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EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/23/2013: 10:05:53
Today's Tune of the Week is Sally Coming Through the Rye, a central West Virginia tune that comes to us from a trio of Calhoun County fiddlers - Lester McCumbers, Harvey Sampson, and Ward Jarvis
LESTER, HARVEY & WARD
The tune first came to my attention just three weeks ago, at Clifftop, during a Masters Showcase with Lester McCumbers. I had seen Lester once before at Clifftop, and had added his two best known tunes - Yew Piney Mountain and Cherry River Line - to my repertoire. He of course played both of them again this year, but near the end of the showcase he played another tune that really caught my ear. I had missed its title, but after the show, Kim Johnson - who plays banjo with Lester - told me that it was Sally Coming Through the Rye. According to Kim, Lester, who was born in Calhoun County in 1921, learned the tune from his father, Henry Franklin McCumbers, who was born in 1877.
Lester is a very well known figure in the West Virginia old-time music community, and has been a fixture at Clifftop for many years (as was his wife Linda, until her death three years ago). There are several good online articles about Lester and his music, and instead of trying to summarize them here I will just provide the links:
Lester McCumbers (photo courtesy of the
WV Division of Culture and History)
A second, slightly earlier, source for the tune is Harvey Sampson (1909-1991), who was born in Clay County but by his twenties had moved to Calhoun County. He is also said to have learned it from his father, David A. Sampson, who was born in 1866.
Harvey started accompanying his fiddle-playing father and brother on the banjo at age 8. He didn't take up the fiddle himself until in his 30s, and didn't garner much attention for his fiddling until almost 70, when he started playing with Frank George and other well-known local musicians. In the mid-1980s, under the auspices of the Augusta Heritage Center, he formed the Big Possum String Band, whose mission it was to preserve the old central West Virginia tunes and fiddling styles.
Sally Coming Through the Rye was also in the repertoire of an even older fiddler, Ward Jarvis (1894-1982), who was born in Braxton County, West Virginia, moved as a young man to Calhoun County, and lived the latter part of his life in Athens, Ohio. His father, James, was born in 1856, but there is no indication that he was a fiddler or that Ward learned the tune from him. He may, however, have learned it from Henry Franklin McCumbers. According to Kim Johnson "Ward Jarvis lived pretty close to the McCumbers family and Lester thinks Ward might have learned it from his dad."
Ward Jarvis at his home in Athens County, Ohio
(photo courtesy of Kerry Blech)
During his later years in Athens, Ward was visited and recorded by a number of young musicians and field recorders. Among them was Kerry Blech, who remembers Ward playing Sally Coming Through the Rye.
Kerry recalls "I went down to Athens County to visit Ward Jarvis a few times in the mid-1970s, recording him on two occasions. I learned "Sally Coming Through the Rye" from Ward in person. I don't recall if Ward said where he learned it, and if he did, I don't remember. Ward, in his youth, played back-up banjo for most of the well-known fiddlers of the era. He told me that he often was contacted to play a dance or schoolhouse concert with the likes of Ed Haley and Jack McElwain and others of note. I'd like to thing that "Sally Coming Through the Rye" came from one of those guys, but it does not sound like something that might have come from Haley, but it may well have been a McElwain tune, as he was better known as a source for spooky tunes than Haley was."
Another possible source for the tune is Frank Santy. Fiddler Brooks Hardway (1907-1993) recalled, in a 1988 interview with Gerry Milnes, that "Ward Jarvis was one of the best. He played the banjo for a while while he was a young man. And Ward Jarvis played the banjo with Frank Santy and then he got to picking Frank’s fiddle up and he learned to play that fiddle and he got better than Frank was. Frank got jealous of him and dropped him.” According to Milnes, several members of Brooks’ maternal family, the Santys, were important figures in the musical history of Calhoun County, with Frank Santy in particular being a very influential fiddler.
Whatever the ultimate source or sources for Sally Coming Through the Rye, we can assume that it was a popular fiddle tune in Calhoun County and the surrounding region at the turn of the last century.
AUDIO & VIDEO - SOURCE MUSICIANS
Lester McCumbers and his wife Linda included Sally Coming Through the Rye on their 2002 CD "Old Timey: Tunes of Central West Virginia", and they perform it on the Augusta Heritage documentary DVD "That Old Time Sound". The DVD is available from Augusta and County Sales, but as far as I know the CD is available only from Lester himself.
There are two YouTube videos of Lester playing Sally Coming Through the Rye.
Harvey Sampson and the Big Possum String Band included the tune on their 1986 album "Flat Foot in the Ashes", released by the Augusta Heritage Center. As far as I can tell, that record is long out of print and no longer available anywhere.
Augusta Heritage's "Fiddlers of Braxton County" CD - a collection of tunes from ten West Virginia fiddlers, including Harvey Sampson and Ward Jarvis - contains
Sally Coming Through the Rye, but without reading the liner notes it is unclear exactly which musician recorded the album's version of the tune:
tinyurl.com/mz4tqw5
Ward Jarvis was recorded in his home by Jeff Goehring in 1977, and many of those tracks were released in 2009 by The Field Recorders Collective. Sally Coming Through the Rye is, unfortunately, not among them, since the copy of the tune obtained by the FRC was several generations removed from the original tape and thus of relatively poor quality. However, Kerry Blech kindly provided me with an MP3 file of Ward playing Sally Coming Through the Rye (although, as he pointed out, it, too, is a ways down the tape-dub line and not the best quality). Jeff's Goehring's voice is heard at the end of the track. The banjo player is either Jeff, his brother Rick, or perhaps Dana Loomis, an Athens native who brought Ward to the attention of many of the younger musicians who went on to learn from and record him.
AUDIO AND VIDEO - RECENT VERSIONS
Streak O' Lean, a Florida-based old-time band consisting of Kerry Blech, Bob Lanham, and Susan Staton:
Gerry Milnes and Lorraine Lee Hammond, on their 1999 album "Hell Up Coal Holler":
tinyurl.com/n5vpxg4
Mike Gangloff, solo 'psychedelic' fiddle, on his 2013 album "Poplar Hollow":
tinyurl.com/p3r5xq2
Instructional versions. I could find no banjo tablature for the tune, but did come across two YouTube videos by Carl Jones that teach the tune by providing close-up views of the left hand playing it at a slow speed:
KEYS AND TUNINGS
As those two videos suggest, Sally Coming Through the Rye has traditionally been played in various keys and tunings. As Kerry Blech explains "Ward Jarvis played it in the key of A (or A modal, I guess), in both standard tuning on the fiddle and in AEAE tuning. I heard him play it once on banjo, in aEADE tuning, but did not have a recording device with me at the time... I heard Harvey Sampson play it once or twice, and have his recording and some informal recordings of him that folks have given me or that I got from the WVU archives. I believe he fiddled it in the key of A (or A modal). I seem to recall he played it in AEAE (or down low, in GDGD, which was more likely), but Clare Milliner and Walt Koken stated in their notes to their tune book that it was ADAE (low to high strings)... I've also heard Lester McCumbers play it numerous times. I am not sure what key he feels he plays it in but his accompanists seem to back it up in the key of C, and I know that Dave Bing and Gerry Milnes insist on playing it in the key of C, but to me it is an A modal tune." (Kim Johnson confirmed that Lester does indeed play the tune in C.)
The Fiddler's Companion adds the following information: "Old-Time, Breakdown. USA , West Virginia . A Dorian or A Mixolydian. AEae or DGdg (Harvey Sampson) tunings. ABB. The 'A' part is irregular in form while the tonality may vary between Mixolydian and Dorian, meaning the accompanying ‘A’ chords can be either minor or major."
THANKS
I want to thank Kim Johnson and Kerry Blech for the assistance they gave me with this Tune of the Week write-up (and Bob Lanham for pointing me to Kerry). Kerry generously responded to my initial inquiry about Ward Jarvis and Sally Coming Through the Rye with a great deal of information not only about Ward and the tune, but also about old-time music and musicians from Ohio and elsewhere in the Midwest (much of which will find its way into future Tunes of the Week). I greatly appreciate his willingness to share his knowledge and resources with me.
Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 09/10/2013 13:33:05
RG - Posted - 08/23/2013: 10:08:16
GREAT tune, awesome TOTW!
Bill - Posted - 08/23/2013: 14:31:44
And here's a tab that comes somewhere near to the way I play the tune mostly. I learned the tune from Dave Bing and simplified it a bit to match my lesser skill.
The tab is a .jpg. I don't know how to make a jpg show up here, but when you follow the link, just click on the photo to enlarge it to where you can read the tab.
banjohangout.org/photo/161945
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/23/2013: 16:12:32
quote:
Originally posted by RG
GREAT tune, awesome TOTW!
Thanks RG - glad you are enjoying the tune.
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/23/2013: 16:14:26
quote:
Originally posted by stevel
never heard of this one before, but ABC notation can be found here:
ibiblio.org/fiddlers/SALLY_SALV.htm
Thanks Steve - I had forgotten to even check The Fiddlers Companion before posting. I have added a bit of info from it to the TOTW post.
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/23/2013: 16:15:39
quote:
Originally posted by Bill
And here's a tab that comes somewhere near to the way I play the tune mostly. I learned the tune from Dave Bing and simplified it a bit to match my lesser skill.
The tab is a .jpg. I don't know how to make a jpg show up here, but when you follow the link, just click on the photo to enlarge it to where you can read the tab.
banjohangout.org/photo/161945
Glad you are enjoying the tune, Bill. Thanks for your own (non-feeble) version, and for the tab.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 08/24/2013: 14:21:45
Very fine TOTW essay. It unfolds in layers and keeps on giving. Thanks for your hard work on this.
Just a few gratuitous notes, almost connected to the subject at hand.
Jake was just a kid when the New York Times article that you highlighted was written. I saw him about that time in a concert he did at the Millenium Stage of the Kennedy Center in DC. He was just a boy, but he carried these tunes off powerfully, and was serious minded about his work.
I’ve seen Kim Johnson playing banjo behind some old fiddlers, including a performance or two at some Washington DC Smithsonian summer folk festival gigs. She is a really squared away banjo player, and she’s inclined to be very helpful to players asking questions about tunes and such. These two You Tube videos, probably separated by some years, shows how she can be extraordinarily sensitive to the fiddler, changing her pace with the tune as Lester aged.
I attended a workshop Diane Jones did in northern VA some years ago, and hosted Diane and her band in our home in Arlington for house concerts once or twice. She’s a powerful player, very articulate in her noting, with a preference for playing out of full chord positions on fretted instruments. Her fretless approach has great clarity. I remember her marveling about how she found wide-ranging possibilities while sliding into notes on a fretless. She does the job in the You Tube video you have anchored to your essay. Diane introduced me to the miracle of A Scale banjos, long her preference.
Don’t know Carl Jones but he sure seems to be a great teacher, very lucid in his fingerings, and clear in his noting. Both versions that you linked to your essay are worth listening to. I gotta look for more of his music.
I thought I could take this all in this afternoon, but I can see I’ll be dwelling on what you have to say, and the tune versions you’ve found for us, for most of this weekend, and the rest of this TOTW cycle -- until the next one comes up.
Thanks. Here's my contribution to the effort:
Play hard,
Lew
JanetB - Posted - 08/24/2013: 18:00:49
Great pick! Great picking, too. I got excited when I saw that Carl Jones had a video "tutorial," so I based my version on his. He's played with Beverly Smith and with my favorite fiddler, James Bryan, and you can always feel his enjoyment for the music. I've heard of Lester McCumber several times now and was glad to know that he performed recently and his music is being passed on.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 08/25/2013: 04:51:45
Very sweet playing. Like raindrops on a rooftop.
What banjo are you playing, Janet?
JanetB - Posted - 08/26/2013: 06:29:15
Thanks, Lew. Here's an MP3 and tab based on Carl Jones' video. I'm playing a Mac Traynham Whyte Laydie in modal tuning. This is such a beautiful tune and reminds me of another TOTW--Little Rose is Gone. Sally Coming Through the Rye has a couple of crooked measures in this version which I couldn't find until I tabbed it. I haven't checked the original sources to see if they're also crooked. Perhaps someone else knows.
crownkingaz - Posted - 08/26/2013: 17:05:51
Janet, I really enjoyed your YouTube performance of Sally Coming Through The Rye. You really capture the syncopated beauty of this tune. It sounds right at home on the the clawhammer banjo. I have been working on the tune this afternoon. Thanks for your post.
