timberhill - Posted - 03/04/2013:  11:49:00

Hi folks, I thought I would share a blog post I wrote for blogger.com about "Gilsaw," the Missouri tune from Pete McMahan that many enjoy, and that has been the subject of various posts.  I would sure appreciate any info people can share about this fiddler's name, family, story, etc.

Cheers, Howard Wight Marshall

Gilsaw: A Tune from the Hard Times

One of the fine breakdowns that percolated into the fiddler’s repertory largely in the 1980s and substantially through the playing of Pete McMahan is “Gilsaw.” Its title has confused me and its story has eluded me for many years. Herewith, I offer something of its story (Larry Francis, thanks for asking).

We don't know how to spell that word, “Gilsaw.” Pete McMahan believed it was the name of a tramp fiddler who played it at the Wabash Railroad depot in Montgomery City (Montgomery County), ca. 1933-1935. A local fiddler, Claude Gregory, heard the man play it and learned it immediately. I think Mr. Gregory (who might have been the town police chief) heard the man's name as "Gilsaw," but we have nothing to base the spelling on. Apparently the “old bum” played a few fiddle tunes and hopped the next freight train out of town. Claude Gregory instantly learned it and fiddled it for his young teenage nephew, Pete McMahan.

Pete often played it at sessions in the 1980s, and this is one of the tunes that came out when someone would ask him to play tunes from long ago. Amy Skillman and I recorded Pete playing it, with Mickey Soltys on guitar, on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia in December 1986 for the “Now That’s a Good Tune” documentary project. Subsequently, Charlie Walden and Bill Shull issued the tune on a 1987 cassette drawn from that recording session, Ozark Mountain Waltz (MSOTFA 001). This 1986 recording of Pete playing “Gilsaw” no doubt helped spread the tune across the map.

I believe we can safely propose that it was Pete McMahan who was responsible for "Gilsaw" becoming part of the national and international fiddle repertoire. It’s a terrific breakdown for square dancing.

Charlie Walden learned the tune from Pete, and Charlie’s exemplary version is on the web through charliewalden.com. Geoff Seitz has a good version, as does Illinois fiddler Chirps Smith. Fiddlers such as Geoff, Chirps, and Charlie Walden, have helped spread “Gilsaw” Back East to places like Clifftop, WVA, where I understand it is now a staple on the festival scene.

Likewise, the tune obtained a firm foothold on the other side of the U.S. map. The tune is included in Seattle fiddler Gene Silberberg’s book, Tunes I Either Did or Did Not Learn at the Tractor Tavern, although Gene reports (February 2013) that he does not recall where he learned it. Gene’s tune book offers good, accessible, transcriptions and has helped the tune spread far and wide.

Several Missouri fiddlers have strong versions available on CD. Junior and Cody Marriott have their version, titled "Gill Saw," on their self-produced Cody& Jr. Marriott CD (Ava, MO, 2004). John Williams plays “Gilsaw,” learned from his mentor, McMahan, on his 2004 Fiddlesong CD, John P. Williams: Monroe County Influences.

If anyone can contribute more information about the unnamed fiddler who was riding the rails across Missouri in the Great Depression and paused in Montgomery City to fiddle a few tunes, please contact me; history would be grateful. I have yet to hear more about the man or about the family name (if indeed it is spelled “Gilsaw”).

ajisai - Posted - 03/04/2013:  12:51:08

Gilsaw is one of my favorite tunes to play and so I once did a search at Ancestry.com to see if I could figure out anything more about the name. I repeated it today to refresh my memory.

There are three "Gilsaw" index entries that come up under census records. It's possible, in all three cases, that "Gilsaw" is a misindexing of a more common name, but looking at the entries, it's very possible that was the name that was written. I find it curious that all three were born in Missouri.

