Gold Rush

Bluegrass is the latest to emerge of the traditional American music styles. Informed by hundreds of years of culture from many parts of the world, its musical language is exceptionally diverse. The cre­ation of bluegrass as a recognized style is mostly credited to Bill Monroe of Kentucky. Born in 1911, Monroe was inspired by his “Uncle Pen” who played the Kentucky fiddle style in the family’s Scottish tradition. Young Bill wanted to fiddle but, being the youngest sibling, the instrument was already taken and the mandolin was the household instrument that remained. Monroe was intent on making the most of the situation however, and created a new way of playing the mandolin that emulated fiddle playing, even creating some of the most famous American fiddle tunes from the instrument.

Although he grew up with traditional Appalachian string-band music and the hymn-based music of the Carter Family and Jimmy Rogers, Monroe was inspired by the blues and ragtime music being played by both blacks and whites in and around his native Rosine, KY – music that was influencing all of the string players at the time. Monroe learned music from a local black musician Arnold Schultz (a coal miner who played guitar) and by the African American Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet from Virginia with whom he and his brother Charlie had shared the stage often in the Carolinas.

Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys with Wise, Flatt
and Scruggs (‘47)

Hillbilly music in South Carolina was also being revolutionized during that time by fiddlers Joseph Emmet Mainer and his brother-in-law Roscoe Banks working under the group name J. E. Mariner’s Mountain­eers. It was when they added Snuffy Jenkins to the group, performing his 3-finger banjo rolls on his 5-string banjo influenced by the 3-finger style blues and ragtime guitar music from his native Piedmont region of North Carolina, that the characteristics of the modern bluegrass band were first heard. In 1936 they teamed up for an RCA recording of a music style that would become known as the bluegrass sound – a full two years before Bill Monroe’s own band, The Bluegrass Boys made their first appearance. After a short run in Ashville, North Carolina, Monroe’s innovative mandolin playing and the distinctive 4-part singing rehearsed extensively at Monroe’s direction for months - but without the inclusion of the banjo - took the Grand Ol’ Opry by storm in 1939 with Monroe’s virtuosic hillbilly singing on his own Mule Skinner Blues.

The musical influences on Bill Monroe and others during the 1930s and early 40s were crucial for the development of bluegrass music, however it wasn’t until 1945 that a seminal lineup of band members took place in Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, a lineup that cast an indelible mark on the music’s future. During WWII, a jazz fiddler from Florida named Chubby Wise heard that Monroe’s great fiddler Howdy Forrester was leaving the band for the service. Wise was accepted into the band on a trial basis and although he was not familiar with playing Monroe’s hillbilly style, he was talented and a fast learner. Together Monroe and Wise worked at creating a whole new role for the fiddle in a string band. Fiddles had traditionally played lead most of the time. Because Monroe wanted to feature trio and quartet singing and his own mandolin playing, Wise developed a rhythmic role for the fiddle taking on a “chop” function when the mandolin dropped its strong back-beats for a solo break. He also learned to back up the vocals with complimentary lines, double-stops and fills.

Byron Berline, Bill Monroe and O'Connor "Heroes"
recording session

Next to join the band was a young singer/rhythm guitar player from Tennessee named Lester Flatt, and in December of 1945, a 21-year old 3-finger style, 5-string banjo virtuoso named Earl Scruggs came into the lineup - a young man who in the coming two decades would become the greatest bluegrass banjo player-composer to ever come along. Howard Watts rounded out the super-star configuration of The Bluegrass Boys playing upright bass.

This new kind of country hillbilly music continued to develop into the 1960s with­out an official name. The distinguishing characteristics of this new genre were vocals featuring extremely high harmony parts, short improvised solos or “breaks” between verses by each instrument, a hard driving rhythmic groove and incredibly fast tempos. Even though much of the repertoire included old country songs, fiddle tunes, banjo breakdowns, gospel hymns, swing and boogie woogie, Monroe and other band members wrote many new songs and instrumentals to show off their incredible technique and new sound.

The term “hillbilly” has come to have negative connotations despite its noble origin. The early Ulster-Scottish settlers in the hill-country of Appalachia sang songs about William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 Ireland. Supporters of King William were known as Orangemen and Billy Boys and their North American counterparts were referred to as hill-billies. Monroe despised the stereotype of “backward mountain people” and insisted that The Bluegrass Boys wear suits and ties every time they performed. They certainly were the best-dressed musicians at the Grand ‘Ol Opry when they began in 1939!

The Bluegrass Boys would continue to perform with different personnel after the seminal band broke up and went their separate ways. Some of the greatest bluegrass fiddlers - Vassar Clements, Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks - drifted in and out of Monroe’s bands. Many former “bluegrass boys” formed other groups or went on to solo careers. Fairly quickly Scruggs teamed up with Lester Flatt and Paul Warren to become The Foggy Mountain Boys gaining national fame with a Martha White Flour sponsorship on the Grand Ol’ Opry, a national television theme song and appearances on the Beverly Hillbillies and the soundtrack for the Hollywood blockbuster Bonnie and Clyde. Even though they became the most successful bluegrass band in the country, Flatt & Scruggs marketed themselves as folk music, not bluegrass.

