cstewart - Posted - 05/24/2010:  11:11:39

---

Sorry, this is a bit late. I had an exam this morning. I originally wanted to go with The Kerfunken Jig but after researching it a bit I realized it was written in the mid-1990s...so probably not much to discuss there.

Instead I picked Sourwood Mountain, another tune I can't get seem to get out of my head.

From The Fiddler's Companion:
"The tune (and attached song) has been widely collected in the South, especially in banjo settings, although like many a folk-song its origins are obscure. It has long been used as a play-party melody. Sourwood Mountain is a place-name in the state of Massachusetts, and the ballad is said by some to have originated in that state. Mrs. Betty Jane Dodrill writes to say that family lore has it that the song was composed by her ancestor William Francis (Blue Bill) Combs (1840-1924), a fiddler and farmer who lived on Breezers Branch, North of Finney in Russell County, Virginia. Blue Bill served with the Confederate forces in the Civil War and was with General Lee at the surrender at Appomattox in 1865 (see The Heritage of Russell County Virginia, 1786-1988, Vol. II, pgs. 203-204). Whatever its origins (and despite the fact that melodic material was undoubtedly imported from the British Isles), it is one of the first truly American ballads, and the tragic tale of a young man fatally bit by a snake made its way into folk traditions throughout the United States. Sourwood is the name for chestnut or other bark used in tanning leather, and a fairly common commodity on the frontier."


Audio from the Digital Library Of Appalachia (click "click here to display item" at top)
Ernie Carpenter aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/viewer.exe...bnail,A,1 title,A,1 subjec,A,0 descri,200,0 0,A,0 10&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N subjec,A,0,N descri,K,0,N 0,A,0,N 0,A,0,N 10&CISOTHUMB=2,5&CISOTITLE=10&CISOMODE=grid

Charlie Fraley aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/viewer.exe...bnail,A,1 title,A,1 subjec,A,0 descri,200,0 0,A,0 10&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N subjec,A,0,N descri,K,0,N 0,A,0,N 0,A,0,N 10&CISOTHUMB=2,5&CISOTITLE=10&CISOMODE=grid

Melvin Wine aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/viewer.exe...bnail,A,1 title,A,1 subjec,A,0 descri,200,0 0,A,0 10&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N subjec,A,0,N descri,K,0,N 0,A,0,N 0,A,0,N 10&CISOTHUMB=2,5&CISOTITLE=10

Sammy Walker aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/viewer.exe...bnail,A,1 title,A,1 subjec,A,0 descri,200,0 0,A,0 10&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N subjec,A,0,N descri,K,0,N 0,A,0,N 0,A,0,N 10&CISOTHUMB=2,5&CISOTITLE=10&CISOMODE=grid

Wheat Valley Bluegrass Band aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/viewer.exe...bnail,A,1 title,A,1 subjec,A,0 descri,200,0 0,A,0 10&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N subjec,A,0,N descri,K,0,N 0,A,0,N 0,A,0,N 10&CISOTHUMB=2,5&CISOTITLE=10&CISOMODE=grid

Video
Carolina Chocolate Drops, my favorite version even though you don't get a very good view of the fiddler- youtube.com/watch?v=1UO_n2nscC...e=related

The Dillards youtube.com/watch?v=8h5dLVMc19Y

Here's some lyrics, there seems to be a bit of variation depending on where you look:
Chickens a crowin' in the Sourwood Mountains
Hi-ho doodle-um a-day
So many pretty girls you can't count em
Hi-ho diddle-um a-day

Say old man I want your daughter
Hi-ho doodle-um a-day
Bake some bread carry in the water
Hi-ho diddle-um a-day

Big dog bark, little dog bite you
Hi-ho doodle-um a-day
Big girl courts, little ones spite you
Hi-ho diddle-um a-day

My true love lives up the hollow
Hi-ho doodle-um a-day
She won't come and I won't follow
Hi-ho diddle-um a-day

My true love lives up on the river
Hi-ho doodle-um a-day
A few more miles and I'll be with her
Hi-ho diddle-um a-day

Ducks in the mill pond, geese in the clover
Hi-ho doodle-um a-day
Tell them pretty girls, I'am comin over
Hi-ho diddle-all day

---

Edited by - wormbower on 06/01/2010 18:48:15

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 05/24/2010:  15:15:40

---

I love that tune. Have never played it on fiddle yet, but my daughter and I put it on our CD we made several years back with guitar fingerpicking and voice. Ours went closest to Melvin Wine's version, although, of course pretty different with a fingerpicked guitar... I was trying to get a fiddle sound in it, though.

