Wes Lassiter - Posted - 05/11/2008:  17:36:10

Ok I give up, I am learning a version of this song and was wondering what exactly is a Big Sciota?

Banjo Wes
All things excellent are difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza

gkella - Posted - 05/11/2008:  17:37:18

I think it is a river

Glen

250gibson - Posted - 05/11/2008:  17:42:33

Yes, it is about the sciota river

Wes Lassiter - Posted - 05/11/2008:  17:46:19

Where is it?

Banjo Wes
All things excellent are difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza

Don Borchelt - Posted - 05/11/2008:  17:51:12

Ohio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scioto_River

http://www.banjr.com

"Tell me, howe can a poor man stand such times and live?" - Alfred Reed

banjotef - Posted - 05/11/2008:  18:08:32

Big Mon is for the Monongahela River in PA. The Mon and Allegheny rivers join at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio. Curious, the "Banks of the Ohio" tune is about a guy murdering his fiancee'. Never understood that song.

dbrooks - Posted - 05/11/2008:  18:15:37

The Scioto River runs through Columbus, Ohio. I ran along a section of it years ago while working up there. It empties into the Ohio River somewhere near West Virginia, I believe.

David

lazyarcher - Posted - 05/11/2008:  18:16:15

I didn't think we were allowed to talk about big sciotas here?

Dave Jack

Wes Lassiter - Posted - 05/11/2008:  18:22:17

Well the song makes sense it sounds like a river song

Banjo Wes
All things excellent are difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza

Bill Rogers - Posted - 05/11/2008:  18:29:17

I always thought "Big Mon" referred to the man himself--Bill Monroe.

Bill

EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 05/11/2008:  18:44:55

I live about a mile from the Scioto River, in Columbus, Ohio. There were several early variations on the spelling - I'm not sure why it was spelled "Sciota" in the song, which was written long after "Scioto" had become the standard. The name is thought to come from a (Wyandot?) Indian word meaning "deer". It begins in north central Ohio and empties into the Ohio River at Portsmouth, Ohio (across the river from Kentucky, not West Virginia).

This weeked was the annual TOSRV bike ride - that standing for "Tour of the Scioto River Valley". You begin Saturday morning at the State Capital in downtown Columbus, ride the 100 or so miles to Portsmouth, then ride back to Columbus on Sunday. I did the tour a few times in the 1980's - keep meaning to do it again one of these days. Maybe next year.

http://www.tosrv.org/08/index.htm

Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 05/11/2008 21:20:03

Bird Dog - Posted - 05/11/2008:  19:01:30

However it started, "Mon" was a nickname of Bill Monroe's. I've heard at least one of his band members call him that.

As to "Banks of the Ohio", as I understand it, it was like many murder ballads: He killed her because she was pregnant.

Robin

wrentree - Posted - 05/11/2008:  19:05:37

Nice sounding song. I live about 18 miles east of it up here east of Marion, Ohio.
And my brother has ridden a couple of times in the bike ride down to Portsmouth and back.
Harold

Edited by - wrentree on 05/11/2008 19:06:51

CurtissWhite - Posted - 05/11/2008:  19:18:16

Nope. He killed because she wouldn't marry him. I guess he was a scumbag and she was aware of that. Scumbags can also write songs. "Knoxville Girl" is a song of the same story.

Earl's the man!
Frailin's 999th friend!

Edited by - CurtissWhite on 05/11/2008 19:21:49

J-Walk - Posted - 05/11/2008:  19:37:19

quote:

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what exactly is a Big Sciota?

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frailin - Posted - 05/11/2008:  19:47:08

The story I learned is that she WAS pregnant and STILL wouldn't marry him. She KNOW'D he was a scumbag!

And she was right!

And lotsa cool things happened on the Big Scioti (up here in MN I've heard it pronounced Sky-oh-tee). All this is learned by the same tradition as the music, of course (hearing it first hand), but I understand the Boatman (made famous in a fantastic "A" tune) also made his trade there.


"Gospel. The most powerful music in this world and the next."



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brokenstrings - Posted - 05/11/2008:  21:32:14

I've seen it as "Scioty" too, but that's like called the Forked Deer River "Forky Deer"--a folkism.

Jessy

Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!

phischer - Posted - 05/11/2008:  22:13:37

Maybe it is like calling potatoes "patatas" and so forth. A lot of folks don't exactly pronounce words like they are spelled. For instance creek would be "crick" around where I am from. So maybe that's how it was heard and therefore later spelled in the name of the song.

Regards,
Casey

"I got no fancy line to share, just this poor attempt at one!"

beegee - Posted - 05/12/2008:  06:49:53

The Scioto is the river. Sciota? Maybe it is a tune by a typograpihcially-challenged dyslexic maritime provincer. Nvoa Sciota?