O’Connor (age 12) and Bill Monroe

Ironically, Monroe did not fare as well commercially as many who had played with him for a short while. In 1965, a huge admirer of Monroe, Carlton Haney had an idea to put “bluegrass music” on the map for good. Patterning his concept after the many folk festivals that had sprung up around the country and had included acts like Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and the successful and prolific Stanley Brothers, Haney produced the very first weekend-long bluegrass festival in Fincastle (Roanoke), Vir­ginia. This “first” festival featured all of the first generation patriarchs of bluegrass: The Stanley Brothers, The Osborne Brothers, Don Reno, Red Smiley, Jimmy Martin, Mac Wisemen, Clyde Moody and Doc Watson. Notably absent, however, were Flatt & Scruggs. Naming the festival - and hence the music - “bluegrass” with its obvious connection to Bill Monroe’s band was a matter of some controversy. However, all agreed that for the purpose of distinguishing it from the country music of Nashville and the folk music festivals with Dylan, Baez and Seeger, it was a good idea.

It has come to light recently that the vast majority of the people on that “first” festival’s roster who had worked with Monroe – and perhaps Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs themselves – were Melungeons, a mulatto or mixed race people with part European, part Native American, part African American and perhaps Turkish and Mediterranean lineage. These Melungeons all came from a geographical area within a hundred mile radius bordering Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia – the center of that area being Bristol, TN where the Carter Family (also thought to be Melungeon) lived. Flatt and Scruggs took their band name from a famous Carter Family tune called Foggy Mountain Top. Through their own DNA and cultural heritage, most all of the patriarchs of bluegrass represented all of the places in the world from which the roots of bluegrass music can be traced. Bill Monroe’s hometown of Rosine, KY is not included in that geographical area however. His 100% Scottish heritage, his geographical home, his drive and skill as a bandleader and his strong personality all contributed to Bill Monroe’s being seen as a task master, the boss man and “wheel hoss.” Monroe provided opportunities for many musicians who would not otherwise have been able to play because of the racist atmosphere in the Jim Crow Era. Further, no one disputed Monroe’s genius as a musician, songwriter, bandleader and entrepreneur. His seniority and long-standing history with The Grand ‘Ol Opry counted for much among the musicians who had worked with him.

It was also in 1965 that a fantastic young fiddler named Byron Berline first met Monroe at the Newport Folk Festival. Berline had played with The Dillards who were regulars on The Andy Griffith Show and had won the National Old-Time Fiddler’s Contest. Berline was The Bluegrass Boys’ fiddler in 1967 when Monroe announced from the Grand ‘Ol Opry stage that from this point forward this music was to be known as “bluegrass music.” That same year Monroe established his own bluegrass festival at Bean Blossom. Berline played with Monroe for a scant 7 months before being drafted to serve in Vietnam. During those few months, however, the young fiddle great and Monroe penned one of the classic bluegrass fiddle tunes of all time – Gold Rush.

San Antonio Rose

Bob Will and the Texas Playboys on tour

When Texas fiddler/singer/bandleader Bob Wills was a young man living in New Mexico, he performed at dances that were attended primarily by the Hispanic population. During this period, he was inspired to write a tune for his Mexican fans that he named Spanish Two-Step. It was recorded by Columbia Records in 1935. Recognizing the potential main­stream appeal of this type of music, Art Satherly (Columbia Records’ A & R man) asked Wills to write another composition similar to Spanish Two-Step for a recording session in 1938. Wills wrote San Antonio Rose patterned after the earlier tune and it was released as an instrumental. In 1940, lyrics were added to the melody prompting the title change to New San Antonio Rose. The song rapidly became a million-seller and established its place as an anthem of Western Swing music. The version presented here includes several measures (towards the end) from the original Spanish Two-Step illus­trating how seamlessly the two tunes are creatively connected.

Bob Wills

Deep within my heart lies a melody
A song of old San Antone
Where in dreams I live with a memory
Beneath the stars all alone

St. Louis Blues

Composer and Bandleader W.C. Handy

The St. Louis Blues, composed by African American composer and trumpeter William Christopher Handy, is one of the most successful blues songs ever written. Handy composed Memphis Blues in 1912, sold the rights to the song for $50 and watched his music become a hit without receiving any further financial compensation. After visiting St. Louis a year later, he wrote St. Louis Blues and, after failing to secure a publishing deal protecting his new work, he self-published it in 1914. It was to become one of the most famous blues compositions in history - a “jazzman’s Hamlet” as it has been called. The tune is also credited with having inspired the foxtrot and the shimmy dance steps.

Handy and his band spent most of their time at Pwee, an“African American club” on Beale Street in Memphis thatnever seemed to close. The club was run by an Italian immigrant and was a “second home” to area musicians who liked to keep their instrumentsthere and stop in to make music between scheduled appearances in and around Memphis.

Statue of W.C. Handy in Memphis

Handy’s band appeared regularly. Being a trumpet player, he had other brass instrumentalistsin the ensemble, but it also included a cellist and an upright bass.

