Bards Bluegrass Fiddle Tunebook Supplement/Orange Blossom Special

The fiddle tune "Orange Blossom Special", about the passenger train of the same name, was written by Ervin T. Rouse (1917-1981) in 1938. The original recording was created by Ervin and Gordon Rouse in 1939. It is considered the best known fiddle tune of the twentieth century and is often called simply The Special. It has been referred to as "the fiddle player's national anthem".

Video Documentation for On line Listening

• Roy Clark 1987 Roy retunes mid song and pulls out all the stops: pizzacatto, holds the fiddle guitar style, a brief reprise of Day Tripper mid-OBS; second fiddler, banjo solos....
• Canonical performatnce by Roy Clark Amazing shuffle (cross string double stops) at lightening speed. Warning: humorous video based upon Daisy Mae stereotype (blonde, checkered shirt tied at waste, etc.) may offend feminist sensitivities. Is included for ethnomusicological interest only; neither WikiBooks nor the contributors thereto are represented by any linked to off-site content.
• Canadian Irish band Fiddlers 3

Importance

By the 1950s, it had become a perennial favorite at bluegrass festivals, popular for its rousing energy. For a long time no fiddle player would be hired for a bluegrass band unless he could play it.

For many years, Orange Blossom Special has been not only a train imitation piece, but also a vehicle to exhibit the fiddler's pyrotechnic virtuosity. Performed at breakneck tempos and with imitative embellishments that evoke train wheels and whistles, OBS is guaranteed to bring the blood of all but the most jaded listeners to a quick, rolling boil.
Norm Cohen, author, Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong

Authorship

Other musicians, including Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise, have claimed authorship of the song. As Chubby tells the story, one night, after he and fellow musician Ervin made their usual rounds, they decided to visit the Jacksonville Terminal in Florida and see what the fuss over the Orange Blossom Special train was all about . .

. . even though it was about three in the morning we went right into the Terminal and got on board and toured that train, and it was just about the most luxurious thing I had ever seen. Ervin was impressed, too. And when we got done lookin' er over he said, 'Let's write a song about it.' So we went over to my place . . and that night she was born. Sitting on the side of my bed. We wrote the melody in less than an hour, and called it Orange Blossom Special. Later Ervin and his brother put some words to it.

Rouse copyrighted the song in 1938 and recorded it in 1939. Bill Monroe, regarded by many as "the father of bluegrass music," recorded the song (with Art Wooten on fiddle) and made it a hit. Since then countless versions nave been recorded, among them Chubby's own, as an instrumental in a 1969 album, Chubby Wise and His Fiddle. And that version, said Chubby, "is the way it was written and the way it's supposed to be played."

Notable

• Johnny Cash named his 1965 album after the song. While bluegrass performers tend to play it as strictly an instrumental, Cash sang the lyrics, and replaced the fiddle parts with two harmonicas.
• The Moody Brothers' Grammy nominated country instrumental "The Great Train Song Medley" featured their father Dwight Moody playing fiddle on Orange Blossom Special.
• Florida-native Vassar Clements also often played it during his live performances.
• A version by Doug Kershaw peaked at #9 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada in 1970.
• Noted session artist Tim Watson is famous for performing the song with his band, Black Creek, in imitation of a semi-trailer truck rather than a locomotive. The interpretation includes a mock truck horn (rather than a steam whistle), a police car, and a collision with a rather unfortunate opossum.
• The song was covered by Swedish instrumental rock band The Spotnicks in 1961 and released on their first album, The Spotnicks in London – Out-a-Space!. In 1962 the Spotnicks recording entered the British Top 30.
• It was the official theme song (1949-1977) for the Texas Cowgirls basketball team who barnstormed playing men's basketball rules against male opponents. Decked out with boleros, western hats, holsters and pistols over their basketball uniforms, the team entered the courts to the tune, dropping an article of western fashion with each fancy layup.
• The song was covered by award-winning fiddler Wayne Masters and his band, the Back Creek Valley Boys, on their 2010 album "Back Creek Valley Express".
• Steve Martin and his band the Steep Canyon Rangers played the song at the 2011 A Capitol Fourth Concert on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

See also

• Orange Blossom Special - lyrics, song history, videos, fiddle tab and sheet music links

Further reading

• Randy Noles (2007). Fiddler's Curse: The Untold Story of Ervin T. Rouse, Chubby Wise, Johnny Cash, and The Orange Blossom Special. Anaheim Hills, CA: Centerstream. ISBN 978-1574242140.
• Betsy Carter (2006). The Orange Blossom Special. New York: Dell. ISBN 0-385-33976-3.

Video

• Roy Clark performs The Orange Blossom Special 1987 Live
• Orange Blossom Special by The Bluegrass Babies - children's animation with a soundtrack by The Rosinators
• 9 Year Old Fiddler - Mikayla Roach - Orange Blossom Special
• Orange Blossom Special sung by Redhill Billies, Somerset, UK
• Silver Star Leaves Miami: The Orange Blossom Special performed by Ted the Fiddler, from the Hy Mayerson and Sean Corcoran travelogue Miami to New York

External links

• Orange Blossom Special by The Rosinators (free download)
• Recording of the "Orange Blossom Special" by Gamble Rogers at the 1982 Florida Folk Festival; made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida.