A few months back, it was a great pleasure to meet Harry Bolick as he traveled through Tallahassee spreading some of the Mississippi tunes he's been collecting the last few years. I heard him in a very small house concert, where I purchased his very thick book Mississippi Fiddle Tunes And Songs from the 1930s. by Harry Bollick & Stephen T. Austin. After his presentation--he led a jam for everyone there and taught us several of the Mississippi tunes he collected. They were very beautiful & some of the standards were not at all arranged like the roundpeak & festival versions many of us are familiar with. In a way-some were almost crooked--but in the middle & still very melodic--rather than a crooked line tagged on at the ending.
He played a medley of his version of Peaches & Cream & White Hat with us & I think it was my favorite of the ones he played. I've picked "White Hat " for TOTW because although it was unusual--it was in D and was not crooked and works quite well as an old time dance tune.
In Harry's book, he placed White Hat in the tunes collected in 1936 from J.E. Shoemaker by Miss Olive Bryan. Its from Moss, Mississippi in Jasper Co.
It's the second tune in the medley :) This tune is also played on Harry's latest cd which is at this link.
And now I invite other tune of the weekers to add on anything additional you may know about this tune or videos of you playing it with Harry when he came through your town spreading this most wonderful and nearly forgotten collection from the WPA files. :)
Mary, these are a couple of really sweet tunes. A while back, someone on the Hangout asked for help with these tunes, and I wrote some tab for him. I later introduced them at my monthly jam. They are certainly not in the mainstream, as Harry points out, but it is wonderful that this WPA project and then Harry preserved these tunes along with other gems that I have not yet met. Maybe these tabs will help others.
The YouTube videos below are from a 2015 Brandywine workshop that Harry Bolick gave on these and other Mississippi tunes.
Thanks, Mary, you've done it again to choose a delightful tune worth learning about. I can imagine a Southern fiddler with a white hat...Thanks for the links and tab, too, David.
I tried looking up J.E. Shoemaker on ancestory.com, but I'm not a paying member so the information is limited. There are lots of Shoemakers from the right location (I asked for Moss, MS), but only a few with the initials J.E.
Here are Harry Bolick's comments about White Hat:
"J.E. Shoemaker is one of the mysteries in my book, Mississippi Fiddle Tunes and Songs from the 1930s (published by the Univ Press of Mississippi: google.com/url?hl=en&q=www...gDD09zy2A" href="http://www.harrybolick.com/mississippi-music" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">http://www.harrybolick.com/mississippi-music)
All I actually know is that the tune was collected in Jasper County MS, by Olive Bryan of Agricola MS in the summer of 1936 for the Federal Writers Project, part of the WPA. Was Shoemaker Male? Female? White? Afro-American? Native or just passing through?
Nothing. The documentation in 1936 was poor. All that we really have is the notation, which may or may not accurately reflect the perfomance by Shoemaker. But it's all we have and it's great. Some of his other tunes are also lovely.
Here's the tune on Youtube:google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DyP3vaVS8wJY%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&source=gmail&ust=1489346361941000&usg=AFQjCNGaLf23ntiDaFly-c0cXnx_z04XHw" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP3vaVS8wJY&feature=youtu.be" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP3vaVS8wJY&feature=youtu.be
Sincerely
Harry Bolick
google.com/url?hl=en&q=har...Cwwmlv8sA" href="http://harrybolick.com/" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">harrybolick.com for tour schedule
google.com/url?hl=en&q=mis...SVP9O9VLw" href="http://mississippifiddle.com/" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">mississippifiddle.com for more info"
Before we get too serious and historickey--lets have a little fun with this fine tune--like my big old cello banjo was wanting to give it a whirl too & whatsmore in Tallahassee :)
But my basset hound, Elvis, is from Louisville, Mississippi & he approves of playing around with Mississippi tunes in Florida
i confess that i was the one who asked David Brooks for a tab of "Sweet milk and Peaches," my favorite tune on the Harry Bolick and Miss. tunes cds. David is unfailingly generous and kind, and, like Janet Burton, is a terrific resource. The two tunes fit together so nicely it's also like one long tune. Still Sweet Milk is a hard tune--for me---to get. I thought the banjo player on the trio on youtube was terrific---wish i knew what he was doing.
Jim (Atleson), I should have taken the time to look through my email and given you credit for bringing these great tunes and Harry's work to my attention. Thanks for coming forward.
i confess that i was the one who asked David Brooks for a tab of "Sweet milk and Peaches," my favorite tune on the Harry Bolick and Miss. tunes cds. David is unfailingly generous and kind, and, like Janet Burton, is a terrific resource. The two tunes fit together so nicely it's also like one long tune. Still Sweet Milk is a hard tune--for me---to get. I thought the banjo player on the trio on youtube was terrific---wish i knew what he was doing.
Hi James
Here's something that might help you with Sweet Milk & peaches -there's about a one beat pause at the end of the 2nd A part . As Harry says "don't fall in the hole" haha:)
Cool tune, Mary. Really liking this trio, the Wahoo String Band (lots more here on youtube) youtube.com/channel/UCf3NhUTjY...MTjlENeGA. Banjo player does a wonderful job of supporting the fiddle with all sorts of cool little things going on. Not playing chords, not playing the melody, just playing neat stuff! And, this confirms my belief that the best bass for Old Time is the Cello, plucked or bowed. These three all have their space and nobody is playing on top of another, perfect.
Bill, I am with you on really liking the cello in old-time music. I always draw a near blank when I try to think of examples, but the Sparrow Quartet (ad Abigail Washburn and Ben Sollee together prior to Sparrow), Crooked Still and the Little Sparrows come to mind.
Not Old Time but look how much music they get out of just cello, one sparse banjo, voices, and finger snaps! Also a pretty creative way to play a cello, never seen that before.
Not Old Time but look how much music they get out of just cello, one sparse banjo, voices, and finger snaps! Also a pretty creative way to play a cello, never seen that before.
Hi! don't apologize to me--I'm only a volunteer this week--I think Brett Ridgeway is in charge of this thread--I was just supposed to introduce an old time tune that had not been on TOTW before. TOTW has been going so long now--that I really had to search to find a tune that had not been used before & I was lucky enough to learn a couple from Harry Bolick when he passed through town. :)
But you never know--YOYOMA might be reading this thread & maybe he'll contribute some cello for you :)
Just found your little gem hiding in my email. I usually pounce on TOTW as soon as it appears but for some reason this one almost got away. Enjoyed your post and although not being fiddr I thoroughly enjoyed the fiddle lessons by Harry Bolick.