I always thought Andy Griffith's version was unique: youtube.com/watch?v=30t0Wv9aayQ

Great tune! I should try to learn it on fiddle! I enjoyed listening to all those samples you included.

SueH - Posted - 05/24/2010:  17:51:09

---

I like this tune but I've never played it before.
There's some sound files on Old Town School of Folk Music with the tune played at three speeds. It's pretty easy to pick it up. (thanks to whoever posted that link at one time, I've used it to get the basic structure of quite a few tunes.)

Great tune choice! I'll have to learn it.

oldtownschool.org/fiddle/fun/

robinja - Posted - 05/25/2010:  06:37:25

---

Great tune choice - one of my favorites. Easy enough for beginners and fun for everyone. I uploaded a version that I played with a band a couple of years ago. It was initially inspired by the Carolina Chocolate Drops' version, but I was surprised at how much we deviated from it when I went back and listened to theirs.

fiddlehangout.com/myhangout/mu...p?id=214#

wormbower - Posted - 05/25/2010:  07:16:58

---

Great TOTW choice! The Chocolate Drops' version is my favorite, too. That one is on their great Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind album, but there are also tons of high quality free live Chocolate Drop concert recordings available at the Internet Archive. Most of them include Sourwood Mountain.

Paul

Runaway - Posted - 05/25/2010:  20:19:05

---

Darn good choice! this was one of the first tunes I learned (I was also inspired by the Chocolate Drops). Someone gave me a Roan Mtn. Hilltoppers (Bill) cassette the other day and it had a really good Sourwood Mountain on it that sounds a whole lot like the Crocolate Drop one.

Marcus Martin and Bill Hensley (and maybe Osey Helton?) have a Sourwood Mtn. that sounds pretty darn different from the one CCD plays, but I like it a lot too.

The Tommy Magness one will really knock your socks off.

Sourwood trees are all over the mountains here in NC. The wood is very twisty. they make good mouthbows :)

cstewart - Posted - 05/25/2010:  20:25:39

---

SueH: Thanks for that site! I've bookmarked it for future reference.

robinja: Nice version of this song! You're playing the fiddle I assume?

Runaway: What exactly is a mouthbow?

robinja - Posted - 05/26/2010:  10:44:35

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by cstewart

SueH: Thanks for that site! I've bookmarked it for future reference.

robinja: Nice version of this song! You're playing the fiddle I assume?

Runaway: What exactly is a mouthbow?

---

Dual fiddles, actually. Me and my friend Tara. Thanks!

tarheel - Posted - 05/26/2010:  20:02:45

---

Sourwood is a common understory tree in the south from the mountains to the coast.

Also, you yankee's earnest attempts to decipher and catagorize every word of a tune, and then to put in a phrase that make no sense whatsoever, has provided us with many hours of entertainment through the years.

cstewart - Posted - 05/27/2010:  05:52:40

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by tarheel
Also, you yankee's earnest attempts to decipher and catagorize every word of a tune, and then to put in a phrase that make no sense whatsoever, has provided us with many hours of entertainment through the years.

---

I'm not sure what you mean. I believe that nonsense phrase is original and integral to the song, though it differs slightly from version to version. The lyrics were copy and pasted off some website. What does anything in this thread have to do with yankees? The different versions I posted are all by southern artists as far as I can tell.

Runaway - Posted - 05/27/2010:  05:58:16

---

literally it is a "bow" (like bow and arrow) that you put up to your "mouth" and play. If you look around on youtube I bet you can find some people playing them. Kind of reminds me of a Jaw harp in sound but it is much bigger and easier on the teeth.

DougD - Posted - 06/01/2010:  15:22:10

---

Runaway, "Sourwood Mountain" is on the Cloudlands cassette Comin' Round the Mountain, with Joe Birchfield playing fiddle. Of course your tape could be something completely different.

I wonder if the Chocolate Drops did learn this from the Hilltoppers. I think that's where they learned "Cornbread and Butterbeans."

Shawn Craver - Posted - 06/02/2010:  09:23:35

---

This tune was once popular around the central Appalachians as well... (western MD, WV) Its one of the many tunes/songs I learned from my Grandmother who knew many fiddle tunes and would hum or sing them to me.. I play it on the fiddle based on her recollection of it.

M-D - Posted - 06/02/2010:  10:34:15

---

An old tune/song that has been played forever. As a child, I recollect the old folks singing and playing it.

We call them "pickin' bows". Not many around who can still play one to any real effect. They're more versatile than a jaw-harp, aka Jew's harp. I'm made bunches of them. Jimmy Driftwood played one well. So did Charlie Everidge. Dave Smith still does. Probably ought to make a video for YouTube, some day soon.