Lol...naaah....t'ain't true. Your fiddling is excellent, my friend...we could all use a compliment here and there...lol. Thanks so much for listenin'! Have a great day.

Wow! That was excellent my friend, the only thing your fiddling needs is more exposure here on the forum, another tip of the ol’ coffee cup to ya!

Very nice of you to say, Loy. Coffee back at ya...and thanks for listenin' Have a great day.

Thats a good tune Peggy.

For the past Month, the tune "the old blind sow, she stole the middlins'' has been one of my main busking tunes.. The tune you elude to  sounds 'similar'...Here is something very close to what I play.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCZvczKmTM&t=21s

That's interesting, Lee. I had never heard of the tune before, and when I got onto Old Time Jam site for backup tracks before I had my presonus up and running, I found it there played by Jeff Long. He's the only person I even saw on YouTube playing the tune. I loved the tune and started playing whatever...lol...something similar...just relied on what I thought I heard him play and then remembered over a few years. I love the way Jeff plays it...he has a unique approach to handle that tune and I would hate to even try to emulate that. Have you heard him play it? Here's Jeff's version, which he generously brought to Old Time Jam... youtu.be/eArgnI6YlZc?si=5qTKXDgPrBOtEv-D It sure is a great tune, ain't it?

I also play something like Lee, I recall from John Summers recording.

It is interesting to hear other versions, like GHP, I think captures the same basic core melody, but then do own interesting version. GHP is perhaps sticking more closely to a basic core melody, more lyrical based; as if wanting to be sung; even makes me wonder if it might of had words at one time.

quote:

---

Originally posted by alaskafiddler

I also play something like Lee, I recall from John Summers recording.

It is interesting to hear other versions, like GHP, I think captures the same basic core melody, but then do own interesting version. GHP is perhaps sticking more closely to a basic core melody, more lyrical based; as if wanting to be sung; even makes me wonder if it might of had words at one time.

---

BTW, I first heard the tune played by Chirps Smith at Battleground in the early '80s...At the time I could only  play what I remembered until years later when I  developed the ability to read sheet music..Now, like most that I do, I play it a little different each time but try to stick CLOSE to the heavy saw stroke style that I think the tune calls for..  I'm glad that more than one of us plays it....any vesion...Like many OT tunes, the name is almost as interesting as is the tune...

Jeff Long is, or was, a member here. He used to be pretty active, but hasn't posted in a long time. Best version of "The Old Grey Mare" I've heard in a long time! Here's the Bluegrass version: youtu.be/wBwEXHa08mY?feature=shared Maybe not quite but similar, and as alaska fiddler speculated, it has words.
Here's an interesting post about a mention in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, with some history of the tune:
pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/4333

We always sang the Old Gray Mare she ain't What she used to be all the time when I was growing up...but it was a little different. I didn't recognize the similarities of Old Blind Sow to Old Gray Mare until now. They really are pretty similar.

Come to think of it...I'm feeling like singing it now...lol...and probably have not sung it or thought about it for 60 years or so.

Songs come and go, don't they? The B part is a little different, but not much. The Bill Monroe version is very similar. The Laura Ingalls Wilder page is interesting, since this apparently comes from a minstrel song.
I've been singing "Shady Grove" lately and just realized its closely related to "Little Betty Ann."

I was curious, so I did a little research and it seems "Old Blind Sow" was the title used by John Summers for the tune more widely known as "The Old Gray Mare" or "Out of the Wilderness." There are two versions in Bayard's "Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife," and its in other collections too. All seem to be derived from the 1858 minstrel song "Down in Alabam," although that may have been a reworking of an earlier folk song. You can see the original sheet music by following the link on the "Pioneergirl" page I linked above.
It's a little confusing because the common children's version has a refrain repeating the words "many long years ago" from the verse. The original "Down in Alabam" used the same melody for the verse snd chorus, and most later versions have only one part, or a B part that basically reworks the melodic material an octave higher, like Jeff Long's or Monroe's. The Skillet Lickers recorded it in 1927 as "The Old Gray Mare" with just one part, and Riley sings "Down in Alabam" as the last line of each verse, suggesting the source.
So its not that "Old Blind Sow" isn't a "real" tune - its just not unique.