Handy said of his musical inspirations for the song that he combined “ragtime syncopation with a real melody in the spiritual tradition.” The music also incorporates Afro-Spanish habanera rhythms and the new tango style that Handy discovered when he toured Cuba with his minstrel show near the turn of the century. Like many composers, he also borrowed from his own compositions. In this case he reused material written the year before in Jogo Blues inspired by a melody that he heard a young preacher chant as a collection plate was passed. Handy was quoted as saying this about the first time St. Louis Blues was performed in 1914: “The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of Memphis Blues...[but] when St. Louis Blues was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.”

W.C. Handy’s Orchestra, 1918

By the following year (1915), Columbia’s house band directed by Charles A. Prince had recorded an instrumental version of St. Louis Blues as well as creating piano rolls of the tune for the new electronic player pianos. An African American band working in the U.K. recorded it there in 1917. In 1918, a recording of St. Louis Blues with lyrics was logged in by Al Bernard. The song was a sensation and everyone wanted to sing and play this new blues hit from Memphis. In 1925, Bessie Smith sang the song for its first film appearance.

Louis Armstrong had backed up Bessie Smith’s performance for the film and followed with a

Papa John Creach

recording of his own in 1930. Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, Count Basie and Glen Miller all soon recorded their renditions. Benny Goodman’s treatment of the St. Louis Blues was a hit in 1939. Earl “Fatha” Hines adapted the song to a boogie woogie style creating yet another hit - Boogie Woogie On The St. Louis Blues. Richard Himber’s dance band featured a string quartet playing the St. Louis Blues in a major motion picture in 1937. The first violinist in this string quartet was Wladimir Selinsky who was born in Russia in 1910 and emigrated to the United States in 1925. He soon began working as a concertmaster and assistant conductor on Broadway as well as playing under famous conductors Bruno Walter and Leopold Stokowski. But it was Papa John Creach, one of the most famous blues violinists of the 20th century and recipient of the W. C. Handy Award, who captured the true spirit of the St. Louis Blues on the violin. Born in Pennsylvania in 1917 and graduating from the Conservatory of Music in Chicago in the 1930s, he was librarian for an Illinois symphony orchestra for a short time. But ultimately, the doors were closed to African Americans trying to earn a living in Classical music. Creach started playing violin in the Chicago jazz and blues clubs and made a name for himself. His popularity initiated by his solo records was greatly increased when he joined the famous (white) rock bands The Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. His gypsy-styled intro to St. Louis Blues partially inspired the duo version in this book.

Everyone seems to have performed and loved Handy’s special song. Even Queen Elizabeth II loved St. Louis Blues! In 1954, Louis Armstrong released a record of W.C. Handy songs and teamed up with singer Velma Middleton to create a long-form version of the St. Louis Blues that also inspired this book’s violin duet arrangement and vocal verse.

Take Five

Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond

Dave Brubeck’s Take Five was one of the best selling jazz singles of all time. It was released in 1959 on The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s album Time Out featuring their “West Coast Cool School of Jazz” style. Album producer Teo Macero oversaw this unlikely jazz hit that taught the world to groove to a new beat. The new feel of the quintuple meter (5/4) had a surprisingly successful mass appeal. The tune was debuted in 1959 at the famed New York City jazz club the Village Vanguard. By 1961, the recording of the tune that featured Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto Saxophone, Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello on drums reached the top 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart as a jazz instru­mental single.

It is ironic that even though Dave Brubeck was the principal composer for his group, Take Five was actually penned by his man on sax, the legendary Paul Desmond. Desmond (originally Breitenfeld) was born in San Francisco in 1924. As a boy, Desmond picked up the violin. Unfortunately, his father detested the instrument and forbade him to play it. Paul then switched to clarinet and later to the alto sax. During WWII he was in the Army band where he met Brubeck who was also from the Bay Area. After the War (around 1950), they hooked up again in California and formed a group calling it The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Ten years later, they sold a million copies of Desmond’s Take Five. Desmond has stated that the 5/4 rhythm idea came to him while he was playing a pinball machine – “pull-spin-spin, click-click.” Brubeck’s story of how the 5/4 meter groove evolved was a bit different. The band’s drummer, Joe Morello, liked to warm up in 5/4 during soundchecks and often would use a 5/4 beat in his nightly long-form drum solo. Paul wrote two themes to his band­mate’s drum patterns. After hearing these melody lines often, Brubeck suggested that they both work together to make a song form out of them calling the tune “Take Five.” The title had a hidden pun – not only making reference to the tune’s meter, but also to having to “take five” – a back stage break for the rest of the band – during Joe’s lengthy drum solos. It is reported that Desmond disliked the title at first - but it stuck!

Paul Desmond

Desmond had quite a sense of humor and wit. He claims that his chosen last name came randomly out of the phone book. He also jokingly said that he liked playing in The Dave Brubeck Quartet because he could lean on Brubeck’s piano during the show – which he did often report­edly driving Brubeck crazy. But when it came to his playing though, his personality was decidedly more serious. Most cited his beautiful lyricism – a conception of musical line that may have come from his initial love of the violin as a boy. It is ironic that while many jazz violinists can emulate the sound and style of the saxophone, Desmond may have been doing just the opposite. The legendary saxophonist Cannonball Adderley said of Desmond: “wonderful and lyrical.” Legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker described Desmond as: “my favorite alto player in the world.”

