|
Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/383180
Stephen Rapp - Posted - 05/13/2022: 04:39:47
This week’s TOTW is Love Somebody from Marion Thede’s The Fiddle Book. The Thede collection of fiddle tunes wasn’t published until 1967, but she collected these tunes in the 1930s. So many of these tunes are from older sources than we often find in fiddle tune collections.
Paul Kirk Jr. who plays fiddle in this video has probably recorded more Thede tunes than anyone else. He has worked with Larry Warren over the last year or so to create an archive of these tunes on his website Slippery-Hill. Here is a link to that collection: slippery-hill.com/content/fidd...ion-thede A fiddle/guitar take of Love Somebody is included as well.
Thede says "An interesting example of the re-naming of a fiddler's selection is that of a tune brought from Texas by settlers in the region which is now Greer County, Oklahoma, and called by them 'Love Somebody.' This same melody in Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana is designated ‘Old Lady Tucker,’ and as such was transported to the Indian Territory from that region" The melody is also closely related to the tune “Too Young to Marry.” Thede’s source in the book is J.S. Price. Tunearch.org lists several other tunes that are either “aka” or related.
Unlike many tunes collected by Thede, this tune has been recorded by fiddlers. Ed Haley did a version that bears some resemblance, though the A part is more like Soldier’s Joy. Sid Harkreader recorded a version of Love Somebody on the Vocalion label in 1924. That recording also features Uncle Dave Macon on banjo.
I decided at the last minute to make this the TOTW, so I haven’t had time to create a tablature file. That said, it’s a pretty easy tune to figure out. It’s in the key of D. Actually, Paul and I are tuned down slightly at A415. So if you tune to Double C and capo up one fret you’ll be close enough to play along.
Don Borchelt - Posted - 05/13/2022: 10:07:36
A fine bit of picking and sawing by Stephen and Paul, and nice picking by Tom, too! I learned this tune over fifty years ago when I was still in my teens back in Cincinnati, from an old fiddler who called it Buffalo Nickel. I posted a practice recording I had made up quick when it was the TOTW by one of its other names, Too Young to Marry. I've attached it again, below.
JanetB - Posted - 05/13/2022: 11:15:25
As always, an excellent tune choice, Stephen. Your fiddling buddy and you do it justice, also as always!
Don's playing of Buffalo Nickel in two octaves adds to the listening enjoyment, reminding me of what I just did today by using two banjos with different ranges. One is a Gold Tone Plucky travel banjo. It ended up being played in the key of F, cFCFG, equivalent to double C tuning. The Doc's Banjo tunes like a regular banjo and it's in double C. I liked hearing the tune played higher and lower, and combined two separate recordings with the same arrangement and fingering to make one mp3. Nothing fancy, just a fun diversion. I imagine another part could be inserted with a transition to modulate the two keys smoothly...
I used Ed Haley's fiddling of Love Somebody and came up with this arrangement. His version sounded a bit like a hornpipe.
mandobanjolibrarian - Posted - 05/15/2022: 09:12:51
So, it seems this is truly a "tune by many names." I have a book titled Ozarks Fiddle Music by Drew Beisswenger and Gordon McCann (Mel Bay Pubs, 2008) that indexes it as "Chinky Pin" in fiddler Dean Johnston's section (1919-2007). Here's the gloss on the tune:
Johnston learned this tune from his father, who called it "Love Somebody." It is widely played in the U.S. and Britain, and is often associated with the Scots tune "My Love Is But a Lassie Yet." Gordon McCann says he has heard fiddlers in the Ozarks call this tune "the tune with 1,000 titles." The phrase "Chinky Pin" is apparently a corruption of the word "Chinquapin," which is a type of chestnut tree or its edible nuts. Charles Wolfe speculates that when the Kessinger Brothers recorded "Chinquapin" in 1929, a clerk at the Brunswick record label mangled the title. Fiddler's Companion linksit to a long list of titles: "Big Town Fling," "Buffalo Nickle," "Darling Child," "Farmer Had a Dog," "Fourth of July," "Hair in the Butter," "I Am My Mama's Darling Child," "Lead Out," "Love Somebody," "Midnight Serenade," "My Love She's But A Lassie Yet, "Old Kingdom," "Pig Town Fling," "Richmond Blues," "Sweet Sixteen," "Ten Nights in a Bar Room," (in this book with the A and B parts switched), "Too Young to Marry/Get Married," and "Yellow-Eyed Cat." The tune "Big Muddy" is also related. Arkansas fiddler Sam Younger calls the tune "Missouri Mule." Other musical transcriptions are in Arkansas Arkie, Howe, Philips, and Christeson 1. Meade lists 15 early commercial recordings under the primary title "Too Young to Marry," the earliest being by Sid Harkreader & Uncle Dave Macon (1924); others include Luke Highnight's Ozark Strutters playing "I Love Somebody" (1928, and the Kessinger Brothers (1929).
I knew it sounded familiar when I took a shot at Janet's tab yesterday afternoon! 
Edited by - mandobanjolibrarian on 05/15/2022 09:16:08
mandobanjolibrarian - Posted - 05/15/2022: 16:39:57
Here's the Tommy & Joe Thompson version from Folkways' "Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina & Virginia" compilation, with the liner note on this recording of the tune. Definitely has that "Soldier's Joy" vibe in the A part.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Privacy Consent (EU/GDPR Only)
Copyright 2026 Banjo Hangout. All Rights Reserved.
