blockader - Posted - 12/20/2013:  06:14:37

This is one of my favorite tunes from one of my favorite fiddlers, Jim Bowles of Monroe County in south central Kentucky. I'll always be indebted to David Bragger for introducing me to Bowles' music! 'Christmas Eve' was a common tune in the immediate area and Bruce Greene considered it to date to before the Civil War. One earlier fiddler to play it was Gilbert Maxey, about whom Bowles shared an anecdote his mother told,

“"He was an old colored man, and they had him playing for those old dances. ‘What’s that, Uncle Gilbert?’ ‘Christmas Eve," he’d say. ‘Well, by God, can’t you play nothing but ‘Christmas Eve’?’ So he’d start on the same tune. And she said he’d play the same tune every time. It was the only one he knew. ‘Christmas Eve’ was the best dancing tune in the world, and he could play it, she said. That’s been ninety years ago.”

That is from The Old-Time Fiddlers Hall of Fame website, where you will find some  more info on Jim Bowles.   oldtimemusic.com/FHOFBowles.html

My take away from that passage is that this tune is so good and accommodates such endless rhythmic variations, that while they teased Mr. Maxey about playing it all the time, they sure didn’t tell him to stop!

Here is Jim Bowles himself: slippery-hill.com/M-K/ADAE/Chr...owles.mp3

Be careful, this tune is addictive!

'Christmas Eve' is played out of D tuning (High Bass tuning) on the fiddle but Bowles played it, and a lot of other tunes, with his fiddle tuned a step and a half low (FBFC#) putting it in B. Neither my fiddle nor my A-scale banjo like to go that low so my examples are just one step low (GCGD and gCGCE respectively). It works fine in standard pitch as well, which is how I fiddle it in groups setting.

That being said, it really is perfect in B and this would be a great chance for all you folks with low tuned banjos to give them a workout and post some videos/soundfiles!

The tune structure used by Bowles is AABBBBB, that extra B part is crucial in my opinion. We did square it up and play it for a dance a couple months ago and it went over great.

The African American group Gribble, Lusk, and York also have a great version, a sample of which can be heard here:

mp3fiesta.com/christmas_eve_mu...ck779821/

And Isham Monday recorded a version that is fairly similar:

slippery-hill.com/M-K/ADAE/Chr...onday.mp3

Personally, I learned the tune on fiddle from this workshop recording from the eminent David Bragger (lots of other good info there as well):

folkworks.org/columns/old-time...wled-over

But the recording doesn’t seem to be working there right now, so try this one:

sausagegrindermusic.com/2011/0...m-bowles/

I’d never tried 'Christmas Eve' on banjo till last week, and found it a bit tougher than usual to pick it up (I used the Jim Bowles recording), but my banjoing is admittedly a bit *ahem* rusty. It’s a lot of fun to play on banjo and you can get pretty wild on the low part with either instrument.

Here is Nick Bachman and friends wearin it out:

youtu.be/NdkUA8b0zxM

And here is Carter Bancroft really swingin it on solo fiddle:

youtu.be/4U0PAB3bgRg

And here are mine, can’t wait to see what y’all come up with!

Edited by - blockader on 12/20/2013 06:19:41

VIDEO: Christmas Eve - Fiddle (click to view)

VIDEO: Christmas Eve - Banjo (click to view)

Dale Morris - Posted - 12/20/2013:  06:36:22

It is surely a great tune. Our group, the Wolfe Bros., recorded it on our 2001-An Old Time Odyssey cd (Copper Creek label). Since our guitar player, Casey Hash, wrote some lyrics for it, we titled it "On Christmas Eve".

Dale Morris

wolfebrothers.blogspot.com

mworden - Posted - 12/20/2013:  12:10:45

That's a good tune.  I learned a version from Gribble, Lusk and York that they called "Apple Blossom" on the album "Altamont: Black Stringband Music" (which is a fantastic record, if you can find it).  You can hear that version on the Slippery Hill site: slippery-hill.com/M-K/ADAE/App...-Lusk.mp3.  It sounds very like the Gribble et al recording you posted a link to.  Bruce Molsky also does it as Apple Blossom on his "Warring Cats" album.   I am not 100% certain it is the same tune but, if not, it's extremely close.

the goodhand - Posted - 12/20/2013:  12:53:35

Nice tune

i learned it from John Grimm on a workshop

very nice played by John

steven

janolov - Posted - 12/20/2013:  13:23:20

My first thought after trying to play this was that the low parts are a challenge! When trying to follow the fiddle (I am listening to Jim Bowles) the low parts (the second and the third parts) go below the range of the fourth string. But when playing an octave higher than the fiddle I think that the "low part feeling" is lost - and when playing it low I can not get all low notes. For the moment I am trying to to find a compromise - playing the low notes when possible but going upwards when necessary.

blockader - Posted - 12/20/2013:  14:06:34

To clarify, there aren't generally considered to be two distinct low parts, Jim Bowles just uses a detached bowing (that i can't really do yet) for the last 2 or (usually) 3 measures of the low part. Which does make it sound a bit different, but not different enough to be considered a separate part rather than just a variation in the minds of most fiddlers. This gray zone between variation and separate part comes up a lot in his playing, and its up to the modern player to decide really. Check out his 'Calico' for another example, one i think goes the other way myself. 

Of course, you can interpret it as a 3 part tune if you choose to! If i could pull off that detached bowing you might even convince me!

as far as following the fiddle part exactly, I guess you could tune your 4th string down to F, which is where the fiddle's low string is.  Matching the fiddle exactly isn't how i approach the banjo personally, but i think that could be pretty awesome. Good luck! 

blockader - Posted - 12/21/2013:  17:43:37

Doug Dorschug (of Highwoods fame) over at the Fiddle Hangout kindly pointed another recording of Jim Bowles playing this tune, solo fiddle. Heres the link:

cdm15131.contentdm.oclc.org/cd...10/rec/12