Dave Brubeck said of his beloved bandmate and composer of Take Five: “Some people called him the stork -- ‘Cause he would stand on one leg and leaned on the piano. But that…that was when he was playing great. What used to scare me is I’d look at him and it would just be whites in his eyes, wouldn’t be any eyeballs.”

Minor Swing

Django Reinhardt playing violin

The Quintet of the Hot Club of France

Minor Swing is a one of the most popular swing tunes composed by the legendary French Gypsy jazz originators Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. The pair recorded the tune as a 78 single in 1937 with their group The Quintet of the Hot Club of France. The band’s personnel included Joseph Reinhardt and Eugene Vees on rhythm guitars and Louis Vola on bass. Django’s “wall of guitars” was something exceptional. The other two guitarists were not allowed to play while Django was accompanying the incomparable Stephane Grappelli on jazz violin, but when it was time for Django to solo, he needed two rhythm guitars behind him to make up the difference from his own powerful rhythm guitar having dropped out! It is likely that this ensemble formula will not be imitated!

Although violin was Grappelli’s primary instrument, he was also an outstanding jazz pianist and played saxophone in Tango bands in the 1920s. Because Reinhardt was an authentic Gypsy – born and raised in the ever-moving camps - strings were the most prevalent musical instruments in his environment. Reinhardt started out playing the banjo and loved playing the violin in the “manouch” style. It was unusual for Gypsy musicians to make music with outsiders but it is not hard to imagine how Django would have been drawn to Grappelli’s violin playing. Even though Reinhardt was an exceptional fiddler himself, he always deferred to Grappelli on violin. Both musicians were extraordinary improvisers with commanding technical facility, however it was Reinhardt who was more inclined to compose tunes. They shared the credit for composing Minor Swing, however, essentially a jam tune without a distinctive theme in the middle or B part. The melodic and rhythmic hook of the A part is intoxicating and has won many a musician over to wanting to play Gypsy jazz in the manouche style – including Grappelli!

Stephane Grappelli was born in Paris on January 26, 1908. He describes his childhood as being “like a Dickens novel.” His French mother died when he was three years old. His Italian father, a Latin scholar who taught philosophy, had no choice but to put him into a very poor Catholic orphanage. When his father returned from war, Grappelli moved back in with him. “Because of my father, I became a musician,” Grappelli says. “He bought me a ¾ violin and all the way home I hugged it so hard I almost broke it. I still have that violin on my desk at home. There was no money for lessons, so my father took a book from the library and we learned solfeggio together. I never had a violin teacher, so I learned good position and posture by sheer luck.” Grappelli also taught himself to play piano, enjoying the expanded harmonic possibilities of the keyboard.

By the age of 14, Grappelli was earning a living accompanying silent films on piano and violin in a Parisian movie theatre. He was introduced to jazz at a music emporium next to the cinema where, for a few centimes, one could put on headphones and hear the newest tunes to hit Paris. Lady Be Good, Tea For Two and Stumbling excited and amazed him. He played in back-alley cabarets, street-side cafes and hotel lobbies until age 17 when he began playing in dance bands. Jazz artists like Bix Beiderbecke, Art Tatum and Louis Armstrong, along with jazz violinists Eddie South and Joe Venuti, were all major influences on his style.

At 20, Grappelli was playing with Gregor and His Gregorians, a 17-piece band. Shortly after, he was hired by a Montparhasse club as alto saxophonist for their big band tunes and violinist for the tangos. In 1931, at age 23, he encountered the Belgian Gypsy guitarist, Django Reinhardt. Three years later they played together for the first time at the Hotel Claridge in Paris. One day, between sets, they suddenly started playing Dinah pretending to be Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti, the great jazz guitar and violin duo from America. At about this time, French jazz critic Hughes Pannasie organized the Hot Club of France and employed Stephane and Django. Audiences flocked to hear them and their new quin­tet became the premier European jazz band. They performed extensively and recorded hundreds of 78s from 1934 to 1939.

Grappelli and Reinhardt enjoyed several reunions after World War II, but the partnership ended forever in 1953 with Django’s death. Grappelli periodically joined with other fine jazz musicians and continued to work in Paris and London, however by the 1960s his career had taken a down turn. At the same time, an increase in the guitar’s popularity brought much attention to the legend of Django Reinhardt. Many recordings of the old quintet were re-issued on LP. Even though Grappelli had previ­ously shared equal billing with Django, these albums featured Django’s name and likeness on the cover with Grappelli’s name in small print or absent altogether. Being a victim of corrupt music business dealings leaving him no royalty receipts and of record company marketing that left him out of the picture, the artistry of Stephane Grappelli was nearly forgotten. Fortunately, in 1973, Grappelli revived his string band jazz music and debuted at the Cambridge Festival in England with two guitars and a bass. The band was a hit and, at age 65, Stephane Grappelli had a new career! While he was touring internationally with the Diz Disley Trio, I auditioned for Grappelli’s group on guitar and became his student on violin. We played many venues together - including Carnegie Hall - often performing twin violin pieces and bouncing improvisational solos back and forth.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars

When most people here the song title Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the common children’s lullaby frequently used in early music education comes to mind. This melody – also used for Baa Baa Black Sheep and The Alphabet Song (copyrighted in Boston in 1835) – originated with the French song Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman in 1761. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, sometimes erroneously credited with composing this melo­dy, composed Variations on “Ah vous dirais-je, Maman (K. 265/ K. 300e) in 1781. 

