carlb - Posted - 06/03/2010:  06:54:48

Personally, I never heard the term "Calico tuning" for AEAC# until the Marcus Martin recordings became available a few years ago. He mentioned that name prior to playing a tune in that tuning. Has anyone heard or know of any other references to that name that don't go back to Marcus Martin?

wormbower - Posted - 06/03/2010:  07:26:13

I don't know who originated the term, but the Canote Brothers have a CD entitled "Calico Pie: Fiddletunes in the Key of Calico." (canote.com/listen.php) In their liner notes they say:

"You know it when you hear it--that characteristic ringing "Calico" sound: the insistent whine of the C# unison on the high strings, the left-hand pizzicato in endless combinations, the rhythmic sweep of the bow dipping down to the low strings. It's an 'open' tuning in the full sense of the word--the notes make an arpeggiated chord like a bugle... The name of the tuning comes from the tune of the same name. We also like to think of a calico cat with three colors, analogous with the three notes of the chord."

Paul

wormbower - Posted - 06/03/2010:  07:29:34

FWIW, It seems to have made it into Wikipedia:

"AEAC#9839; = Black Mountain Rag Tuning, Calico Tuning, Open A Tuning, or Drunken Hiccups Tuning"

Paul

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 06/03/2010:  08:27:43

I think most dulcimer players still just holler out the mode they're tuned in. Seems somebody'd come up with more user-freindly terms for all these instruments.

We should ask West Virginians... they are good with names. Just run through WV and look at the names of towns... my favorite is friends who used to visit our church from Odd, West Va. We all laughed about that the whole time they were there.

Down in SE KY, the little mushrooms you can eat in the springtime were called "Dry Land Fish," which I always thought was kinda a mouthful of name for something that little. In West Virginia they call them something like Molly Moochers or something, can't remember for sure but something like...not sure what it might mean, but it's a heck of a lot cuter to say than dry land fish...I mean, then we oughta call catfish drippy soaked mushroom-like wobblers, or something!

More coffee!!!! Maybe I should make more youtubes this morning!!!!!

DougD - Posted - 06/03/2010:  09:16:12

Carl, like you I'd never heard that term for this tuning either in the old days. But what tune was Marcus Martin getting ready to play when he used the term? Did he play "Calico?"

carlb - Posted - 06/03/2010:  10:33:21

Doug,
Well, I did cursory check and couldn't find it, so I guess I was wrong. He did play a number of tunes in AEAC# (or tuned down as GDGB). Among those on the "When I Get My New House Done" CD are:
Calico
When I Get My New House Done
Sandy River (I had thought it was on this one in which he said "I'm not playing Calico, I'm going to play Sandy River". On the "When I Get My New House Done" CD, the only words heard before this track are "Sandy River". It seems they cut out the rest of the sentence from the original Lomax recording).
Carl

robinja - Posted - 06/03/2010:  11:40:45

Carl - Here it is on Bosco's music page:

fiddlehangout.com/myhangout/mu...#comments

I've only been playing 6 years, and I had never heard of Marcus Martin until that CD came out, but I could swear that I had heard of the Calico key before that. (Of course, that could have been from someone else who had been exposed to the Marcus Martin field recordings...)