Bards Old Time Fiddle Tunebook Supplement/Print Version 1

Even though this is an almost-complete book, we invite your participation in growing this book by adding more information about more fiddle tunes. Banjo players are of course also welcome, along with mandolin, double bass, guitar, washboard, bazouki and other instrumentalists! But a fiddle tune is still considered to be a fiddle tune no matter what instrument it is played on. We hope you enjoy reading about your favorite Old Time tunes and better yet, adding lore of your own!

Bards' Old Time Fiddle Tunebook Supplement:Introduction

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Interesting facts and figures about your favorite tunes and the people who play them.

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History and interesting facts about these tunes

• Angelina Baker
• The Arkansas Traveler
• Blackberry Blossom*
• Cripple Creek
• Devils Dream
• Turkey in the Straw
• Wildwood Flower
• Yew Piney Mountain*

Angeline the Baker

Angelina Baker, sometimes sung as Angeline the Baker (Roud 18341) is a song written by Stephen Foster for the Christy Minstrels, and published in 1850. The original laments the loss of a woman slave, sent away by her owner. The lyrics have been subjected to the folk process, and some versions have become examples of the "Ugly Girl" or Dinah song.

An instrumental version, as collected by John A. Lomax under the title "Angelina the Baker" is a popular fiddle or banjo tune, and differs from the Stephen Foster melody. It is part of the old time fiddle canon, but is also played by bluegrass fiddle|bluegrass musicians. This old time tune was also played as bluegrass by Stuart Duncan at the 2007 Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival. Duncan also played this tune at the Grand Oprey in 2008 with Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Brian Sutton, Stuart Duncan, & Mark Schatz on Grand Ole Opry playing "Major Honker."

Lyrics

According to Lyle Lofgren, writing for Inside Bluegrass, publication of the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association, "Foster published Angelina Baker in 1850, and it was featured on stage by the original Christy Minstrels." His report of the by now public domain lyrics is as follows.

1. Angeline the baker lives in our village green,
The way I always loved her beats all you ever seen.

CHORUS:
Angeline the baker, her age is forty-three,
I bought her candy by the peck, and she won't marry me.

2. Her father is the miller, they call him Uncle Sam.
I never will forget her, unless I take a dram. CHO.

3. Angeline is handsome, Angeline is tall,
They say she sprained her ankle a-dancing at the ball. CHO.

4. She can't do hard work because she is not stout,
She bakes her biscuits every day, and pours the coffee out. CHO.

5. I'll never marry no other girl, no matter where I go.
I said I'd marry Angeline just twenty years ago. CHO.

6. The last time I saw her was at the county fair.
Her father run me almost home and told me to stay there. CHO.

Arkansas Traveler

"The Arkansas Traveler" was the state song of Arkansas from 1949 to 1963, and has been the state historical song since 1987. The music was composed in the 19th century by Sanford Faulkner|Colonel Sanford C. 'Sandy' Faulkner (1806–1874); the current official lyrics were written by a committee in 1947 in preparation for its naming as state song.

Arkansas' other official state songs are "Arkansas (song)|Arkansas" (state anthem) as well as "Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)" & "Oh, Arkansas" (both state songs).

The bumble bee verse has become a popular children's song, but has altered lyrics from the original:

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee Won't my mommy be so proud of me? I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee Ouch! It stung me!

Lyrics

The song has had several sets of lyrics which are far older than the original composition. The official lyrics as state historical song of Arkansas are under copyright, but can be found on the website of the Arkansas Secretary of State. The words were composed by the Arkansas State Song Selection Committee, 1949

On a lonely road quite long ago,
A trav'ler trod with fiddle and a bow;
While rambling thru the country rich and grand,
He quickly sensed the magic and the beauty of the land.

Chorus
For the wonder state we'll sing a song,
And lift our voices loud and long.
For the wonder state we'll shout hurrah!
And praise the opportunities we find in Arkansas.

Many years have passed, the trav'lers gay,
Repeat the tune along the highway;
And every voice that sings the glad refrain
Re-echoes from the mountains to the fields of growing grain.

Repeat Chorus

A more traditional lyric (first two stanzas were used on the version on the Peter Pan children's record label except for "on" instead of "it's" just before "a rainy day") is

Oh, once upon a time in Arkansas,
An old man sat in his little cabin door
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear,
A jolly old tune that he played by ear.
It was raining hard, but the fiddler didn't care,
He sawed away at the popular air,
Tho' his rooftree leaked like a waterfall,
That didn't seem to bother the man at all.

