PorterBranch - Posted - 05/26/2023:  07:18:33

Flower From the Fields of Alabama is a tune known here in the Birmingham area mad coming from Clyde Davenport, though the tune is apparently a good bit older than that. The Traditional Tune Archive has virtually no information on it, but credits Burnett and Rutherford's 1929 recording as the source. SecondHandStrings, however, claims it was done by Emry and Henry Aurthur in 1928 (for which I could find no recording). The one appearance of it on Slippery Hill is a 2014 recording from Jon Beckoff.

There are plenty of versions of this song available online. Most famous is probably the recording from Norman Blake, but a nearly identical tune has been recorded almost as many times under some variation of the title "Flower Blooming In The Wildwood (by Maybelle Carter and Del McCoury, among others).

I first heard it from The Red Mountain Yellowhammers, who told me they got it from Clyde Davenport. You can find their version on YouTube under Red Mountain White Trash. 

Theirs (being the Red Mountain version) is the version that I play, for which you can find a tab here.

(Please excuse the handwritten tab, and especially the mistake in the second measure of the B part — disregard the scribbled-out bit and just pop that fifth string!)

Thanks, and if anyone has any questions or input I'd love to hear it!

Edited by - PorterBranch on 05/26/2023 12:01:26

JanetB - Posted - 05/27/2023:  12:57:24

Great presentation, Porter!  Your playing is intricate and you're not hesitant to go up the neck.  Thanks also for the tab and links to several musical legends.  I happen to have the CD "Burnett & Rutherford, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1926 - 1930)", so I went with it, using their singing.  Clyde Davenport's version can be followed with this arrangement. I wouldn't have known otherwise that Clyde covered this tune at all, so thanks again, and I'm always fond of the Carter Family, Del McCourey, and Norman Blake. 

She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama (TOTW)

She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama (CH) tab

Jack Baker - Posted - 05/27/2023:  13:15:16

Hi Janet,
Wonderful song and tab. Do you mind if I guess at the chords and put your tab into Tabledit with credit to you of course....Muchas Janet....Jack

JanetB - Posted - 05/27/2023:  13:32:28

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack Baker

Hi Janet,

Wonderful song and tab. Do you mind if I guess at the chords and put your tab into Tabledit with credit to you of course....Muchas Janet....Jack

---

Thanks,  Jack.  Here's tab with the chords.  I don't tend to use G7, but some people might instead of just G.  

She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama (CH tab + chords)

 

Jack Baker - Posted - 05/27/2023:  13:34:44

Thank you so much Janet. I'll let you know when it's finished....Jack   p.s. G is fine with me. It only matters if the chord is used as a pulling cadence chord anyway...Jack   pps. I love how you use your ears to make music. Not all do, they use their brain only and miss all those glorious notes....HA

Edited by - Jack Baker on 05/27/2023 13:39:45

PorterBranch - Posted - 05/28/2023:  11:40:46

quote:

---

Originally posted by JanetB

Great presentation, Porter!  Your playing is intricate and you're not hesitant to go up the neck.  Thanks also for the tab and links to several musical legends.  I happen to have the CD "Burnett & Rutherford, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1926 - 1930)", so I went with it, using their singing.  Clyde Davenport's version can be followed with this arrangement. I wouldn't have known otherwise that Clyde covered this tune at all, so thanks again, and I'm always fond of the Carter Family, Del McCourey, and Norman Blake. 

---

Thanks Janet, and thank your for the opportunity to present the tune! 

 

Your version, as always, is wonderful. I love your elegant and intentional style of playing whereas I, like Adam Chowning once said about himself, feel more like I'm playing "jackhammer" than clawhammer banjo. 

Edited by - PorterBranch on 05/28/2023 11:41:10