Less commonly known is the “American Twinkle.” Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars first appeared as a “Schottische” dance tune that became popular with musicians following the Civil War in 1879. A Schottische is a folk dance that features a dotted 8th note followed by a 16th note rhythm producing an exaggerated swung beat. Employing this rhythmic style, American composer and lyricist Fred Macevoy composed the melody and lyrics and it was arranged by J. M. Navoni for Miss Julia Wilson and ballet master Ignacio Martinetti to sing in a vaudeville show. It was Denman Thompson’s successful vaudeville sketch Joshua Whitcomb about a New Hampshire yokel who comes to the big city that propelled this tune into use in many American music genres. As with many popular American songs of that time period, publishers rolled out solo violin and piano versions of the music, orchestrations and choral treatments in addition to the song with lyrics. 

Denman Thompson as Joshua
Whitcomb

The Schottische style was popular dance music originating from Bohemia and by the mid-1800s had become a staple in ballroom dance halls all through Europe as well as South and North America. The Schottische exhibited the sort of rhythmic feel that easily translated to other styles. In Bohemia, the dance was also known as the “Polka Tremblante.” In Ireland, it was similar to the “Highland” tunes. In Argentina, the Schottische mixed into the indigenous folk music genre called “Chamame.” In Finland the Schottische groove was the “Jenkka,” in Norway the “Rheinlander,” in Portugal the “Xote” and in Spain the “Chotis. In mid-1800s America, California ballroom variants included the “Five- Step Schottische” and the “Highland Schottische.” In Texas in the early 1900s, this music cross-pollinated with ragtime creating “Ragtime Schottische.” 

The earliest recordings of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars by fiddlers include versions by Mississippi’s W.T. Narmour and S.W. Smith in 1928 as well as the Schottische dance rendition by Texas fiddle bands like Smith’s Garage Fiddle Band in that same year. The recording of the tune by Bob Wills in 1938 was less Schottische and more Texas swing. As the years went by, the Schottische dance began to fade out of fash­ion as ragtime and swing styles were more widely adopted by American fiddlers. By the mid 1900s, Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars became one of the popular Texas fiddle “tunes of choice” on the fiddle contest circuit. Mostly performed in the ragtime swing tempo, the frequent jumps up to 4th position in the tune’s “B” part and the rendition popularized by the Wills’ band gave fiddle contestants an opportunity to show their shifting and intonation accuracy to fiddle contest judges and audiences. 

In time, swifter tempos took over and the tune became a full-fledged Bluegrass breakdown. The ragtime and swing styles earlier associated with the tune as well as the original Schottische feel became a faint memory. 

This classic tune is a prime example of an American Music gem – a tune that has survived many stylistic treatments and endured for over 150 years. The current version featured here has been developed so much by musicians adding to the melody and changing the rhythmic feel and tempo, that it is hard to imagine these lyrics that came from the original song: The pretty little stars are laughing, love, They speak to me of you, They tell me as the twinkle of above, That you to me are true.

Jole Blon

Doug Kershaw

In 1929, Amadie Breaux recorded the first known version of Jole Blon, soon to become a classic standard of Cajun music from Louisiana. He called it Ma Blonde Est Partie (My Blonde Went Away and Left Me). Although the Breaux Family (brothers Ophey and Clifford and sister Cleoma) recording featured vocals, fiddle accordion and guitar in the key of A Major, it is a measurably different version from the one we know today as Jole Blon. Their old-timey sound did include a touch of impressionism however, which certainly planted the seed for the Jole Blons to come. Superimposed chords creating Major sevenths in the harmony were striking, e. g. the accordion playing a D major chord against the fiddle’s C#-E double-stop.

In 1935, the historic Hackberry Ramblers recorded Jolie Blonde in G Major that is essentially the version that is known today with an extra measure of the IV chord added in the first phrase of the vocal verse. Harry Choates – considered one of the greats in Cajun music – changed the tune back to the key of A Major and recorded Jole Blonde in 1946 producing the definitive version that nearly everyone emulates today. Unfortunately though, behind this wonderful recording lies another tale of tragedy from the music world. Choates recorded Jole Blonde at the age of 23, sold the rights for $100 and a bottle of whiskey and died in prison six years later. 

In an interesting custom of the day, if a traditional song became popular, country music artists would often record their own versions with alternate titles and lyrics. Examples from the 1940s are Roy Acuff’s Our Own Jole Blon, Red Foley’s New Jolie Blonde, Johnny Bond’s The Daughter of Jole Blon and Moon Mulican’s Jole Blon’s Sister. 

1950s rock-and-roll legend Buddy Holly produced country music legend Waylon Jennings’ first recording. They recorded Jole Blon learned from the Choates recording, replacing the Cajun fiddle with a rock-and-roll sax. This version was a complete departure from the attractive Cajun rhythm instead featuring a bopping yakety-yak saxophone as the instrumental lead throughout. The Texan later said of his first recording: “Buddy Holly tried to teach me how to sing Cajun French ... We didn’t know the lyrics, so I tried to learn them off the Harry Choates original.” 