A traveler was riding by that day,
And stopped to hear him a-practicing away;
The cabin was a-float and his feet were wet,
But still the old man didn't seem to fret.
So the stranger said "Now the way it seems to me,
You'd better mend your roof," said he.
But the old man said as he played away,
"I couldn't mend it now, it's a rainy day."

The traveler replied, "That's all quite true,
But this, I think, is the thing to do;
Get busy on a day that is fair and bright,
Then patch the old roof till it's good and tight."
But the old man kept on a-playing at his reel,
And tapped the ground with his leathery heel.
"Get along," said he, "for you give me a pain;
My cabin never leaks when it doesn't rain."

There's another set of lyrics about the traditional situation of a fiddler who only knows the first part of a two part tune. This one seems to be for a slightly different tune.:

Oh, 'twas down in the woods of the Arkansaw,
And the night was cloudy and the wind was raw,
And he didn't have a bed, and he didn't have a bite,
And if he hadn't fiddled, he'd a travelled all night.

But he came to a cabin, and an old gray man,
And says he, "Where am I going? Now tell me if you can."

"Oh, we'll have a little music first and then some supper, too,
But before we have the supper we will play the music through.
You'll forget about your supper, you'll forget about your home,
You'll forget you ever started out in Arkansaw to roam."

Now the old man sat a-fiddling by the little cabin door,
And the tune was pretty lively, and he played it o'er and o'er,
And the stranger sat a-list'ning and a-wond'ring what to do,
As he fiddled and he fiddled, but he never played it through.

Then the stranger asked the fiddler, "Won't you play the rest for me?"
"Don't know it," says the fiddler. "Play it for yourself!" says he.

Then the stranger took the fiddle, with a riddy-diddle-diddle,
And the strings began to tingle at the jingle of the bow,
While the old man sat and listened, and his eyes with pleasure glistened,
As he shouted, "Hallelujah! And hurray for Joe!"

Another set of traditional lyrics, about a boy and a fiddling bear, inspired Albert Bigelow Paine to write the children's novels The Arkansaw Bear (1898) and The Arkansaw Bear and Elsie. It also apparently inspired Aurand Harris in the 1970s to write a play about a circus and a child confronting death named The Arkansaw Bear, with a totally different storyline and bear. It also was probably the origin of the name of the ventriloquist dummy that gave Hank Williams, Jr. his nickname of "Bocephus".

Oh, there was a little boy and his name was Bo,
Went out into the woods when the moon was low,
And he met an old bear who was hungry for a snack,
And his folks are still a-waiting for Bosephus to come back.

For the boy became the teacher of this kind and gentle creature
Who can play upon the fiddle in a very skillful way.
And they'll never, ever sever, and they'll travel on forever,
Bosephus and the fiddle and the old black bear.

However, the best-known lyrics today are probably those of a traditional American children's song which is sung to the first part of the tune only. Various gestures are used to act it out as well.

I'm bringin' home a baby bumblebee
Oh, my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringin' home a baby bumblebee—Ow! It stung me!

I'm squishin' up my baby bumblebee (same structure as first verse)
...Yuck! It's dirty!

I'm scraping off my baby bumblebee
...Mmm. I'm hungry!

I'm scooping up my baby bumblebee (gestures show scooping into mouth and eating)
...Ow! My tummy!

I'm throwing up my baby bumblebee
...Yuck. It's messy.

I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee....

Here is a version from a 1957 elementary school song book. It has the same tune and rhythm as the official version.

Far and far away down in Arkansas
There lived a squatter with a stubborn jaw.
His nose was ruby red and his whiskers gray
And he would sit and fiddle all the night and all the day.

Came a traveler down the road and asked if he could find a bed
Yes try the road the kindly squatter said.
Then could you point me out the way to find a tavern or an inn.
Down the road a piece I reckon though I've never been.

Then the rain came down on the cabin floor
But the squatter only fiddled all the more.
Why don't you mend your roof said the travler bold
How can I mend the roof when the rain is wet and cold.

Squatter pick a day with weather bright and fair and nice.
Patch up your roof, that is my advice.
The squatter shook his hoary head and answered with a stubborn air
Cabin never leaks a drop when days are bright and fair.

