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JanetB - Posted - 06/18/2021: 07:36:45
When I first heard Hollow Poplar, it gave me a happy, nostalgic feeling. It’s an old tune that can be played fast or slow and still appeal. I heard the slow, pretty banjo version and decided to investigate. The first recording appears to be Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith. He plays it at a fast tempo. But listen to Hilarie Burhans’ video lesson at a slower tempo and hear what a pretty tune it can be.
Hollow Poplar has been recorded from Georgia to Missouri, from Washington state to Kentucky. Arthur Smith was from Tennessee and played it since the 1920’s, but didn’t record it until the 1950’s with the McGee brothers. It was said by his grandson, Earnest Smith, (see the Traditional Tune Archive) that the tune was the very first one Smith played on the Grand Old Opry in 1928 and that it remained his favorite.
The life story of Arthur Smith is well told in Charles Wolfe’s book The Devil’s Box, Masters of Southern Fiddling. Born in 1898 and raised on a farm, his father died when he was very young and working on the farm kept him from attaining an education beyond fifth grade. He got his first fiddle as a child when his mother sold enough chickens to buy him a Sears fiddle for $6.50 from a neighbor who claimed he had been offered $500 for the fiddle. Arthur was skillful and his style eventually influenced many, with its longbow, clear noting style. He married young and raised children, getting work on a railroad line. Through his work he knew Harry Stone, eventually the manager of the Grand Old Opry, where Arthur got regular work – solo fiddling first, then with his cousin Homer Smith, later with the Delmore Brothers and Kirk and Sam McGee and finally had his own band, the Dixieliners (named for the railroad line).
Back in 2009 Hollow Poplar was covered as a TOTW in 2009 and had a neat photo, now missing, of a huge hollow poplar. I found one that suffices, but not nearly as large as I read it can be. The photo was taken on the Boogerman Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, located in Tennessee and North Carolina, the states where Arthur Smith was first born and later resided in. I learned that the cottonwood is one of the trees in the poplar family. We have a voluntary one that has become the tallest tree in our front yard. Poplar is fast-growing and useful in various ways. Read more here: Poplar facts and anecdotes, including the fact that President Thomas Jefferson grew tulip poplars which grew so large they framed his house.
I recorded this over a year ago, thinking it would make a good re-visit for a TOTW. Yesterday I re-recorded it and found that I still play it much the same way, with just a bit of differences. Hollow Poplar should go on my short list of tunes played over and over again, as per advice Dwight Diller once gave -- to play just a few tunes (perhaps twenty as opposed to hundreds), over and over again, to more internalize them and make them our own. Actually, I'm still working on achieving that level of familiarity and competency for Hollow Poplar. One thing I play differently now is the open G chord in the first measure. In the tab there's a hammer-on and sometimes I avoid it and just begin on a G chord using the third fret, second string. It goes to show that tab is a guideline and doesn't need strict adherence. Tab is an important memory aid for some of us, as well as a learning tool.
Enjoy these recordings by some well-known old-time musicians.
Arthur Smith on the Slippery Hill site
Steve Jones with guitar accompaniment on BHO
Rhys Jones and Joel Wennerstrom
Courtesy of tripadvisor.com
Edited by - JanetB on 06/18/2021 07:40:04
Jack Baker - Posted - 06/19/2021: 13:51:00
quote:
Originally posted by JanetBWhen I first heard Hollow Poplar, it gave me a happy, nostalgic feeling. It’s an old tune that can be played fast or slow and still appeal. I heard the slow, pretty banjo version and decided to investigate. The first recording appears to be Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith. He plays it at a fast tempo. But listen to Hilarie Burhans’ video lesson at a slower tempo and hear what a pretty tune it can be.
Hollow Poplar has been recorded from Georgia to Missouri, from Washington state to Kentucky. Arthur Smith was from Tennessee and played it since the 1920’s, but didn’t record it until the 1950’s with the McGee brothers. It was said by his grandson, Earnest Smith, (see the Traditional Tune Archive) that the tune was the very first one Smith played on the Grand Old Opry in 1928 and that it remained his favorite.
The life story of Arthur Smith is well told in Charles Wolfe’s book The Devil’s Box, Masters of Southern Fiddling. Born in 1898 and raised on a farm, his father died when he was very young and working on the farm kept him from attaining an education beyond fifth grade. He got his first fiddle as a child when his mother sold enough chickens to buy him a Sears fiddle for $6.50 from a neighbor who claimed he had been offered $500 for the fiddle. Arthur was skillful and his style eventually influenced many, with its longbow, clear noting style. He married young and raised children, getting work on a railroad line. Through his work he knew Harry Stone, eventually the manager of the Grand Old Opry, where Arthur got regular work – solo fiddling first, then with his cousin Homer Smith, later with the Delmore Brothers and Kirk and Sam McGee and finally had his own band, the Dixieliners (named for the railroad line).
Back in 2009 Hollow Poplar was covered as a TOTW in 2009 and had a neat photo, now missing, of a huge hollow poplar. I found one that suffices, but not nearly as large as I read it can be. The photo was taken on the Boogerman Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, located in Tennessee and North Carolina, the states where Arthur Smith was first born and later resided in. I learned that the cottonwood is one of the trees in the poplar family. We have a voluntary one that has become the tallest tree in our front yard. Poplar is fast-growing and useful in various ways. Read more here: Poplar facts and anecdotes, including the fact that President Thomas Jefferson grew tulip poplars which grew so large they framed his house.
I recorded this over a year ago, thinking it would make a good re-visit for a TOTW. Yesterday I re-recorded it and found that I still play it much the same way, with just a bit of differences. Hollow Poplar should go on my short list of tunes played over and over again, as per advice Dwight Diller once gave -- to play just a few tunes (perhaps twenty as opposed to hundreds), over and over again, to more internalize them and make them our own. Actually, I'm still working on achieving that level of familiarity and competency for Hollow Poplar. One thing I play differently now is the open G chord in the first measure. In the tab there's a hammer-on and sometimes I avoid it and just begin on a G chord using the third fret, second string. It goes to show that tab is a guideline and doesn't need strict adherence. Tab is an important memory aid for some of us, as well as a learning tool.
Enjoy these recordings by some well-known old-time musicians.
Arthur Smith on the Slippery Hill site
Steve Jones with guitar accompaniment on BHO
Rhys Jones and Joel Wennerstrom
Courtesy of tripadvisor.com
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