Kershaw and O'Connor - "Heroes" recording

Cajun fiddler/singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Doug Kershaw had also ventured into some of this parodying of his own native music in order to land a record deal and have a music career in Nashville. However, he soon wanted to return to his authentic Cajun roots. Kershaw sensed something in Cajun music that people the world over might want to hear but had not yet been exposed to – and he bet his career on the hunch. He recorded Sweet Jole Blon with unbridled Cajun fiddle lines that closely mirrored his hero Harry Choates. Adding a rock-and-roll flare, wild stage antics, flashy costumes, broken bow hairs and all-round great showmanship, this native son brought Cajun music to the attention of millions for the first time. 

Doug Kershaw was born on January 24, 1936, on Tiel Ridge Island, Louisiana. His early childhood was spent living in the family houseboat down in the Cajun swamplands. His father, a fisherman, would anchor their houseboat wherever the fish were biting and move on when they weren’t. For a living, he trapped otters and muskrats and caught alligators to trade the skins in town. Alligators brought in money, but they also posed a real threat to the people living among them. Doug once told of how he and a little friend were sitting on a river bank when a gator surfaced and snatched his friend away in a split second. Doug’s famous song Louisiana Man is autobiographical and chronicles this life in the bayou. He was introduced to music at house dances called Fais Do Do where family and friends would gather on each others’ houseboats for music, dancing and eating. Kershaw’s mother and older brother would play the fiddle at these events. A fam­ily legend tells that when Doug was five, he sneaked out his family’s “good fiddle” and dropped and broke it. His papa warned him that “there was gonna be a whippin’” if he couldn’t play three fiddle songs immediately to save himself. Little Doug grabbed another fiddle, played two tunes and “made the third one up right on the spot.”

Kershaw headlined at Madison Square Garden and appeared on many national television shows including the first Johnny Cash television show in 1969. Adding to this national exposure, his Cajun music was the first music broadcast from outer space back to Earth – indeed taking the music he loved from his native swamp country in Louisiana further than anyone else could have imagined. The rendition of Jole Blon presented here is largely transcribed from my 1992 album Heroes with Doug Kershaw and I playing the two violins.

Hey, ha ha! Oh, hey hey! Jole Blon, Jole couer You’re the flower of the bayou and my darlin’ Out on the river in my pirogue or out at a fais dodo I’m always thinking about you my Jole Blon.

Hornpipes (Tin Wedding Hornpipe, Golden Eagle Hornpipe and Ostinelli’s Hornpipe)

Benny Thomasson in the 1950s when he was
World Champion Fiddler

Three Hornpipes - Tin Wedding Hornpipe, Golden Eagle Hornpipe and Ostinelli’s Hornpipe are pieces that my teacher Benny Thomasson gave me to build technique for bowing agility regarding smooth string crossing and for left-hand accuracy and strengthening as well

Thomasson and his 13-year old student O’Connor

The Hornpipes take the place of practice etudes with their extensive use of arpeggiation and fingering patterns, but they are real tunes with attractive melodies and rhythms as well that you can play in jam sessions and on stage.

Faded Love

Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
with Keith Coleman, Dallas 1952

Faded Love is arguably one of the most recognizable and most played fiddle melodies in the world – truly a country music classic. It originated with fiddler, singer and Western Swing bandleader Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. 

The song’s melody is based on Darling Nelly Gray, an old song that Wills (b. 1905) learned from his father John Wills. This popular 19th-century song credited to Benjamin Hanby is written from the point of view of an African American male slave in Kentucky whose sweetheart was taken away from him by slave-owners. In the lyrics to the original tune, the man mourns his beloved who has been “sold south” to Georgia where slaves’ lives were generally regarded as very harsh. In the lyric, he longs to die and join her in heaven. Bob Wills’ brother Billy Jack Wills supplied the sentimental lyrics that are associated with the tune as Faded Love: I miss you darlin’ more and more everyday, As heaven would miss the stars above, With every heartbeat, I still think of you, And remember our faded love. 

"For the Last Time" recording session
with Keith Coleman, Johnny Gimble and
Merle Haggard

After Wills’1950 top 10 hit of Faded Love, the song became very popular. Leon McAuliffe’s instrumental version featuring triple fiddles was a top 40 hit in 1962 and became an important example of the American tradition of twin and triple fiddling. Just a year later, Patsy Cline’s recording also made the top 10. This recording featured string orchestration replacing the fiddles resulting in a new development in country music. 

The “Nashville Sound” created by Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Billy Sherrill was essentially country songs accompanied by string sections instead of fiddles, and provided an interesting bridge from the double and triple fiddles that so many of the Western Swing and Honky Tonk artists loved. Twin fiddling has continued to be associated with this tune however. Ray Price and Willie Nelson’s duet version reached No. 3 on Billboards Country Music Chart in 1980. 

The rendition of Faded Love presented here was largely inspired by the fiddling of Keith Coleman who played fiddle solos on Bob Wills’ famous final album For the Last Time. After suffering a crippling stroke, Bob Wills gathered the Texas Playboys together for one last recording. Wills was able to record the first six songs before another stoke prevented him from returning to the studio. The old band members tearfully carried on and fin­ished the album. Wills never regained consciousness and died in 1975.

