albert52 - Posted - 05/09/2010:  01:08:12

A fascinating song is Red Wing.
Originally written in 1907, Music by Karry Mills and words by Thurland Chattaway, as most of may know is a love song of a young Indian maiden loosing her loved one.
What is even more fascinating is how really old the basic tune is.

This song was originally adapted from Robert Schumann's composition for piano entitled The Happy Farmer, Returning From Work. written back in 1882 some 25 yrs before Red Wing.

I have heard this tune played from quite slowly on a dulcimer (which is quite beautiful) to the flying speeds afforded Bluegrass. I usually play it from 130-160 BPM depending where I am.

This song has become a staple for me along with Faded Love in every gig I play. It's become the favorite of my senior adult guitar students, as well as the seniors' homes.

This link will take you to an "old" vocal recording by Frederick H. Potter with the Edison Male Quartet back in 1907 - Red Wing @ cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3...3423d.mp3 , and then there is my favorite with that Texas Swing style youtube.com/watch?v=96NzRQ1Y-cw which I think most of us have seen.

Another link I found on YouTube was Chet Atkins & Friends youtube.com/watch?v=6oXHo4ynHxk It just goes to show how versatile this tune is.

Oh Ya!!!! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all our Mother Fiddlers.

AJ

Edited Subject Line. Please use the form: TOTW - m/d/year -Tune Title. - wormbower

Edited by - wormbower on 05/20/2010 06:18:15

wormbower - Posted - 05/09/2010:  03:17:12

Hey AJ, great tune. Love that old brass band rendition! Thanks for getting us back on track with TOTW.

Paul

Chuck Naill - Posted - 05/09/2010:  03:27:49

My contribution, box.net/shared/ebpt5amfh4

chuck

dancinbear - Posted - 05/09/2010:  04:11:50

Thanks Al. This is great.

lrhamp - Posted - 05/09/2010:  05:31:20

Nice Tune Choice Albert---especially for the older fiddlers.

You're right about the nursing homes. Growing up back in the 40's and 50's one heard this sung and played a-lot-------even on early television. I can't remember when I last heard it on radio or tv. Three years ago I spent about 5 months with my mother down in Ozark County Missouri and we enjoyed going to the local jams. Red Wing was requested quite often by the senior ladies.

On a list of the most popular fiddle tunes I ran across a few years ago it was listed as N0. 10. I think in another 20 years it may not even be in the top 50. How many fiddlers under 50 years of age play this tune? Times do change.

Robert Schumman's "Happy Farmer Returning From Work".
youtube.com/results?search_que...work&aq=5

Edited by - lrhamp on 05/09/2010 05:56:19

DougD - Posted - 05/09/2010:  07:24:50

"The Happy Farmer, Returning from Work" is part of Schumann's Opus 68 "Songs For the Young" and so has been played by lots of beginning pianists. It was composed in 1848, and first published in 1849. Schumann died in 1856.

The original sheet music for "Red Wing," with its lovely cover can be seen at the Levy collection at Johns Hopkins, among other places, but I can't link directly to it: levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/

"Red Wing" is one of a number of tin pan alley songs from that period on Indian themes, including "Rainbow" and "Silver Bell."

Edited by - DougD on 05/09/2010 07:44:49

bj - Posted - 05/09/2010:  07:57:46

My understanding was that Schumann incorporated a lot of northern European folk melodies into his pieces. There are a few Scandinavian folk tunes that are played that sound similar to this tune. Michael Springer has one in his music files.

coelhoe - Posted - 05/09/2010:  08:09:23

The catchy melody became the basis for a variety of "adult" verses that circulated first among English-speaking soldiers in WW1 and then later throughout working class America. Woody Guthrie is credited with using "Red Wing" verses for his "Union Maid" but it is more likely that he used one of the "adult" parody versions which he must have known that were in constant circulation before WW2. These "folk" parody verses are also the most likely source for learning the melody among people presently in their 80's. When you find someone who recognizes the tune, ask if they know the words. If they blush, well, then you know where they learned it.

Edited by - coelhoe on 05/09/2010 08:11:18

Supertone - Posted - 05/09/2010:  10:51:30

Interesting...any links to bawdy versions of that tune? Your post reminds me about my grandfather who was a WWI vet and he had lots of colorful verses to Mademoiselle from Armentières...

hendrid - Posted - 05/09/2010:  11:28:35

Great song AJ. One of those near the top of my must know list along with Golden Slippers and Tennessee Waltz and a half dozen others. Guess you will force me to get it internalized this week. Thanks, I think....

