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zach w - Posted - 08/23/2024: 05:16:46
This week's TOTW is Head of the Creek, and comes from the playing of Ward Jarvis (March 19, 1894-September 18, 1982). James Ward Jarvis was born in Braxton County, WV and in the late 1940’s moved to Athens county, OH to work in the timber industry. He is buried in Stewart Cemetery in Athens county, OH. Ward’s repertoire reflects his West Virginia origin. He never recorded commercially but did make field recordings for Jeff Goehring, Kerry blech and others. Some of the field recordings are available at Field Recorders' Collective - Ward Jarvis.
Head of the Creek is in the key of A and played in Cross-A tuning on the fiddle.
Hilarie Burnhans introduced this tune to me during a lesson about a year ago. The A-part has a tricky syncopated/crooked section that makes it so fun to play.
Although I couldn’t find any standard notation online it is available in the Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes.
Audio Files:
Jeff Goehring-Head of the Creek
John Gallagher, Scott Prouty, Chris Coole (1:10min into medley)
The Long Shots - Head of the Creek
The Sky Island String band- Head of the Creek
Youtube:
Jimmy Triplett and Bosco HejaO
JanetB - Posted - 08/24/2024: 18:52:00
Nice, Zach!
After listening to the links and peeking at the notation in the Milliner-Koken book, I did a clawhammer arrangement of Head of the Creek by listening to Claire Milliner's fiddle. She uses a B note several times in the high part, though it's not in the book's notation. On banjo it's a quick hammer-on from the 5th fret to the 7th. You don't hear that note in the Wade Jarvis recording. You hear it sometimes in the John Gallagher, Kerry Blech, and Molly and Ten-Strings recordings and it's in The Long Shots and The Sky Island String Band versions. Oh well, I also like it without the high B note...
The timing is unusual, both with the two-measure bridge and the half measure at the end of repeating the short B part three times, if you go back to the beginning. When you first hear the tune, it takes you by surprise, as apparently you discovered, too. And some people play the fine part first, like me, and others play the course part first. Maybe that's because the original recording from Wade Jarvis didn't start clearly at the beginning, but left out some of his playing.