Life Let Us Cherish

Published in Philadelphia - early 1800s

Our first tune in Book IV is Life Let Us Cherish, a favorite fiddle tune/song/quadrille dance of Pa Ingalls as noted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her Little House on the Prairie books. Even though the tune was hugely popular with American musicians, the origins of the music remain mysterious. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- 1791) was credited as the composer in the earliest publications in Philadelphia and New York dating from1796 and repeated as such well into the 1800s. It is also common knowledge, however, that Swiss composer Hans Georg Nägeli (1773-1836) composed a song titled Freut Euch des Lebens which was later translated to Life Let Us Cherish in England. The early published manuscripts crediting Nägeli as the composer state that the “variations” were composed by Mozart.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

It is interesting to note that Nägeli was principally a publisher, printing first editions of famous European composers’ sheet music including those of Bach and Beethoven. In one particular first edition of a Beethoven sonata, Nägeli committed an “error of judgment of adding four bars to the first movement” in his publication, an error for which Beethoven eventually forgave him. Since it was possible for Nägeli to add four measures of music to a Beethoven composition, it is certainly likely that he could have found some incidental music composed by Mozart for a dance or comic opera and affixed his name to it. The style and beauty of the melody of Life Let Us Cherish is certainly reminiscent of Mozart. 

Charles "Pa" Ingalls

Lyrics associated with the tune - not by Nägeli but a “Mr. Derrick” - are printed in the The British Minstrel in Glasgow, The New-England Pocket Songster as well as The American Minstrel.  

"When clouds obscure the atmosphere, And forked lightnings rend the air, The sun resumes his silver crest, And smiles adown the west. Life let us cherish."

Simple Gifts

“Simple Gifts” is a dance song emanating from the religious Shaker community of Maine in the early 1800s. The first Shaker songs were composed by church leaders circa 1781 when Mother Ann Lee, her brother Father William Lee, and Father James Whittaker emigrated from England to the United States. The Shakers practiced an unusual and highly rhythmic - sometimes even ecstatic - type of dancing during their worshipping. They would often clap their hands, sing, tremble and shake their bodies, ultimately falling to the floor in exhaustion. Sometimes, men and women would form concentric rings surrounding the singers during these rituals.

Although there is no known document that states this, it is believed by some Shaker historians that an elder named Joseph Brackett composed both the melody and the lyrics of “Simple Gifts” in 1848. Generations of oral history passed down through the Shaker community substantiates that the song originated with Brackett and was taught by him to others.

Brackett was born in Cumberland, Maine in 1797 and changed his birth name (Elisha) to Joseph when his entire family converted to Shakerism. He joined the Shaker community in Gorham, Maine, and then became First Minister at the Shaker Community of New Gloucester. Like many Shaker elders, Brackett was not trained formally in music but developed his musical talents through writing music for church rituals.

The thousands of songs and hymns composed by Shaker elders have been perpetuated almost exclusively by oral sharing among Shaker villagers. It is possible that “Simple Gifts,” like other Shaker songs, was performed in public squares as Shakers often recruited new members by singing and dancing to attract attention to their religious beliefs. Recruiting new members from “outside the fold” was paramount because the Shakers practiced strict celibacy and therefore could not replenish their membership without doing so.

“Simple Gifts” (also known as “Tis a Gift to be Simple”) was originally described as a “quick dance.” Its lyrics have an inviting and universal message:

When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,
To turn, turn will be our delight
‘Till by turning, turning we come round right.

It is believed that the singers performed descriptive dance steps as they sang about “turning round right.”

This song could have remained relatively obscure were it not for a collaboration between American composer Aaron Copland and American choreographer Martha Graham. In a visit to a summer music festival in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, Copland acquired, at Graham’s urging, a book about the Shakers. This book, written by Edward Deming Andrews, contained Shaker songs and among them was “Tis a Gift to be Simple.” Graham, who wanted the new ballet on which she was working to reflect the heritage of her own New England pioneering ancestors, hoped that Copland would find some authentic rural or rustic materials to use as the basis and inspiration for the music she had commissioned him to compose for her project.

The result of this collaboration was the ballet, “Appalachian Spring,” which toured throughout the United States in 1944 and quickly won the hearts of Americans. Even during those first performances, the Shaker theme stood out to audiences and became a tune they could “take away” from the performance. The distinguished symphonist Aaron Copland, unlike his contemporary George Gershwin, was not known for his ability to write especially fine original melodies. He had more success orchestrating traditional folk music, often using note-for-note renditions of already established melodies. Copland’s genius included his ability to recognize great melodies wherever and whenever he heard them. In “Simple Gifts” he recognized and championed a theme that went on to become known as one of the  greatest melodies in American history and without his treatment and scoring, we would probably have never known it. Copland’s powerful orchestration of the ballet music he wrote for Martha Graham (originally scored for 13 instruments) became one of the greatest symphonic concert pieces in American music – “Appalachian Spring.”

From Book III of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Grey Eagle

“Grey Eagle” (“Old Gray Eagle”) is a title given to several different fiddle tunes in several different keys. Some of them are musically connected to each other and some not at all. The version of “Grey Eagle” in the key of A-major that eventually became the Texas fiddle classic in the last half of the 20th century is the version featured in the Method.