Thanks for the link Doug, it came up for me. This one is in Eflat. Will try to run up a tab and ABC in G if anyone is interested.

Couple of background links:

ibiblio.org/fiddlers/REA_RED.htm

perfessorbill.com/pbmidi9.shtml

thesession.org probably has the abc and sheet music under Union Maid, Woody Guthrie version.
**Update, Found Union Maid/Red Wing sheet music and Red Wing lyrics on 8notes.com. Key of C so could translate to G.**

Don

Edited by - hendrid on 05/11/2010 05:10:22

brya31 - Posted - 05/09/2010:  12:16:01

Good TOTW. I decided to play it today at lunch, the guys here loved it. : ) and....I didnt get nervous! whohooo hehhe Yes, I still get very nervous when I play in front of anyone other than my family and my dogs.

Ozarkian D.L. - Posted - 05/09/2010:  15:33:59

One'a tha 1st tunes I ever learned on tha mandolin. Heres an autoharp version I really like ( he starts playing @ 1:09 ) :

youtube.com/watch?v=8TY9MMEifC...e=related

I can remember "Mother Maybelle" playin it on tha Grand Ole Opry.

A mandolin tablature, with MIDI at tha end :

users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/mando...wing.html

Edited by - Ozarkian D.L. on 05/09/2010 15:44:46

tiquose - Posted - 05/09/2010:  15:44:49

My mom used to sing it to me when I was a little child. She said it was one of the most popular tunes for dances in eastern Oregon in her own childhood.

brya31 - Posted - 05/09/2010:  16:27:44

I really loved that Chuck!

quote:

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Originally posted by Chuck Naill

My contribution, box.net/shared/ebpt5amfh4

chuck

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M-D - Posted - 05/09/2010:  16:45:43

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD
"Red Wing" is one of a number of tin pan alley songs from that period on Indian themes, including "Rainbow" and "Silver Bell."

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fiddlepogo - Posted - 05/09/2010:  18:56:57

My version of Red Wing:
hangoutstorage.com/fiddlehango...22008.mp3

The tune bj mentioned that resembles Red Wing at the beginning:
hangoutstorage.com/fiddlehango...22008.mp3

transplant - Posted - 05/10/2010:  07:14:36

I keep hearing a similarity to "American Patrol" which is a march written in 1885 by Frank Meacham. Here is a 1917 recording of it, with some flag-waving tunes in the medley, such as "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" and "Dixie" with a bit of "Yankee Doodle" at the end. I have heard arrangements that also made reference to "The Girl I Left Behind Me."

On youtube you can find Glenn Miller swing arrangements of American Patrol.

Runaway - Posted - 05/10/2010:  20:15:42

It has taken Red Wing a while to grow on me, but none of those tin pan alley songs really grab me. I also played it in D for a long time thinking that is where everyone played it. Makes a much better G tune I think. Haven't tried it in...*shudder* Eb. Seems folks like to dance to it.

Runaway - Posted - 05/10/2010:  20:18:59

I love this TOTW thing, I wish it was tune of the day.

vrteach - Posted - 05/11/2010:  07:31:49

I hadn't known the (likely) connection with the Robert Schumann composition. Here is a youtube rendition of "The Happy Farmer" on guitar:

youtube.com/watch?v=AUC1s7XJUDA

There are a bunch of youtube versions on piano, I guess it's in one of the Suzuki books.

In Paul Gifford's book on the Hammered Dulcimer, he discusses the tune-lists for dance bands in many regions of the US, and everyone, everywhere, played Redwing. Here's Buell Kazee & Sookie Hobbs doing Red Wing in 1928, courtesy of Honking Duck:

honkingduck.com/mc/listen/buel.../red-wing

There is also a link on that page for Kazee & Hobbs doing the similar "Snow Deer" on the other side of the 78.

dsreiner - Posted - 05/11/2010:  07:55:10

Here's a link to my version, for the fun of it...

It's in a medley: Garfield's Blackberry Blossom, Blackberry Blossom, Redwing at fiddlehangout.com/myhangout/mu...sp?id=385

Dave

fiddlepogo - Posted - 05/11/2010:  10:03:38

One time I was playing fiddle at a nursing home, and played Redwing.
One lady started crying!
I asked her why- she said:
"My grandmother used to sing that to me!"
After that, I played it almost every time I saw her in the activity room.

A friend of my wife's brought her grandmother to another nursing home performance to hear me,
and the grandma said "My Dad used to play that on fiddle for me!".

So those incidents made it clear to me, along with other input, that the tune was absolutely HUGE back in the '20s and '30s.
I still play it quite often at the senior performances, and I usually medley it with "Buffalo Gals" which they are also quite familiar with.

