gentrixuk - Posted - 03/10/2023:  03:52:59

This week’s tune of the week is “Phoebe Ice”. I first heard this tune at a local session a few weeks ago, and it went down very well. Everyone was intrigued by what the title meant, though, and nobody knew, so I figured it would a good TOTW project to learn the tune and find out where it comes from.



The tune is associated with the Ice family in Marion County West Virginia, and appears to be named after a real person from their family tree: Phoebe Jane Ice. ROOTSWEB: Phoebe Jane Ice was born on 6 May 1837. She died on 12 Nov 1901. She was buried in Huey Thorne Cemetery, Logansport, Marion Co., Wv



The Traditional Tune Archive notes that the tune is also known variously as "Up Jumped Jinny with Her Shirt Tail Torn", "Hang Out" and "Old Hang On", and that the melody may have been played quite widely under these other names before it was given lyrics and rechristened with the title “Phoebe Ice”.



There is also a discussion about the tune on the Fiddle Hangout, which includes this comment:

“In the early 90's I believe I got the tune from Oakland MD fiddler Larry Rush. After the jams I'd pick his brain about tunes. Jim Hollis from just over the line in WV also attended some of the jams I was going to at that time (and I never really talked to him) but heard some of his tunes. Jimmy Triplett recorded a nice version of this tune from Hollis as "Old Hang On." (I don't know Jimmy or his playing but have heard some of his field recordings.) Somewhere along the line in my unscholarly research of tunes from my region, I ran across a reference to the title "Hang On" in a very old book called "The History of Western MD" that lists the tune as being played in the 1700's in the region. (SW PA, West MD, WV). It seems I have also heard the title "Hang Out" used for this tune as well. "Up Jumped Jenny" seems to be another title that is coming to mind. As I mentioned in the video comments, Samuel P. Bayard collected several versions in SW PA.”

(fiddlecraver comments on Fiddle Hangout Dec 7 2008)



The lyrics (as collected by Alice Wyld) seem to be one of those great old songs that lists out a series of claims about what our eponymous heroine has been getting up to, which get progressively more unlikely as the verses go on:

Old Phoebe Ice was strong as an ox

Quick as a wink and sly as a fox

There was never no trouble at the old Ice place

For she was a ruler of the human race



Old Phoebe Ice, she's darn near dead

Rearing and a tearing with a pain in her head

With her toes turned out and her eyes turned in

She's a darn good gal for the shape she's in



Old Phoebe Ice has laid a plan

That every woman should have a man

So don't be shy, step right in line

Go get yours, like I got mine



Old Phoebe Ice was out too late

She didn't get home 'til half past eight

She fiddled all night and the folks all said

Was the best darn dance in the wagon shed



There are a few videos of the tune being played online:

Andy Fitzgibbon on fiddle

Joe Coe on fiddle, who talks a little about where he learnt it

Patty Looman on hammered dulcimer, who also talks about the source of the tune and the lyrics at the end of the video

A lesson how to play it on Mandolin



The track appears on the hammered dulcimer album “West Virginia Heritage” by Russell Fluharty (Page Records – SLP 601). See this link for a brief history of Russell Fluharty.



Here is my version, with video and tab. Hope you all enjoy this one!

VIDEO: Phoebe Ice
(click to view)

Phoebe Ice

dbrooks - Posted - 03/10/2023:  04:19:54

Sweet tune, Mark, and well played. The tab is clea and direct as well.

David

ndlxs - Posted - 03/10/2023:  06:29:24

Great tune, great words as well. Thanks, Mark.

JanetB - Posted - 03/11/2023:  17:55:38

The more it's played, the more fun it gets.  Your version is pretty, Mark.  Your tab is spot on, too. My version here plays right along with yours, but is an octave lower on the cello banjo and tuned to an equivalent of double C to keep me in the key of G.  I used the notation in the Samuel Bayard book Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife, as per your link to the Traditional Tune Archive.  Its title is the longer, even stranger one, Up Jumped Jinny with her Shirt Tail Torn.  

Up Jumped Jinny with Her Shirt Tail Torn (aka Phoebe Ice) (TOTW)

Up Jumped Jinny with her Shirt Tail Torn (CH) tab