The first known vocal recording of the song was made by Dan Hornsby and Clayton McMichen on 4/12/1928 and commercially released as Columbia 15000D Series #W146039 15253 Part 1 & #W146038 15253D part 2. An instrumental version of the song was recorded as early as 1922 by fiddlers Eck Robertson and Henry C. Gilliland.

Uses in film

"The Arkansas Traveler" was frequently featured in animated cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s, most prolifically by Carl Stalling in music he composed for the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series. It usually was played, sloppily, when a yokel, hillbilly, or "country bumpkin" character would appear on screen.

A slow version of the "Bringing home a baby bumble-bee" version is sung by Beaky Buzzard in some of his Looney Tunes appearances, notably "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid". This probably use the same yokel image that the tune evokes elsewhere in the Warner Bros. Cartoons|Warner Bros. cartoon series.

The popularity and joyfulness of "The Arkansas Traveler" was attested to in the 1932 Academy Award winning Laurel and Hardy short, The Music Box. In this film, the boys labored to haul a player piano up a long flight of stairs and into a house through a bedroom window. Near the conclusion of their adventure, as they are starting to clean up their mess surrounding the newly installed piano, Stan and Ollie play a roll of "Patriotic Melodies". They dance with much grace and amusement to "The Arkansas Traveler", followed briefly by "Dixie (song)|Dixie". Marvin Hatley, who composed Laurel and Hardy's Cuckoo theme song, was the pianist during this sequence; the player piano was not real.

Videographic musicology

• Tommy Jarrell and ALy Bain in a memorable rendition of this seminal tune which aired on Aly Bain's 1985 TV Series Down Home . This includes clogging (buck dancing or flat footing).

PRINT LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urB_EuOb2rY

• Bill Monroe Tater Tate on Fiddle

PRINT LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi0wstPuncc

• Guitar instructional

PRINT LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leJmdsmhgV0&feature=related

Vaudeville

"The Arkansas Traveler" was a popular comedy sketch on the Vaudeville circuit. It revolved around the encounter of a (usually lost) traveling city person with a local, wise-cracking fiddle player. Various jokes at the city slicker's expense were interspersed with instrumental versions of the song. In many versions, the city person is also a fiddle player, and as the sketch progresses, eventually learns the tune and plays along with the country bumpkin.

Michelle Shocked includes a Vaudville-style version of "Arkansas Traveler" on her Arkansas Traveler (Michelle Shocked album)|1992 album of the same name. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman also do a version on their 1993 album "Not for Kids Only"

Blackberry Blossom

This resource is authorized to include instructional ("how-to") information not available on Wikipedia. Please help to expand that section below.

The flower of a Blackberry plant.

The fiddle tune "Blackberry Blossom", a fiddle tune in the key of G Major, is classified as a "breakdown" and is popular in old time, bluegrass and Celtic traditional circles. It is considered one of the best known fiddle tune of the twentieth century.

History

The tune has been added to many tune books - as many as 277, according to The Session, an online resource for traditional musicians. The tune became popular as a tune recorded by "Fiddlin'" Arthur Smith and that version, according to Alan Jabbour, supplanted an earlier tune played by Sanford Kelly from Morgan County, which is now represented by the tune "Yew Piney Mountain". It is also called Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom, perhaps to distinguish it from the earlier version. Contradicting Jabbour, who clearly distinguishes the earlier version, is the account of Andrew Kuntz to the effect that "Betty Vornbrock and others have noted a similarity between 'Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom' and the West Virginia tune 'Yew Piney Mountain', a variant...also played by Kentucky fiddlers J.P. Fraley and and Santford Kelly".

Culture: use in different genres

Although the tune is closely associated with the old time/ bluegrass traditions of the United States, it enjoys the distinction of often being frequently played by traditional Irish musicians.

In Irish music

This is a partial list of covers by Irish musicians and bands.