Lately, I realized that because I add quite a few "fiddley" notes to the sung melody, it might keep some people from recognizing it.
So I try to play the straight song melody the first time through before I do the more fiddley version.
And I use that as an opportunity to point out that fiddlers often do embellish the melody that way.

One thing about Red Wing that I'm sure helped it's popularity is the II (2) Chord change it has, which is very characteristic of ragtime and ragtime influenced tunes.

David M. - Posted - 05/11/2010:  12:54:23

Watching the Wizard of Oz a few years ago, I heard part of a tune in it that I swear is the beginning few measures of Redwing. I love Redwing. One of my favorite standard type tunes to play.

Andah1andah2 - Posted - 05/11/2010:  13:51:06

I just played it 10 minutes ago before reading this post!

The tune lives on!

pattik - Posted - 05/11/2010:  22:58:07

This has become my favorite tune. Be practicing it all week.

hendrid - Posted - 05/12/2010:  08:21:32

If you want to hear Redwing in a jam setting, check the Nevada Old Time Fiddlers on youtube.com. Bunch of other standards to jam with on your computer if you click "see all" on the right side of the menu. New used fiddle due from UPS later today. Nervous, hope it is decent and not a pile of kindling... Don

youtube.com/user/NOFAFiddler

zach_grimm_07 - Posted - 05/12/2010:  10:34:35

red wing is a great tune.... a standard

Eric Sprado - Posted - 05/19/2010:  21:50:04

It's one of those good old songs that fits everywhere,BUT- You gotta listen(watch)Jim Garling with Sons of the Sage playing it on YouTube!!!!!!!!! Now THAT'S FIDDLING...... Makes me jump outa my chair every time I watch it..... I know it was mentioned in the first post-but nobody's commented on it so I had to reinforce the suggestion....Eric Sprado

Teufelhunden54 - Posted - 05/19/2010:  23:30:11

My mother, bless her heart, used to sing "Red Wing" to me as a child, and she learned it in her young days. She would be 100 years-old were she still here.
This is a people song.

Eric Sprado - Posted - 05/20/2010:  07:19:31

You're right-funny how some songs become "everybody's". Although I love the swingy version I also have fond memories of bunches of farmers two-stepping to a simpler,danceable, version at Grange Halls. I also have the same home memory of the song a zillion years ago when I was a kid.....

Swing - Posted - 05/20/2010:  07:29:22

Mr Sprado, good to hear from you again... Redwing is a very universal standard and seems to be enjoed by everyone... Kerry Mills also wrote another great tune which is easily played with as a medley...Whistling Rufus. Both are in the same key and are wonderful dance tunes.

Play Happy

DougD - Posted - 05/20/2010:  08:37:57

I think Kerry Mills' first big "hit" was "At a Georgia Camp Meeting," which can also be fiddled.

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 05/21/2010:  10:14:13

I know Red Wing means a lot of things to people, because it brings back lots of good stuff from the past. It's a cherished part of most people's memories.

However, i gotta say, even as a child when it was played more often, I just never did like the tune itself at all, aside from happy memories of street festivals with old relatives long gone, old friends from the community, etc.. It sounds quasi-comical or unfit for fiddle, somehow, to me. Maybe I'm a heretic for saying so here, but I just say what's on my mind, and figger I try not to hurt anybody in the process, so ... that's that. I probably won't ever try to play the tune.

I feel the same way about Mockingbird... it sounds like the same class of tunes as Red Wing... although I always love hearing fiddlers play Mockingbird because the bird sounds top off the tune.

As to the tune of the week feature on the hangout, someone said they wished it was the tune of the day... well, me too. I absolutely love the idea!!! I don't normally have time to check on here and see 'em all, but i love reading about and hearing different versions of tunes... tune of the week is a great idea. I used to check for it on Banjo Hangout too... but.... shucks, just not enough time anymore!!!

Edited by - groundhogpeggy on 05/21/2010 10:17:16

Teufelhunden54 - Posted - 05/21/2010:  20:17:32

I don't see anything even quasi-comical about the song "Listen to the Mockingbird". It is a song about a fellow mourning his sweetheart or daughter and the mockingbird sings over her grave in the valley.. It is a sweet song, be it sad, too.
The fact that some fiddlers do the "bird sounds" as part of the song is unfortunate. But still nowhere close to "comical".

mudbug - Posted - 05/22/2010:  06:56:47

quote:

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Originally posted by Supertone

Interesting...any links to bawdy versions of that tune? Your post reminds me about my grandfather who was a WWI vet and he had lots of colorful verses to Mademoiselle from Armentières...

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