Bisbonian - Posted - 03/20/2010:  10:44:30

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Last week, we took a turn off the Appalachian Trail and ended up in the Southwest. Since we're there, I figured we could linger a little longer. So, take off your shoes and stay a spell.

Last December, I was visiting with friends in the TOTMC (no, that's not the Tune of the Month Club; it's the Tucson Old Time Music Circle) and AZJohnB started into a fiddle tune called Purple Lilies. As it got going, it seemed like I had heard it all my life, and I jumped in on the banjo. It sounds like a Mexican Polka, but it is actually a fiddle tune from the local Tohono O'odham tribe. They play a dance music similar to Old Time, but locally grown, called "waila", characterized by twin fiddles. ("baila" is Spanish for dance, and the b can be a very soft "v" sound). It brought back very familiar echos from back in my childhood, but I had no idea where I had first heard it. I sent a soundclip to my sister, and it was immediately recognizable to her, as well. She said it took her back to being a little girl in Old Town, San Diego. Well, I started looking into where it came from, and I am not sure that is where we heard it...more likely on on of the Tijuana radio stations we listened to all the time. But I did learn something of the history of the tune.

Back in the 1980's Big Jim Griffith released a collection of this music, Old time Music of the Tohono O'odham, Vol 1 & 2, The Gu-achi Fiddlers. The band leader was fiddler Elliot Johnson.



A band called Bayou Seco, consisting mostly of the duo Jeanie McLerie and Ken Keppeler, went in search of Elliot Johnson and the Gu-achi fiddlers, and caught up with them in 1990, and spent the next three years learning their repertoire, until Elliot passed away in 1993. Bayou Seco first recorded Purple Lilies in 1995 on a cassette called Memories in Cababi (Johnson's hometown). It's now on a CD called More Memories in Cababi.

I have a recording of The Gu-achi Fiddlers (Elliott Johnson - fiddle, Lester Vavages - fiddle, Wilfred Mendoza - guitar, Gerald Leos - snare drum, Mike Francisco - bass drum) playing Purple Lillies, but at this point I don't know where it came from...probably the Jim Griffith collection, so I won't post it here. But there are good videos of Bayou Seco performing the song: youtube.com/watch?v=H0Pzst6LWQQ . A block party in Santa Monica has captured the spirit of the song pretty well, here: youtube.com/watch?v=c40eaG5HElI . And, to get a real feel for waila, this is a different song (but similar) played by a current Tohono O'odham band called Gertie and the T.O. Boyz: youtube.com/watch?v=RHHEBao-RMU . Finally, here is a PBS program on the history of waila (AKA "chicken scratch"): youtube.com/watch?v=H837ENkVkHw .

I'm still working on the definitive (yeah right!) clawhammer banjo part, but it's really a fiddle tune. Here, a fiddle player teaches the tune...on mandolin ('cause it has frets, so you can see where the fingers go better). Don't let the mandolin throw you, you can definitely learn the tune from this video: youtube.com/watch?v=4NFb70eTwr4 . I've been playing it (very sloppily, I am afraid) in Double D, and it works pretty well there. It is mostly 2/2 time, with a couple of single measures of 3/4 (just for fun!) Tab for it would look something like this:



I know at least a few of you play this tune...any more examples?

Bisbo

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Edited by - Bisbonian on 03/20/2010 11:02:54

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 03/20/2010:  11:41:09

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I'm sure your avatar can play this on the banjo! At least, it looks like the perfect tune for him. {You should post his version...even if may still be a bit sloppy. Then you can post your own "definitive" version later! }

banjo_brad - Posted - 03/20/2010:  13:16:51

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Great choice, Bisbo!!!!

We (TOTMC) played it last night, and I actually started to pick it up. Thanks for the tab, I'll use it to correct the spots I messed up. It'll be up on the webpage probably by the middle of the week. I've got the classics on the mountain banjo, and I use it now for my Double-D tuned tunes.

The CD from the Gu-Achi fiddlers is available on emusic, titled "Old Time O'Odham Fiddle Music."

[edit]Just checked the CD - Purple Lilies isn't on it, unfortunately. Still a great CD, and I'm looking for Big Jim's collection.

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Edited by - banjo_brad on 03/20/2010 16:37:23

tfaux - Posted - 03/20/2010:  13:48:24

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Great stuff, that chicken scratch. Thanks Bisbonian.

ramjo - Posted - 03/20/2010:  14:45:15

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Since I joined BHO I've often felt like I was back in grad school. I have learned so much about things I thought] I already knew (but realized I really didn't) and about things I had no idea I'd ever be interested in. A major contributor in many of these seminars has been Bisbonian, and I gotta say, thank you--you've done it again.

I'm an Northeasterner, and I thought I was learning about Southwestern music when I read Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford's book Border Radio a few years ago. But I don't recall they ever said you might hear some waila on the X.

Thanks again, Bisbonian. It gives me a good feeling whenever I hear how cultures weave themselves together using music and musicians as the threads.

tfaux - Posted - 03/20/2010:  15:30:49

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quote:

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Originally posted by ramjo


I'm an Northeasterner, and I thought I was learning about Southwestern music when I read Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford's book Border Radio a few years ago. But I don't recall they ever said you might hear some waila on the X.

