/F/ AA/B/|c/B/c/d/ e2|
fe/e/ cc/B/|A2A2|c/c/B AA/B/|c/d/c/B/ AA|BB/B/ Bc/B/|A/B/A/F/ E>(E|
E)F/F/ AA/B/|c/B/c/d/ e2|fe/e/ cc/B/|A2A2||
|:aa/a/ aa/a/|f/e/c e(B|c)c/B/ c/B/A|f/e/c/d/ ee|aa/a/ aa/a/|f/e/c ee|fe cB/c/|A2A2:|
WILD IRISHMAN [3]. AKA and see "The Daisy Field," "The Field of Daisies," "The Irish Girl," "Boil the Breakfast Early." Irish, Reel. Ireland, Counties Roscommon, Sligo, Donegal. D Major. Standard. AB (Cranitch, Flaherty, Miller & Perron): AABB (Huntington): AABB' (Sullivan). A version of the tune is a popular reel in County Donegal. An Uilleann piper by the name of Turlogh McSweeney, known as 'The Donegal Piper', made a reputation for himself as one of the best pipers of the latter 19th century. Though known as a taciturn and reserved individual, he relaxed enough on a visit to Chicago (to perform at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893) to tell two musician friends of Francis O'Neill the story of how he came by his talent. McSweeney put forth that he was not much of a player in his younger days, but that he was anxious to improve. Despairing of other means of attaining his goal, he thought to appeal to the fairies who lived at a hill-top rath nearby. On a moonlight night, he summoned his courage, buckled on his pipes and made his way to the fort. O'Neill (1913) quotes him:
***
Well, as I was saying, when I got to the center of the Plasog,
as near as I could tell, you may be sure I wasn't any too
comfortable. Anyhow, I addressed myself to the king of
the fairies saying: 'I'm Turlogh McSweeney, the piper of
Gwedore, and I hope you will pardon my boldness for coming
to ask your majesty to play a 'chune' on the pipes for me, and
I'll return the compliment and play for you.' Yerra man, like
a shot out of a gun, the words were hardly out of my mouth
when the grandest music of many pipers, let alone one, playing
all together, filled my ears; and that wasn't all for lo and behold
you, what should I see but scores of little fairies or luricauns,
wearing red caps, neatly footing it, as if for a wager. Believe
me, I was so overcome with fright at such a strange and
unexpected sight that I ran for the bare life, my pipes
hanging to me and dropping off piece and joint along
the way; and by the time I reached home, the dickens
a bit of my whole set of pipes was left to me but the
bellows and bag, and they couldn't let go, as they were
strapped round my waist. Picture to yourselves the kind
of a night I spent after what happened. Anyway, by sun-up
in the morning I ventured out and started to try and pick up
the disjointed sections of my pipes, as I knew well enough
the route I ran. My luck relieved my misgivings when I found
the last missing part, which had dropped off at the very entrance
to the rath or fort when I ran away. I lost no time in putting the
now complete instrument in order, and to keep my word and fulfil
my promise made to the king of the fairies the night before, I struck
up "The Wild Irishman," my favorite reel. Words can't express my
astonishment and delight when I found I could play as well as the
best of them. And that, gentlemen, is how I came to be the best
Union piper of my day in that part of the country.
***
Source for notated version: fiddler Michael Lennihan (b. 1917, Kilnamanagh, in the Frenchpark area of County Roscommon) [Flaherty]. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), Vol. 3, No. 36. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 64, pg. 150. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; pg. 90. Huntington (William Litten's), 1977; pg. 21. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 1977; Vol. 3, No. 49. Sullivan (Session Tunes), Vol. 2; No. 6, pg. 3. Intrepid Records, Michael Coleman. Philo 1051, Boys of the Lough - "Good Friends, Good Music" (1976). Shanachie Shan-79017, John & Phil Cunningham - "Against the Storm" (1980). Shaskeen Records OS-360, Andy McGann, Felix Dolan, Joe Burke - "A Tribute to Michael Coleman" (c. 1965).
WIR LINDA'S MEDLEY (Strathspey). Shetland, Strathspey. F# Minor. Standard. AAB. 'Wir' means 'Our'. "A Strathspey and Reel in the Scottish Northeast Style. Written (by Tom Anderson) in 1978, in the early hours of the morning having woken up with the melodies in my head, in fact, I seemed to think I'd heard them on the morning radio. Dedicated to Linda Keen, a student from the USA, who was studying with me at the time" (Anderson). Anderson (Ringing Strings), 1983; pg. 56.