Jay K - Posted - 08/27/2013: 06:16:14
Yes, loved Janet's beautiful version, and really liked Hungry Joe from Denmark. Will look for more from them. Great TOTW, thanks!
csbdr - Posted - 08/27/2013: 14:34:21
awesome! I've been in love with this tune since I heard it on Rayna Gellerts "Ways of the World"
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/27/2013: 15:15:10
quote:
Originally posted by Brooklynbanjoboy
Very fine TOTW essay. It unfolds in layers and keeps on giving. Thanks for your hard work on this.
Just a few gratuitous notes, almost connected to the subject at hand.
Jake was just a kid when the New York Times article that you highlighted was written. I saw him about that time in a concert he did at the Millenium Stage of the Kennedy Center in DC. He was just a boy, but he carried these tunes off powerfully, and was serious minded about his work.
I’ve seen Kim Johnson playing banjo behind some old fiddlers, including a performance or two at some Washington DC Smithsonian summer folk festival gigs. She is a really squared away banjo player, and she’s inclined to be very helpful to players asking questions about tunes and such. These two You Tube videos, probably separated by some years, shows how she can be extraordinarily sensitive to the fiddler, changing her pace with the tune as Lester aged.
I attended a workshop Diane Jones did in northern VA some years ago, and hosted Diane and her band in our home in Arlington for house concerts once or twice. She’s a powerful player, very articulate in her noting, with a preference for playing out of full chord positions on fretted instruments. Her fretless approach has great clarity. I remember her marveling about how she found wide-ranging possibilities while sliding into notes on a fretless. She does the job in the You Tube video you have anchored to your essay. Diane introduced me to the miracle of A Scale banjos, long her preference.
Don’t know Carl Jones but he sure seems to be a great teacher, very lucid in his fingerings, and clear in his noting. Both versions that you linked to your essay are worth listening to. I gotta look for more of his music.
I thought I could take this all in this afternoon, but I can see I’ll be dwelling on what you have to say, and the tune versions you’ve found for us, for most of this weekend, and the rest of this TOTW cycle -- until the next one comes up.
Thanks. Here's my contribution to the effort:
Play hard,
Lew
Thanks for the kind words, Lew - I'm glad you enjoyed this TOTW.
Thanks also for your detailed reply. I met Jake Krack at Clifftop earlier this month, at his Krack's Fiddle Shop booth. I was looking at a book he had for sale, "Passing the Music Down", by Sarah Sullivan, which is based upon Jake's learning to play old-time fiddle from Melvin Wine. I lived in the D.C. area from 1991 to 2008 and attended many Millennium Stage shows, but missed Jake's appearance.
During those years I also regularly attended a house concert series in Northern Virginia, but it concentrated mostly on bluegrass. I really enjoyed Diane Jones' banjo contest performance at Clifftop this year - she was one of the players about whom I thought "that's the sound I am after". I kept an eye out for her the rest of the festival, so I could tell her that and maybe ask a question or two, but I never ran into her. Maybe I can get to one of her workshops someday, if she still does them.
And, at the risk of sounding very repetitious, I also attended the Smithsonian Folklife Festival every summer. One of my favorites was 2003(?), when they highlighted Appalachian music - I saw Will Keys, Dwight Diller, Joe Thompson, and lots of other great musicians. Kim Johnson may well have been there - I was very new to the music then and couldn't really keep all the names straight.
Thanks very much for contributing your version - I've enjoyed listening to and studying it.
Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 08/27/2013 15:15:57
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/27/2013: 15:21:17
quote:
Originally posted by JanetB
Great pick! Great picking, too. I got excited when I saw that Carl Jones had a video "tutorial," so I based my version on his. He's played with Beverly Smith and with my favorite fiddler, James Bryan, and you can always feel his enjoyment for the music. I've heard of Lester McCumber several times now and was glad to know that he performed recently and his music is being passed on.
Thanks, Janet. Glad you like it.
Thanks also for contributing your take on the tune.
