Mtngoat - Posted - 11/29/2024:  03:21:11

I’ve chosen Going Down Town from West Virginia fiddler Wilson Douglas (1922-1999) for this installment of TOTW. This is the third and final tune I learned at a recent West Virginia Fiddle Tunes workshop where the instructor kindly let a banjo sit in “as long as you don’t noodle while I’m talking.”

Douglas seems to have reworked the old minstrel tune Going Down To Lynchburg Town, first published in 1848, into this setting, which IMHO, is better than the original.

The tune has a healthy internet presence and I’ve attached some samples in the links below.

Here’s Douglas recorded in 1975:    slippery-hill.com/content/going-down-town

And here’s a 1989 video of Douglas playing the tune with Kim Johnson on banjo: youtube.com/watch?v=JCwmGSZvKrw

Here’s a version by the Canote Brothers with Candy Goldman on banjo:      stringband.mossyroof.com/GoinDownTown.mp3

Here’s fiddler Henry Barnes with Dan Gellert on banjo brinecollector.bandcamp.com/album/cat-town

Paul Kirk and friends have a string trio version here:     youtube.com/watch?v=AUR6nMdld2Q

Here’s a string band version   youtube.com/watch?v=JHU_1wnqV6o

I could not find a clawhammer tab but most folks should be able to work out a usable arrangement after hearing the tune a few times.

Douglas was mentored by two giants of Old Time fiddling, Ed Haley (1885-1951) and French Carpenter (1899-1965), and here is a link to an autobiography wherein he describes learning to play:  tunearch.org/wiki/Biography:Wilson_Douglas

The lyrics to the tune describe taking tobacco to market, an annual ritual in 1960s Kentucky where I grew up.  Back then, before the advent of fast food restaurants, farm boys looking for pocket money could always hire themselves out to neighbors in need of labor for the tobacco fields.  My first paying job, when I was twelve years old, was dropping sticks for tobacco cutters in a field owned by a friend’s father.  He paid us fifty cents per hour and his wife provided lunch. 

Tobacco farming, like any other occupation, has its own vocabulary.  During my teenage years I worked in the fields bedding, pulling, setting, topping, suckering, priming, cutting, hanging, booking, stripping, and tying tobacco plants.  I learned a lot from folks who had spent their entire lives cultivating the crop as had their fathers before them.  Tobacco farming used to be the socioeconomic base supporting Kentucky’s rural agricultural population. Those days are gone forever.  Kentucky had 140,000 tobacco farms in 1950 but, according to a recent State survey, only 900 active producers remain.

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

carlb - Posted - 11/29/2024:  06:14:03

I'm partial to Wilson's playing with Kim Johnson, a really fine banjo player.

kantstandya - Posted - 11/29/2024:  07:32:37

Mtngoat, this article is extraordinary. After reading and listening to all your links made me feel like I was sitting there on the front row with em. Thx for sharing!

Mtngoat - Posted - 11/30/2024:  06:34:57

Carl, I've been a big Kim Johnson fan since I first saw her perform about 25 years ago.

Kent, glad you like it.

Thank you both for contributing.

JanetB - Posted - 12/02/2024:  17:17:00

Here goes from the playing of Wilson Douglas.  I, too, saw Kim Johnson, but playing with Franklin George.  She sure adds to the fiddle banjo duet sound. Now for the fun of hearing everyone else's take on this week's tune.

Edited by - JanetB on 12/02/2024 17:20:55

Going Down Town (CH) tab

Going Down Town

Mtngoat - Posted - 12/03/2024:  09:11:59

Janet, thanks for the performance and tab.

I believe Ms. Johnson was playing with Bobby Taylor when I saw her. It was a long time ago and I was entirely banjo centric and did not pay much attention to fiddlers back then.