A tune called “Grey Eagle” is documented as having been the most loved fiddle tune of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. A violinist from childhood and a composer of string quartets and other music, Jefferson enjoyed playing both the music of Mozart and American fiddle tunes. He even found time during his presidency to play music in the White House.

In 1839, a dozen years after Jefferson died, one of America’s most infamous horse races took place pitting Kentucky’s Gray Eagle against Louisiana’s Wagner. The Kentucky horse lost by a neck and an unprecedented 10,000 spectators demanded the race to be run again the following week. This historic rivalry is thought to have inspired fiddle tunes named “Gray Eagle” and “Wagner” or “Tennessee Wagner.”

The multi-part A-major version of “Grey Eagle” from Texas was developed from a much older two-part A-major tune. In 1927, Dennis W. Taylor’s Kentucky Boys featuring Jim Booker (who also carried his own old-time string band called the Booker Orchestra, and was one of the few African American blues fiddlers allowed to play hoedowns on commercial recordings) chose the two-part A-major tune for the Gennett label and called it “Gray Eagle.” This is one of the earliest recordings of the original A-major tune. North Georgia fiddler Robert Allen Sisson recorded a C-major tune also called “Gray Eagle” a few years earlier in 1921. Cyril Stinnett, a national champion fiddler from Missouri, also recorded the C-major tune a bit later. Both of these versions are vastly different from the A-major tune. History notes that Bob Taylor played “Grey Eagle” while stumping on the campaign trail when he ran for Governor of Tennessee in the late 1800s. It would be difficult to ascertain what version he played.

In the modern era, the great Texas fiddlers began developing the modern “Grey Eagle.” Through the variations created by the dean of the Texas fiddlers Benny Thomasson, what was once a fairly simple two-part tune became one of America’s more complicated masterpieces of folk fiddling. (Only a few of the parts to "Grey Eagle" are printed in Book III, the other parts are included in a later book). It was singled out, becoming one of the standards played by the best fiddlers in contests in every region of the country. The Texas A-major version even circled back to the bluegrass regions of the Southeast when Kentucky’s greatest modern-era fiddler Kenny Baker and mandolinist/songwriter/singer Bill Monroe chose to perform the “Texas” version rather than any of their own local versions of the tune.

As the multi-part version of “Grey Eagle” from the West became well-known, another legend arose for explaining its origin. Many fiddlers told a story about a bobcat sunning himself on top of a tin roof shed at a sheep farm only to have an eagle mistake him for a defenseless lamb. What ensued, and was witnessed by amazed onlookers, was a sensational mid-air fight between the two creatures until the “grey eagle” got the best of it and defeated the bobcat. The extra parts of the “Grey Eagle” version from Texas could have been inspired by this tale.

According to music historian Charles Wolfe and noted songwriter/banjoist/fiddler John Hartford, the most likely inspiration for the original “Grey Eagle” fiddle tune performed by most of the southeastern old-time fiddlers was the legendary Kentucky horse race in 1839. The race took place on the outskirts of Louisville and was an event of major proportions, drawing spectators from New York to New Orleans. Kentucky race fans were betting on their own Gray Eagle, a beautiful gray with a flowing mane, sixteen hands high with the “step of a gazelle.” Gray Eagle was ridden by jockey Stephen Welch, and Wagner, the rival stallion from Louisiana, was ridden by an African American jockey named Cato - a slave. The race took place about 20 years before the Civil War began. When Wagner won the race, it became one of the greatest upsets in horse racing history. The jockey Cato won his freedom that day, his owner claiming the staggering $20,000 purse. The race gained notoriety because more money, horses and slaves had been wagered and lost in that race than in any other race in the country. Kentucky fans of Gray Eagle demanded a rematch, believing their horse was still superior. A rematch was organized five days later, drawing even more spectators and creating more interest. A two-horse race this time, and Wagner proved to be the best horse again in the first two heats. On the final heat, the two horses collided near the finish, injuring one of Gray Eagle’s hind legs and ending his racing career.

The question still remains concerning just how old this fiddle tune really is - whether the same tune was in fact the one reported as Jefferson’s favorite tune long before the Kentucky race took place. A Scottish tune named “Miller of Drone,” thought to have been written by legendary fiddle tune composer Neil Gow who lived in Scotland during Jefferson’s life in America, could also play a part in this mystery. Even though Gow’s tune is a different kind of dance - a strathspey - there are similarities in the construction of its melody with the original two-part tune of “Grey Eagle” in A-major.

Modern-era Texas fiddlers completely ignored the other versions of “Grey Eagle” including the fairly popular C-major version played throughout the Southeast. Texans preferred instead the “other horse” in the key of C-major and embraced the tune “Wagner,” which became also known as “Texas Wagner.”

An interesting and highly ironic sidenote to the racehorse thread of this story is that one of the Civil War’s most recognized horses, defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Traveler, was sired by the Kentucky racehorse Gray Eagle.

The mysteries of a fiddle tune named “Grey Eagle” in American history serve to make the old tune a thing of legend. In the modern era, the westerners’ re-workings of the tune, adding to the original and developing its two parts into a larger and more complex form, is a fitting journey for the great fiddle tune named for a horse.



From Book III of the O'Connor Method
www.oconnormethod.com