Mtngoat - Posted - 06/10/2022:  05:33:32

TOTW Polecat Blues 06/10/2022

I’ve chosen Polecat Blues from North Carolina Fiddler Benton Flippen (1920-2011) for this installment of TOTW. Tommy Magness, a well-regarded fiddler whose resume included stints with Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Reno and Smiley, and Porter Wagoner, composed and recorded the tune in 1941 but Flippen’s driving syncopated version, played by his Smokey Valley Boys, soon eclipsed Magness’s original in popularity.  A biography and photograph of Flippen are here:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benton_Flippen

The tune has a healthy internet presence and I’ve posted a few illustrative links below.

Here’s Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys: youtube.com/watch?v=jLWAOGuYyM0

Here’s a banjo solo: youtube.com/watch?v=RrE-AuzObc0

Here’s a fiddle/banjo duet from the Hangout Media library:  banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...;archived=

Here’s a house concert video:  youtube.com/watch?v=SlzfTKgKewI

Here’s a string band version:  youtube.com/watch?v=MSN1JPG4g_E

Here’s another string band:  youtube.com/watch?v=VZii6q30ymk

Here’s a link to the Jugbusters archive.  There is a lot of music here, including several renditions of Polecat Blues, but the banjo is really prominent on track 8 of the Radio Show album about halfway down the page:   larryhoughtonsmusic.org/jugbusters

Here’s a recording from the Berea College Sound Archives:  soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/3413

I could not find a banjo tab for the tune but a transcription in standard notation can be found here:   taterjoes.com/Warehouse/Fiddle...Blues.pdf

Readers are encouraged to post comments, performances, and tabs contributing to this thread.

Edited by - Mtngoat on 06/10/2022 05:35:14

RG - Posted - 06/10/2022:  08:55:41

Awesome tune! Great pick, hadn't heard that for years, will have to dust it off!

JanetB - Posted - 06/10/2022:  15:42:04

An energetic tune you've chosen, Mtngoat.  It makes me feel like I'm hopping from rock to rock on a steep mountain, barely staying vertical.  Benton Flippen leads the band rather wildly and the syncopation often changes from measure to measure.  I had some five-beat measures, but decided to straighten them back to four.  I could almost keep up with Chicken Train, but at least know that both our arrangements are fairly true to Flippen.  The contestant (you linked above) who actually got to play the tune with Flippen at one time did a fantastic job.  The video was in 2007 before Flippen died. The banjo solo would be worth figuring out if one was really serious about learning Polecat Blues.

Polecat Blues (TOTW)

Polecat Blues (CH) tab

Mtngoat - Posted - 06/10/2022:  15:59:59

quote:

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Originally posted by RG

"hadn't heard that for years"

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RG, 

Seems you are right as my examples were all recorded more than a decade ago.  I picked up the tune back in the winter from two Virginia visitors to our local jam.  It was new to us so it has apparently been out of circulation for a while.

Mtngoat - Posted - 06/10/2022:  17:30:54

Janet,

Energetic is an understatement.  I was in survival mode during my first exposure to this tune.  I was only able to keep up by paring everything down to a basic structure and banging away as fast as possible.  Your tab has filled a lot of the holes in the melody for me.

I continue to be amazed at how quickly you process new material into great music.

Thanks for your contribution.

Adam Harr - Posted - 06/12/2022:  15:33:11

Great tune! I'll just chime in to say that the unattributed solo banjo version linked by the OP is the late Brien Fain, who deserves a lot of recognition for his banjo playing, imo. And here's another great version from Richie Stearns and Rosie Newton: youtube.com/watch?v=fplmh2nD25Q

Round Peak Banjos - Posted - 06/13/2022:  07:18:23

I sure miss Benton and his wife Lois, they were like grandparents to me. If it wasn't for seeing Benton and The Smokey Valley Boys playing at the monthly square dance at the Alleghany Jubilee in Sparta, NC I probably wouldn't ever gotten into music. Here is a memory of them I wrote on my website back in 2018. After Lois passed I made it a priority to check on him regularly and do things for him such as mow his yard, carry him to church and carry him to the store.  I can still see his fingers sliding up and down the fingerboard on his fiddle when he was playing them slippery tunes such as Polecat Blues.  What great memories I have of them. When he passed I feel like part of my music left me to. Another Interesting thing, Benton only owned one banjo his whole life, an old Kalamazoo.

roundpeakbanjos.com/memories-o...ppen.html

Edited by - Round Peak Banjos on 06/13/2022 07:21:01

hweinberg - Posted - 06/13/2022:  11:50:01

I discovered Benton Flippen thanks to Paul Brown. What a wonderful fiddler. Whenever I play with fiddlers who square up some of Benton's slightly un-square tunes I try to convince them to add that extra measure (eg, Hell Amongst the Yearlings). There was a reason why he played it that way.