1900, Mary Gilsaw, Nine Mile Prairie, Callaway, Missouri  (born in Missouri)

1910, William Gilsaw, Franklin, Adams, Ohio (born in Missouri)

1910, Henry Gilsaw, Eufaula, McIntosh, Oklahoma (born in Missouri)

If the fiddler really was "Gilsaw," then there are so few families with that name in the United States up through 1940 that it might be possible to fill in a family tree and make a guess as to who he was. Unfortunately, it might be very difficult to find evidence that would prove that the likely individual played the fiddle unless he was mentioned in a newspaper or listed an instrument in a will or unless someone who knew of him could be found.

It looks like Claude Gregory was a sheriff in 1930, by the way. He was enumerated in Montgomery County wife a wife, two daughters, and a page full of county jail inmates. Is there any chance Mr. Gilsaw might have been in jail there, even briefly? I wonder if there are records?

If you'd like the census page, message me and I'll send it to you. In 1940, he was enumerated as a contractor and builder with his own business. 

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the mystery of Gilsaw.

Edited by - ajisai on 03/04/2013 12:56:48

modon - Posted - 03/04/2013:  14:10:57

I learned Gilsaw from a recording of Lyman Enloe. Few of the ozark fiddlers played it when I lived there. Most of the fiddlers I knew then have passed away now. The younger generation must have picked it up from recordings of Pete McMahan and Lyman Enloe as well. Great tune!

timberhill - Posted - 03/04/2013:  15:59:39

Dear ajasai -- That is terrific research! Full marks! I would be grateful if you would send me all that you have, the copies of the records, etc. Thanks to you, we have a definite and strong lead to the fiddler Gilsaw in Missouri. If fact, Nine Mile Praire is a an uncorporated rural settlement a few miles from of I live in Callaway County and a half hour west of Mongtomery City (site of Sheriff Gregory's encounter with Gilsaw). There no store or post office anymore at Nine Mile Praried, and like a lot of these rural communiities it's identity today rests largely in people's memories and is marked on the land by the remaining old country churrches and their graveyards.... I will now ask some of the folks here about Gilsaw. I will edit and improve my blog post forthwith. Please feel free to contact me via the Hangout site and I can send you my address.

And hello Don, good to hear from you. I always enjoy and appreciate your posts, as a Missouri fiddle deep in the history and cultural heritage side of things. I'm not surprised "Gilsaw" wasn't played much in the Ozarks, since it seems to be so clearly a central Missouri (Little Dixie region) tune. Lyman Enloe may well have learned the tune from one of his sessions with Pete McMahan. Hope you are well. Going to the Harrrison Ark fiddlers convention? I'll be there.

These responses are a great example fo the beauty of this FiddleHangout site. Such quick and helpful information of a longstanding research question (who was Gilsaw) warms the cockels of this old man's heart.

Cheers,
Howard

ajisai - Posted - 03/04/2013:  16:15:30

I'd be happy to send you the Gilsaw-related records I have access to BUT I'm not sure at all that I'm on the right track. In fact, with just one record to draw from, I'm not even sure Mary's surname was really "Gilsaw." Census takers sometimes used some creative spellings and sometimes their handwriting is pretty hard to decipher. : )  

I'll poke around and see if I can learn a little more about her, maybe find her in another census.

fiddlepLuker - Posted - 03/05/2013:  02:16:33

Very cool!

timberhill - Posted - 03/05/2013:  10:32:05

Friends, I neglected to add Larry Warren's website to the places where one can listen to "Gilsaw" by Pete McMahan and hundreds of other tunes and fiddlers. It is an invaluable site, because for the first time, Larry gives us access to original recordings from long ago, such as the recordings R.P. Christeson used when he published his Old-Time Fiddler's Repertory books.... To hear Pete McMahan play “Gilsaw,” go to slippery-hill.com/M-K/ and click on Tune # 795. Thank you, Larry Warren!

In due course, I'll add more info about here and to my blog about the mysterious Missouri fiddling hobo, Gilsaw, whose great breakdown we play today thanks to Pete McMahan.

Cheers,
Howard Marshall

EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 03/05/2013:  17:26:37

I don't know if this will add any information that hasn't already been covered (and any new info is probably banjo-related), but Gilsaw was the BanjoHangout's Tune of the Week just a couple weeks ago: banjohangout.org/topic/256767

Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 03/05/2013 17:27:15