__________________________
turtle on a fencepost....

Rizo - Posted - 05/12/2008:  07:51:15

"Big Mon" or "Muddy Mon" refers to the Monongahela River in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They merge to form the Ohio. Nothing to do with Bill Monroe... I'm pretty sure the song predates him.

And yeah, the Scioto is a river in Ohio. Sciota or Scioty is just a folksy spelling.

Edited by - Rizo on 05/12/2008 07:53:14

Keith E - Posted - 05/12/2008:  09:15:20

The Scioto empties into the Ohio about 2 miles from my house in Portsmouth, OH.

Edited by - Keith E on 05/12/2008 09:16:12

Bird Dog - Posted - 05/12/2008:  17:11:26

Do you pronounce the c? "Sky" or Sy"?

Robin

Bird Dog - Posted - 05/12/2008:  17:14:14

quote:

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Originally posted by Rizo

"Big Mon" or "Muddy Mon" refers to the Monongahela River in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They merge to form the Ohio. Nothing to do with Bill Monroe... I'm pretty sure the song predates him.

And yeah, the Scioto is a river in Ohio. Sciota or Scioty is just a folksy spelling.

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JIMBO53 - Posted - 05/12/2008:  17:22:04

This is from the out of print Bill Monroe Album "Bluegrass Instrumentals "which has the song "Big Mon", originally recorded 12/1/58:
"Big Mon" (pronounced as though it were spelled Mun) is one of the many nicknames Bill acquired, and it was bestowed by Bobby Hicks and Charlie Cline, who were both working with Bill out in the Northwest in either Nebraska or one of the Dakotas when this tune was developed, as the result of improvising between the members of the group while playing at a dance one night"-this is verbitum off the album notes, so I guess that settles it.

Prof - Posted - 05/12/2008:  17:24:58

That'd be "Sy," Bird Dog.

Hey, Keith E -- I was born in Portsmouth about 41 years ago. We moved away to Michigan right before my 4th birthday, though so I pretty much no memory of the place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Let's face it, some people have a way with words...
other people...uhhh...ohhh...not have way." Steve Martin

EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 05/12/2008:  17:44:04

quote:

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Originally posted by Bird Dog

Do you pronounce the c? "Sky" or Sy"?

Robin

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Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 05/12/2008 17:45:08

Wayne Holcombe - Posted - 05/12/2008:  18:27:03

Sciota was an indian word for "hair".So it would be hair river.From what I remember it was called that because there were so many deer along the river that when they would shed there hair it would float downstream in clumps.
I'm working with a 58 year old memory so there might be more to the story than I remember.It was a long time ago when I gathered that liitle bit if trivia.
Wayne

wjtank - Posted - 05/12/2008:  18:32:37

"Big Mon" or "Muddy Mon" may in fact be nicknames for a river, but the instrumental known as "Big Mon" was written by Bill Monroe and is a reference to a nickname of his.

Bill T.

Clark - Posted - 05/12/2008:  20:27:33

The way my grandparents (who lived in Oh,WV,and Mi)pronounced Scioto it rhymed with coyote.

Mitch Manns
Manns Guitar Academy
http://www.mannsguitaracademy.com/

GerryH - Posted - 05/13/2008:  07:21:47

Here in Georgia folks pronounce it "scioty." I try and correct them but to no avail. I married a Buckeye girl and I proposed to here by the Scioto river. The river holds a special memory for me because of that. I love the tune as well.
GerryH

Bird Dog - Posted - 05/13/2008:  09:01:34

quote:

---

Originally posted by EggerRidgeBoy

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bird Dog

Do you pronounce the c? "Sky" or Sy"?

Robin

---

It's sigh-OH-tuh, so the "Sciota" spelling is actually closer to the correct pronunciation than "Scioto".

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Bill Rogers - Posted - 05/13/2008:  09:14:52

It's in the nature of English that many unaccented vowels are all pronounced the same way--"uh." E.g.: cotton, woman, Martin, marten.

Bill

Rizo - Posted - 05/13/2008:  09:15:02

quote:

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Which tune preceded him - Big Sciota or Big Mon?

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quote:

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"Big Mon" or "Muddy Mon" may in fact be nicknames for a river, but the instrumental known as "Big Mon" was written by Bill Monroe and is a reference to a nickname of his.

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Edited by - Rizo on 05/13/2008 09:16:40

Jim Yates - Posted - 05/13/2008:  09:29:48

Clark wrote,

quote:

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The way my grandparents (who lived in Oh,WV,and Mi)pronounced Scioto it rhymed with coyote.

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