tonyelder - Posted - 03/16/2016:  14:59:53

I play this in G with the fiddle crosstuned to GDgd.

I learned this from a recording of the New Lost City Ramblers on their CD “There Ain't No Way Out”. youtube.com/watch?v=1u6PCWtPEyk

There are no music files at the DLA or Slippery-Hill.

There is an entry at the Fiddler's Companion: ibiblio.org/fiddlers/COLM_COLV.htm

COLORED ARISTOCRACY. AKA and see "Southern Aristocracy." Old Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. G Major. Standard tuning. AB (Silberberg): AA'BB' (Brody). This late 19th century or c. 1900 tune is more correctly categorized as a cakewalk (which suggests ragtime from its syncopated rhythms) rather than a fiddle tune though the popularized version apparently comes from old-time fiddler Sanford Rich, a resident of Arthurdale, West Virginia in August of 1936.  Arthurdale, according to Kerry Blech and Gerald Milnes, was a resettlement camp for displaced persons during the depression, a project of  Elanor Roosevelt’s, and it was there at a festival of folk heritage that musicologist Charles Seeger (father of New Lost City Ramblers member Mike Seeger) recorded the Rich Family for the Library of Congress (AFS 3306 B2). Gerald Milnes has located Sanford’s son, Elmer Rich, an elderly man who still fiddles and who remembers the event. Mike Seegar learned the tune at a young age by playing the aluminum recordings in his parent’s house. It became one of the first tunes recorded by his group the New Lost City Ramblers in the early 1960’s, and introduced the song to “revival” era fiddlers.

The second chord in the accompaniment has been variously played as both an E minor and an E major.

******

A little tidbit not mentioned anywhere - that I found interesting: The New Lost City Ramblers played / recorded both versions – with and without the Em. But the thing I found curious was that in the version using the Em – the guitar player never plays the D chord. And in the version using the Emaj the guitar player includes the D chord.

The New Lost City Ramblers on “The Early Years, 1958 – 1962” uses the EMaj

youtube.com/watch?v=s8gpFdRZ_wU

The New Lost City Ramblers on “There Ain't No Way Out” uses the Em

youtube.com/watch?v=1u6PCWtPEyk

There are dozens of Youtube videos of folks playing this tune. Most of what I have heard will include the Em, but don't think I found any that did not include the D chord (except the NLCR) But I'm sure there is more than one.

Other reading – if interested:

pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/...tune.html

tunearch.org/wiki/Colored_Aristocracy

mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=24017

G Colored Aristocracy

 

 

 

DougD - Posted - 03/16/2016:  16:26:36

There are quite a few YouTube videos of Elmer Rich playing, including this tune:  youtube.com/watch?v=rbNNszsn_pc

I believe he was Sanford's nephew, not his son.

fiddlinsteudel - Posted - 03/16/2016:  16:27:37

I love this tune, though coming from the bluegrass world, I'm more familiar with Richard Greene's version ...

tonyelder - Posted - 03/16/2016:  17:22:08

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

 

There are quite a few YouTube videos of Elmer Rich playing, including this tune:  youtube.com/watch?v=rbNNszsn_pc

I believe he was Sanford's nephew, not his son.

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Thanks Doug. I knew about that video - but I just didn't connect the dots.

Interesting to note - this was one of the comments left by someone on Youtube: "Thanks for that, what a great treat hearing Elmer play this version which I'm sure is much closer to the original than the other versions floating around out there. Can't get much closer to the source than Elmer is!"

And then to realize that neither one of the NLCR versions are played that way. And yet Mike Seeger's father is the one who recorded his uncle, and that original recording was supposedly where Mike learned the tune from. And the NLCR's included it on the first album they recorded.

...not that it really matters.

tonyelder - Posted - 03/16/2016:  17:36:13

quote:

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Originally posted by fiddlinsteudel

 

I love this tune, though coming from the bluegrass world, I'm more familiar with Richard Greene's version ...

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Ah yes, Richard Greene. On his album "Duets". He recorded "Colored Aristocracry" with JD Crowe.

youtube.com/watch?v=d7E0kn9ZJck

I learned to play Little Rabbit that he recorded with Tony Trischka from the same album.

From the Youtube video "Little Rabbit" is cut B1 at 16:50, and "Colored Aristocracy" is cut B4 at 27:53

I may put Little Rabbit up next. That's a great tune.

Thanks Mark.

ChickenMan - Posted - 03/18/2016:  14:08:34

Around these parts, folks play an A chord somewhere in there (I think somewhere around beat 12 of the 16 per part) and it never jives with what I'm fiddling.

ChickenMan - Posted - 03/18/2016:  14:20:40

I guess I learned it from this recording of Jake Krack located at, not to contradict you Tony, the DLA.

dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/...85/rec/33

I should clarify: I can hear the A chord in the banjo part, but when I play this tune 'round here folks always question whether they should play it.

An aside - I learned many tunes from Jake's recordings there.

tonyelder - Posted - 03/18/2016:  14:56:49

quote:

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Originally posted by ChickenMan

 

I guess I learned it from this recording of Jake Krack located at, not to contradict you Tony, the DLA.

dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/...85/rec/33

I should clarify: I can hear the A chord in the banjo part, but when I play this tune 'round here folks always question whether they should play it.

An aside - I learned many tunes from Jake's recordings there.

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HA!  Well ain't that special.

I must have typed it in wrong when I did the search. I even tried it twice this time. First time turned up nothing - again. But the second time tagged the Jake Krack audio recording.  And now I have found some more stuff to listen to.....

Thanks for that link. I've never heard that version.  And now there are 3 versions that are close enough to easily recognize, but certainly are different.

I'm going to spend some time with this one - just cause I like variations. An interesting twist from what I learned.

DougD - Posted - 03/18/2016:  15:10:29

Regarding the A chord and referencing the Jake Krack version, I'd go to the A chord a little earlier, at the beginning of that measure.

I guess this was probably one of the first fiddle tunes I played, since my pals and I learned a lot from those early NLCR records. Not too much call for it around here these days because of the racist overtones of the title.

fiddlerjoebob - Posted - 03/18/2016:  15:28:15

I learned it from our farm manager in 1976...one of the first tunes I ever learned, along with Golden Slippers and Red Wing.  

DougD - Posted - 03/18/2016:  15:52:28

Here's the sheet music:   sheetmusic.library.sc.edu/Musi...p?mid=419

And here's the cover art in motion:  memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r...377%29%29

or:    memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r...367%29%29