I was not familiar with James Bryan, but have now looked him up and am very much enjoying him music.
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/27/2013: 15:26:10
quote:
Originally posted by Jay K
Yes, loved Janet's beautiful version, and really liked Hungry Joe from Denmark. Will look for more from them. Great TOTW, thanks!
You've most likely already found it, but Hungry Joe also has a fiddle/guitar version of Sally Coming Through the Rye posted: youtube.com/watch?v=4wjaUdYbK50
Glad you like the tune!
Edited by - EggerRidgeBoy on 08/27/2013 15:27:03
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 08/27/2013: 15:31:44
quote:
Originally posted by csbdr
awesome! I've been in love with this tune since I heard it on Rayna Gellerts "Ways of the World"
I had forgotten that Sally Coming Through the Rye is on that CD, which I bought at an Uncle Earl show about seven years ago. It's a great record - thanks for the reminder to dig it out of my archives and put it back into rotation!
Jay K - Posted - 08/28/2013: 20:54:44
quote:
Originally posted by EggerRidgeBoy
quote:
Originally posted by Jay K
Yes, loved Janet's beautiful version, and really liked Hungry Joe from Denmark. Will look for more from them. Great TOTW, thanks!
You've most likely already found it, but Hungry Joe also has a fiddle/guitar version of Sally Coming Through the Rye posted: youtube.com/watch?v=4wjaUdYbK50
Glad you like the tune!
No, hadn't heard that, they really have a nice sound. Thanks again!
Edited by - Jay K on 08/28/2013 21:10:08
Jay K - Posted - 08/28/2013: 21:11:59
Wow, sorry I so badly messed up my above reply!
grumpsie - Posted - 08/29/2013: 02:53:21
Hi all, I don't participate in the TOTW yet, just want to plug this for a great version of this tune to play along with (no banjo on the recording):
blackestrainbowrecords.bandcam...h-the-rye
that album is great!
blanham - Posted - 08/29/2013: 17:39:31
GREAT TOTW! Thanks for all the information - I learned a lot, and enjoyed all the contributions.
PIME - Posted - 08/30/2013: 15:41:44
just catching up with this TOTW - what interesting history you shared!
crownkingaz - Posted - 09/09/2013: 14:49:58
This is my first post of my video performance to Banjo Hangout. I learned the tune from the prior posts and developed a style that works with my new Mountain Banjo. I am excited about joining this discussion among such talented and knowledgeable folks. It seems that I am using a slower tempo than some of the other players. I am playing an up-picking style for this tune. I alternate between clawhammer and up-picking depending on the situation. That is probable related to my 40 years of guitar fingerpicking coming through.
Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 09/09/2013: 15:18:33
Bob,
That banjo mikes up nicely. I liked your version. You make good use of the space between notes. Thanks for sharing.
Lew
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 09/10/2013: 13:12:22
quote:
Originally posted by blanham
GREAT TOTW! Thanks for all the information - I learned a lot, and enjoyed all the contributions.
Thanks Bob - glad you enjoyed it.
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 09/10/2013: 13:13:58
quote:
Originally posted by PIME
just catching up with this TOTW - what interesting history you shared!
Glad to hear that you found it interesting, PIME.
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 09/10/2013: 13:15:34
quote:
Originally posted by crownkingaz
This is my first post of my video performance to Banjo Hangout. I learned the tune from the prior posts and developed a style that works with my new Mountain Banjo. I am excited about joining this discussion among such talented and knowledgeable folks. It seems that I am using a slower tempo than some of the other players. I am playing an up-picking style for this tune. I alternate between clawhammer and up-picking depending on the situation. That is probable related to my 40 years of guitar fingerpicking coming through.
Thanks for posting your version, Bob - it sounded great, and it's always good to get a lot of different interpretations.
EggerRidgeBoy - Posted - 09/10/2013: 13:21:05
quote:
Originally posted by grumpsie
Hi all, I don't participate in the TOTW yet, just want to plug this for a great version of this tune to play along with (no banjo on the recording):
blackestrainbowrecords.bandcam...h-the-rye
that album is great!
Thanks Jan - that is definitely one version of the tune that I didn't know about. It sounds like an interesting album.