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Chicken Scratch might not have been considered quite the right thing to entice those Minnesota farmers down into John Brinkley's surgical clutches. Now Maybelle Carter on the other hand...

maryzcox - Posted - 03/20/2010:  15:40:55

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Really nice tune. It's wonderful to hear a variety of traditional music from the Southwest. :)
Good job. :)
Mary Z. Cox
maryzcox.com

ramjo - Posted - 03/20/2010:  16:21:34

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Tfaux, if they were hip to Dr. Brinkley's surgery, wouldn't they have been making "goat scratch music"? Goat something music.

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Edited by - ramjo on 03/20/2010 16:46:21

LyleK - Posted - 03/20/2010:  18:37:40

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We play this one all the time in Illinois... NOT.

I took a quick stab at the tab, and came up with the following:

tabledit: hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...32010.tef

pdf: hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...32010.pdf

This is very skeletal; just enough to get the basic melody and rhythm.

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Edited by - LyleK on 03/20/2010 18:39:25

Bisbonian - Posted - 03/20/2010:  19:33:17

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quote:

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It gives me a good feeling whenever I hear how cultures weave themselves together using music and musicians as the threads.

--ramjo

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Yeah, isn't it great? I figure that's pretty much what "Old Time" music is all about.

Yep, that's the melody, exactly, Lyle. Of course, in double D, you can get a high and low part out of it, too. At least, someone who knew what they were doing, could. You'll see what I mean....

quote:

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{You should post his version...even if may still be a bit sloppy. Then you can post your own "definitive" version later! }

--Marc Nerenberg

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Okay, Marc, you asked for it. This is the worst video I have put up on YouTube...I just wasn't ready. But here it is. I had to cobble together the better bits into something that sounds like the tune: youtube.com/watch?v=vzvvjJyrQYo I KNOW there are better versions out there :)

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Edited by - Bisbonian on 03/20/2010 19:43:38

Dock Jekel - Posted - 03/20/2010:  21:20:38

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By God!... Billy Mathews just might get to 500!

J-Walk - Posted - 03/21/2010:  08:30:02

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Good choice, Bisbo. Everyone who hears this tune wants to learn it.

Here's a recording from a jam back in 2008.

I've gotten much better at it since then. I like to play the A part an octave higher, on the 1st and 2nd strings.

Bisbonian - Posted - 03/21/2010:  08:42:55

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Yeah, if you can make it through my YouTube video, I did the high A part, once.

I just watched it again, and it makes me wince. But I get a little better each time I play it, so I'll get a better version up there soon.

Your jam version, on the other hand, is great! Everybody...listen to J-Walk's jam version!

strokestyle - Posted - 03/21/2010:  09:47:41

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Nice tune! I enjoyed the block party. Now there's a neighborhood to live in! I have enjoyed all the versions. I want to thank all BHO'ers that contribute to the TOTW. I look forward to the next post every week. I thank all the instigators,contributors, and the whole bunch of you. We have such a rich community of banjo players building kinship's.

Dock, Billy Mathews will make his mark. Then comes the sequel "The Return of 500 More Fiddle Tunes".

ramjo - Posted - 03/21/2010:  12:09:04

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quote:

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Originally posted by Bisbonian

Yeah, if you can make it through my YouTube video, I did the high A part, once.

I just watched it again, and it makes me wince. But I get a little better each time I play it, so I'll get a better version up there soon.

Your jam version, on the other hand, is great! Everybody...listen to J-Walk's jam version!

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Good tip, Bisbonian. J-Walk's version is good, and so's yours. Did you check out the clip J-Walk refers to as "Lawrence Welk-ish" on his Comments page? Accordion and glockenspiel (well, "glass harp"). Imagine living in their apartment building. That's gotta be the high life.

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Edited by - ramjo on 03/21/2010 12:10:22

Bisbonian - Posted - 03/21/2010:  20:14:17

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I listened to it. There were bubbles coming out of my computer speakers :)

Here is a good link to the musical notation for Purple Lilies, posted previously on the BHO by Yigal Zan (.pdf) me.psu.edu/lamancusa/tunes/pur...ilies.pdf And, speakaing of Yigal Zan, Banjojudy posted this video of him and others playing the song: youtube.com/watch?v=vrp2Q95ZGEA . And finally, where would we be without a bodhran version? youtube.com/watch?v=QQ5Jyz7t19k

Edit Again: NOW it works! Thank you, Mirek. I fixed it above, too, so people won't go off into la la land.

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Edited by - Bisbonian on 03/22/2010 08:24:20

BANJOJUDY - Posted - 03/22/2010:  09:01:54

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quote:

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Originally posted by LyleK

We play this one all the time in Illinois... NOT.

I took a quick stab at the tab, and came up with the following:

tabledit: hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...32010.tef

pdf: hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...32010.pdf

This is very skeletal; just enough to get the basic melody and rhythm.

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When you visit me in April, Lyle, I hope Scott Mathis will come over and play Purple Lillies for you - in person. I thought I had put up Scott's video on youtube plaing the tune. I am out of town now - hard to get to the computer - did I?

BANJOJUDY - Posted - 03/22/2010:  09:08:16

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quote:

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Originally posted by BANJOJUDY

quote:

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Originally posted by LyleK

We play this one all the time in Illinois... NOT.

I took a quick stab at the tab, and came up with the following:

tabledit: hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...32010.tef

pdf: hangoutstorage.com/banjohangou...32010.pdf

This is very skeletal; just enough to get the basic melody and rhythm.

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When you visit me in April, Lyle, I hope Scott Mathis will come over and play Purple Lillies for you - in person. I thought I had put up Scott's video on youtube plaing the tune. I am out of town now - hard to get to the computer - did I?

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youtube.com/watch?v=vrp2Q95ZGEA - here is the link.