• An Fhidil, Sraith 2 by Sean Keane, Kevin Burke, Paddy Glackin And Seamus Creagh
• Ireland's Best Session Tunes CD 1 by Waltons Recording
• Irish Dances by Various Artists
• Top Of Coom by Conal Ó'Gráda
• Traditional Irish Dance Music by All Star Ceilidhe Band
• Traditional Irish Dance Music: All Star Ceili Band by Joe Derrane
• Traditional Irish Music by William Sullivan
• Traditional Irish Tunes Played On The Tin Whistle (1/2) by Geraldine Cotter
• Traditional Music Of Ireland by Various Artists

In Bluegrass

According to Devon Wells, Blackberry Blossom, as a banjo tune, was brought to the public's attention as one of the earliest arrangements of Bill Keith. Wells, a bluegrass teacher, asserts that the tune is a standard in the bluegrass banjo repertoire. Some of the older recordings archived at the Digital Library of Appalachia include:

• Davenport, Clyde
  • Fiddle tune played by Clyde Davenport at the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music on 11-03-84

• Rawlings, Carlton
  • Fiddle tune played by Carlton Rawlings and recorded by John Harrod in Bath County, Kentucky [1970s].

• Higgins, Charlie
  • Smithsonian Folkways [1]

Structure

Like most traditional fiddle tunes, Blackberry Blossom has an A part and a B part; the former is in the key of G Major but the latter switches explicitly to the key of E minor. E minor is the relative minor of the key of G Major - it uses the same sharps and flats but its' modal center is E rather than G. This provides the tune with an unusual mood shift which adds complexity. According to Anthony, "The note played on the 1st & 3rd beat of the first 2 measures are the first 4 notes of the descending scale of G. Each of these notes is the beginning of a 3-note run, returning to to this base note, before moving on to the next note in the G scale. "

Videographic documentation (various instrumentation)

Fiddle and Guitar

Fiddle Guitar and Banjo

Mandolin [Mark O'Connor)

Fiddle & percussion- interpretive - (Carrie Rodriguez)

Twin fiddlin'

Electric violin/ rock band [2]

Collection of video links at World News website

Instructional resources

Played slow.

Cripple Creek

Bards Old Time Fiddle Tunebook SupplementCripple Creek

Devils Dream

Bards Old Time Fiddle Tunebook SupplementDevils Dream

Turkey in the Straw

Bards Old Time Fiddle Tunebook SupplementTurkey in the Straw

Wildwood Flower

Bards Old Time Fiddle Tunebook SupplementWildwood Flower

Yew Piney Mountain

Yew Piney Mountain is part of the canonical Appalachian music tradition which has been highly influential in American fiddle tradition generally, including its old time fiddle and bluegrass fiddle branches. According to Alan Jabbour at The Digital Library of Appalachia, the tune was called at one time Blackberry Blossom (tune)|Blackberry Blossom until that title was taken over by a different tune. The earlier Blackberry Blossom, as played by Sanford Kelly from Morgan County is what is now called Yew Piney Mountain. which is now represented by the tune "Yew Piney Mountain". Differing from Jabbour, however, another influential secondary source, Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion asserts that the tunes are related Contradicting Jabbour, who clearly distinguishes the earlier version, is the account of Andrew Kuntz to the effect that "Betty Vornbrock and others have noted a similarity between 'Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom' and the West Virginia tune 'Yew Piney Mountain', a variant...also played by Kentucky fiddlers J.P. Fraley and and Santford Kelly".

Culture: History and Influence

According to Andy Kurtz, similarities between an unspecified variant of Blackberry Blossom, which may be the different song identified by Jabbour as today's Yew Piney Mountain, were acknowledged in the literature. Whichever version that overlap refers to, it was reportedly also played by the well known Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley and the more obscure Owen “Snake” Chapman, as well as by Santford Kelly and others.

The tune is such a solid exemplar of Americana that it is the title of a radio show, , serious blogging about Old Time fiddle music and a Smithsonian Folkways compilation

Bibliographic resources

• Stacy Phillips' Phillips Collection of American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1 (Mel Bay Pub.)

• Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion

Graphic, audio and videographic resources

• Digital Library of Appalachia provides online access to archival and historical materials related to the culture of the southern and central Appalachian region. The contents of the DLA are drawn from special collections of Appalachian College Association member libraries. It has about twenty files pertaining to Yew Piney Mountain.

• Lester McCumbers Oct 9, 2008 Kim Johnson bango, Gerry Milnes, guitar

• [http://web.archive.org/web/20111104092816/http://www.darolanger.com/mpsounds/YewPineyMtnSAMPLE.mp3%7CYew Piney Mountain, full band, by prominent pedagogue [{Darol Anger

• Sheet music for Yew Piney Mountain here

• Digital Library of Appalachia provides online access to archival and historical materials related to the culture of the southern and central Appalachian region. The contents of the DLA are drawn from special collections of Appalachian College Association member libraries.

• Hawks and Owls Stringband version