JanetB - Posted - 06/23/2017:  07:11:29

Maysville.  This is simply a sweet tune, sometimes called Road to Maysville.  I didn’t realize Road to Maysville had been covered on July 8, 2011 when asked to do an emergency back-up TOTW this past Wednesday.  If it’s not okay I’ll whip out another one this weekend. More information added to the original discussion thread should be interesting.

Maysville is currently the 40th largest city in Kentucky with things to do such as visit the National Underground Railroad Museum, the Washington Opera House, and bars such as Horseshoes and The Thirsty Beaver.  It's the seat of Mason County in Northeastern Kentucky on the Ohio River and was a site for trade in the tobacco industry a hundred years ago.  In the old-time music world Maysville is associated with a tune and its story, first told by Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley (1923 – 2010) and later popularized by John Hartford. 

It’s amusing to hear Hartford as he fiddles the tune first quickly and then slowly. He tells the story of J.P. Fraley’s father, Richard Fraley, driving the tobacco wagon with his son on board as they happily hauled a load for delivery and sale in Maysville on a wintery day.  Slowly describes the wagon ride home, as the “normally teetotalling Richard Fraley produced a pint of whiskey: ‘Take a nip of this, son, it’ll keep you warm.’  Just before they came into Hitchins, he flung the bottle away. ‘It’s good for the cold, but don’t tell your mother’” (as told in the liner notes in the CD called Maysville).

J.P. (Jesse Presley) Fraley lived to be 87 years old, retiring as a mining engineer, with his musically talented wife Annadeene.  They had eloped to Maysville, coincidentally, after J.P. returned from the army in 1946.  Together they hosted musical gatherings for nearly three decades. Learn more information about his life here.

I’m reminded by this tune’s story of the prominence of tobacco in our history and economy.  When on vacation “back east” I was surprised at how many people smoke.  Coming from California, I’ve had a different experience.  We have entire sections of cities designated as “smoke-free.”  Restaurants in the majority of states are now smoke-free, led by California in 1998.  I looked up tobacco in Kentucky and see that it’s still a piece of the overall economy. 

So it’s interesting to note that Richard Fraley was a farmer and that tobacco was an important cash crop for him.  Perhaps J.P. found the tobacco work to be drudgery, because he turned to other jobs when he grew up.  “We’d be out farming in the hot sun and I’d say, Daddy, if I could just work on that fiddle I believe I could play ‘Sally Goodin.’ And he’d reply, ‘Well, son, why don’t you go up to the house and try it?’  So I’d get out of a lot of hard work that way!”

All of their recordings, some including their daughter Danielle, appeal to me and they’re a never-ending source for “mining” to learn a good fiddle tune.  Many good anecdotes are described in the liner notes for the two CDs J.P. and Annadeene recorded, Maysville and Wild Rose of the Mountains.  A funny one in the Maysville CD tells in J.P.’s words about a fishing experience he had.  Though I won’t repeat it here, suffice it to say that the tale involves smoking cigarettes while witnessing the clever capers of a muskie fish and its squirrel victims. 

Hope you enjoy these versions of Maysville and give it a try in honor of TOTW.

Adam Hurt, Track 4:  store.cdbaby.com/cd/adamhurt5  (BTW, track 3 would be my second choice for TOTW)

BHO member trick420 (original poster of TOTW Road to Maysville): banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...;archived

BHO member Erich Schroeder (vrteach): banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...;archived

BHO member Carl Baron:  banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...;archived

BHO member Janet B (me) 3-finger picking: banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...;archived

Edited by - JanetB on 07/10/2017 22:30:58

Maysville (CH) tab

Maysville (TOTW)

jamesd - Posted - 06/23/2017:  11:25:23

Very good Janet,  These versions are all good listening.  And the history lessons you always give are very interesting.    Your version is also very nice.

Winged Words - Posted - 06/23/2017:  12:01:35

A jolly good read as ever Janet. A good listen too of course. My best beloved is out for the evening so a great chance to get to grips with a tab that rather stretched me. Pretty much got the notes though! Just got to make them into music.

Thanks.

cmic - Posted - 06/24/2017:  06:24:23

I remember this TOTW in 2011. Revival ? Why not.

I very like the rendition of "The Tallboys" ("project wrapped" up on their web site)

store.cdbaby.com/cd/tallboys2 tune #9

cheers

Tamarack - Posted - 06/24/2017:  19:45:27

Great tune worthy of a revival. Good at a moderate tempo -- not a Saturday night square dance tune, but perfect for Sunday afternoon on the back porch or a cold winter evening by the fireplace.

JanetB - Posted - 06/27/2017:  06:46:02

I'm glad some of us appreciate the beauty of a tune like Maysville.  As Don said, "it's not a Saturday night square dance tune, but perfect for Sunday afternoon on the back porch or a cold winter evening by the fireplace."  When I first learned it 3-finger picking I used open G tuning with a raised 5th string.  It wasn't as easy to play, but very pretty as a melody.  In the video I combined it in a medley with Sullivan's Hollow. These days I prefer to play it clawhammer style.  The other video was recorded by Banjo Judy and the group, Reed Island Rounders, had actually spent time with J.P. Fraley.  

Here in this link on Wayne Erben's site, Native Ground, you can read about a doctor, Daniel Drake, who grew up around Maysville in the late 1700's.  He describes how deer hunting was useful and one of its products was banjo strings!  Scroll down to the heading "Banjo in the Mountains."  nativeground.com/banjo-history...r-gibson/

Edited by - JanetB on 06/27/2017 06:47:41