aschweigert - Posted - 09/04/2020:  06:17:37

Hello again!

Honestly this pandemic mess has kind of put a major damper on my musical activity. But Janet reminded me that I signed up to share something this week and having moved to Pittsburgh now I felt like I needed to be here to represent southwestern Pennsylvania.

So, I give you this week's tune of the week: The Carrolltown Breakdown.

No source recordings that I know of, but this appears in print in Samuel Bayard's "Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife" as #336. I'm attaching photos of the pages so you can see the source for yourselves.

It's in standard G tuning.

Bayard has 9 sources for this tune collected between the 1930s and 1950s in primarily Indiana county but also Westmoreland, Armstrong, Jefferson and Greene counties. Oddly, Carrolltown is in Cambria county but he has no sources from there (if anyone can solve this mystery for me, let me know).

Carrolltown is a nice town, I'll attach a picture.

The version of the tune I'm playing is closest to his first source, Harmon McCullough, who was 40 years old and living in Clymer, PA (Indiana county) when the tune was collected in 1959.

Bayard says this was a very popular dance tune at the time and is likely a local/regional variation of Buffalo Gals (If you know that tune you can probably hear the similarity). He says the tune is also sometimes known as Shaddighee or Silver Lake.

Not a lot of recordings for you, unfortunately.

Here's a quick one I made (sorry for the flubs, like I said, haven't been playing much):
youtube.com/watch?v=KDsa0FAh3pQ
Also uploading a tab of roughly the version I figured out.

Mark Tamsula, a fiddle player who also lives here in Pittsburgh and has done a lot of research and recording of fiddle tunes from SW PA has it on one of his CDs: appalachianmusic.net/store/ind...;path=71.

If you know of others, let me know.

Looking forward to hearing your takes on it!

VIDEO: Carrolltown Breakdown - Clawhammer Banjo
(click to view)

Bayard - Carrolltown Breakdown 1

Bayard - Carrolltown Breakdown 2

Carrolltown

Carrolltown Breakdown - clawhammer banjo tab

 

carlb - Posted - 09/04/2020:  10:02:43

I've uploaded a fiddle version from a CD of Pennsylvania Fiddlers that was gifted to me many years ago.

Harry "Tink" Queer, Ligonier, PA

Edited by - carlb on 09/04/2020 10:04:11

Carrolltown Breakdown - Harry _Tink_ Queer

 

JanetB - Posted - 09/05/2020:  14:53:46

Thanks for coming through, Adam.  Those are all nice versions to hear and learn from.  The one Carl provided was recorded by Sam Bayard, too, and included in his notated transcriptions.  On my laptop I have an MP3 of another of the original Bayard recordings by fiddler Wilbur V. Neal, who was "elderly in the 1950's."  My arrangement first uses that version, then I listened to Mark Tamsula and Richard Withers, with their distinctive syncopation, and lastly tacked on a bit of the traditional Buffalo Gals, which helped me relate to Carrolltown Breakdown.  I'm glad, as you must be, to have access to the book Dance to the Fiddle and March to the Fife, Instrumental Folk Tunes in Pennsylvania by Samuel Bayard-- it has a wealth of musical notation and information.  He was truly a dedicated professor and musicologist.

Carrolltown Breakdown (TOTW)

Carrolltown Breakdown (2 versions)(CH) tab