Jim_VA - Posted - 11/01/2024:  04:08:28

TOTW:  No Corn on Tygart (G)

Source: James W. Day

Source Recording:  slippery-hill.com/content/no-corn-tygart

Modern twin fiddle setting:  youtube.com/watch?v=ig_dyDI4gaE

Traditional Tune archive:  tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:N...n_Tygart_(2)

This week’s tune is “No Corn on Tygart,” which comes from a 1937 recording by James W. Day of Kentucky.  I was inspired to learn the tune in a repertoire workshop with Judy Hyman at Mars Hill University, and it seems to be a popular jam tune.  The Tygart river is a principal tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately 135 miles (217 km) long, in east-central West Virginia; via the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.  The availability or absence of corn on the Tygart will require more investigation and field work on my part.

 

VIDEO: No Corn on Tygart
(click to view)

 

RG - Posted - 11/01/2024:  11:19:14

Great TOTW, a longtime favorite tune on both fiddle and banjo. I'd like to join in that investigation and field work myself, as I'm pretty sure the corn is liquid in nature...

Edited by - RG on 11/01/2024 11:19:49

JanetB - Posted - 11/02/2024:  12:05:05

Thanks for an introduction to this tune and your pretty playing, Jim. I like its minor chord in the A part and the descending and ascending melody in the B part.  

I haven't figured out if the Tygart River is in West Virginia or Kentucky.  The tune was recorded in Kentucky in 1937 by John Lomax and you mentioned to me that Ed Haley and James Day lived not too far from each other, probably in Kentucky.  They both played a tune with that title, but Haley's was different and reminds me of Salt Creek. George Jackson and Amy Alvey sound great -- I always appreciate George's talent and repertoire.

After working it out in open G tuning, I tuned up the first string to an E ("guitar tuning") and discovered it played a bit easier for me.

No Corn on Tygart

No Corn on Tygart (guitar tuning) tab

No Corn on Tygart (open G tuning) tab

 

BrendanD - Posted - 11/05/2024:  21:48:27

quote:

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Originally posted by JanetB

I haven't figured out if the Tygart River is in West Virginia or Kentucky.  The tune was recorded in Kentucky in 1937 by John Lomax and you mentioned to me that Ed Haley and James Day lived not too far from each other, probably in Kentucky. 

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That's a good question, Janet, and one that I have considered as well. In addition to the Tygart River in West Virginia, there is a Tygart Creek in Kentucky, and given that the versions I know of have all come from Kentucky fiddlers, I think the name most likely refers to the Kentucky waterway, Tygart Creek. And as Rick Hocutt pointed out, the "corn" in the title very likely refers to corn whiskey.