Following the dizzy path of a folk song moving through societies and decades...lol. This is sorta like that game they played in grade school...where the teacher whispers some simple sentence to the kid in the first seat of the first row, and by the time it gets whispered to the very last kid in the last row...everybody has a good laugh about how it changed so much. Not to mention all the germs shared in the process...gee I hope we don't get many germs sharing folk songs...lol. Seriously, thanks Doug. It is absolutely fascinating how a little bit of notes and rhythm can morph and change as it meanders down through the ages. Kinda like with yarn...I put my yarn in boxes to use when I need those colors, and when I get into it...somehow the yarns have found a way in the quiet and dark of the box to form complicated knots and seem to be morphing into some common, yet highly specific type of entity. That's like a folk song, ain't it?

... speaking of The Old Grey Mare.... I always thought that the first part of the tune, "The Old Yeller Dog"....was pretty much the same!!!

quote:

---

Originally posted by TuneWeaver

... speaking of The Old Grey Mare.... I always thought that the first part of the tune, "The Old Yeller Dog"....was pretty much the same!!!

---

Yep. Charlie Acuff - Old Yeller Dog Come Trottin through the Meeting House

It's also similar to Old Blind Dog  which has the a verse about "stole the middlins" - 

The "Sow" in title seems to come from John Summers version  Old Blind Sow, She Stole Middlins; 

I had noticed GHP similarity to Old Grey Mare; why I thought of that tune originating as a song.  As noted, basic verse melody does seem to be used for a lot of similar tunes/songs; different titles. Some other notes about tha diversity https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Old_Grey_Mare_Came_Tearing_Out_of_the_Wilderness_(The)

I do wonder how many "tunes" actually started as simpler "songs" - but then fiddlers doing what they do, start modifying, add various second parts; adding in more notes, elaborating on the theme; or add more rhythmic elements, like for dance; or maybe some interesting twist. The basic melodic structure is still within, though might get a little lost.

quote:

---

Originally posted by alaskafiddler

I had noticed GHP similarity to Old Grey Mare; why I thought of that tune originating as a song.  As noted, basic verse melody does seem to be used for a lot of similar tunes/songs; different titles. Some other notes about tha diversity https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Old_Grey_Mare_Came_Tearing_Out_of_the_Wilderness_(The)

I do wonder how many "tunes" actually started as simpler "songs" - but then fiddlers doing what they do, start modifying, add various second parts; adding in more notes, elaborating on the theme; or add more rhythmic elements, like for dance; or maybe some interesting twist. The basic melodic structure is still within, though might get a little lost.

---

It could be that that is how 'families' of tunes get started!!??

Yes, those titles were used for basically the same tune. I don't think any 20th century versions used the original 1858 lyrics though.
Here's the Skillet Lickers 1927 recording. Wonder where those lyrics came from? adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php...gray_mare
Vernon Dalhart also recorded a kind of "hokey" version the following year, with some of the Skillet Lickers verses, but adding the "Many long years ago" refrain.
adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php...gray_mare
As far as tune "families," fiddlers also mishear tunes, and sometimes have to make up new parts to replace those they forgot.

That's the fascinating part...people kinda didn't remember what they heard, just figure out something that works...viola...or even voila...you get a brand new tune. Make up some silly lyrics if you want or just play the daylights outta the thing and then at some point some other banjo or fiddler will forget enough parts of it to make another new tune. It's like a friendly tornado of flying tune debris.

See my YT comment. It sounds all polished and fine to me!!
It is so wonderful to hear you play the fiddle, as always , but today it really makes me smile <3

Thank you, Anja!