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Mtngoat - Posted - 06/13/2025: 08:29:50
TOTW 06/13/2025 - Coon Dog
I’ve chosen Coon Dog for this installment of TOTW. The Traditional Tune Archive says Dudley Spangler (1885-1981) of Patrick County, Virginia is the primary source for the tune. Drew Beisswenger and Roy Andrade, writing in their book Appalachian Fiddle Music, note that Spangler performed on radio stations during the 1940’s and had a significant impact on musical traditions in the region.
The origin and history of the tune is a bit muddled as some internet sources suggest it is simply a version of Angeline the Baker, others proclaim it to be the ancestral precursor from which Angeline the Baker naturally evolved or suggest that Stephen Foster simply reworked this older folk melody for his 1850 composition of Angeline. I consider Coon Dog to be a separate tune.
Judging from the number of recordings and videos returned by a Google search, the tune has enjoyed a wide popularity over the last 25 years, with performances by some of the biggest stars of Old Time Music. Unbelievable as it sounds, my introduction to the tune occurred at a Memorial Day festival just three weeks ago. Evidently I need to get out more.
I’ve included some internet links below.
Rayna Gellert has a fiddle version here: youtube.com/watch?v=lDFIXZPUsyE
And Stephanie Coleman has a fiddle version here: drdosido.net/fiddleclub/first-...for-jams/
Here’s a string band version from 2013: youtube.com/watch?v=L4B3du7BTrg
Here is a string band version from 2005: youtube.com/watch?v=_nQRsEJubKs
Here is a clawhammer and fiddle duet: youtube.com/watch?v=glPP5JSCFLg
An Irish session banjo and fiddle duet is here: youtube.com/watch?v=cTsIdPQrF4I
I like the drones on this fiddle and pump organ duet: josephdecosimo.bandcamp.com/track/coon-dog
Here is a gourd banjo with guitar accompaniment: tfrostmusic.bandcamp.com/track/coon-dog
Ken Torke has a banjo tab here: taterjoes.com/Warehouse/Banjo/...onDog.pdf
And a transcription of Jane Rothfield’s fiddling is here: possummonorail.com/Warehouse/D_CoonDog.pdf
An internet search will turn up transcriptions of versions by Rachel Eddy, Stephanie Coleman, and Rayna Gellert.
Readers are encouraged to post observations, opinions, performances, and tabs contributing to this thread.
Edited by - Mtngoat on 06/13/2025 08:31:34
LyleK - Posted - 06/14/2025: 12:58:54
Wow! This is one I've long thought needs to be a TOTW. It is a great tune and a worthy replacement for "Angeline the Baker," a tune that is "banned" from most jams because of being played far too many times.
I first came across this when I was searching through YouTube for recordings that included Brett Riggs. Brett was a graduate student in the Anthropology Dept. at the University of Tennessee when I was on the faculty there. He is a fantastic clawhammer player and I played with him a bit back then, but he was way out of my league. He was in the New Dixie Entertainers, a band that won at Clifftop multiple times (with Mike Bryant on fiddle). Anyhow, the 2013 string band YouTube link you give is for the Epps Pepsteppers with Brett on fretless.
The original recording by John Watts Spangler & Dudley Spangler is at:
youtube.com/watch?v=ocUuwS0GcIQ
To confuse matters, there is an entirely different "Coon Dog" in Marion Thede's "The Fiddle Book," which you can hear at:
youtube.com/watch?v=slZkjtoJEJg
Not to be confused with "Old Coon Dog"...
JanetB - Posted - 06/14/2025: 16:54:12
Good one, as always, Mtngoat! Thanks, Lyle, for that link to Dudley Spangler. The examples shared are great, especially Rayna Gellert and Joseph DeCosimo.
I can't resist two coon dog comments. One is, I almost wish I had one again, as last night I suspect a raccoon who regularly visits got in my garden and ate a second potato plant. I don't mind him in the compost, dragging out edible items (and inedible ones like egg shells and coffee filters), but in the garden is unacceptable.
Second comment is a poem I wrote 40 years ago, based on a true episode from my days of raising hound dogs. It was published in Full Cry! magazine. Hope you enjoy.
The Ways of a Cooner
We took the family coon hunting
The four of us in our red truck
It was dark and foggy, we didn't know the way
But we had high hopes for good luck
Just getting there was something
Muddy ruts made a carnival ride
But the rough road was really worth it
In two trees the hounds made coon hide
Little Ben was asleep in the truck
But Charlotte hiked to the tree
Her flashlight showed her two coon eyes
That was something for a girl only three
We went again after three weeks had passed
This hunt was the perfect one
Three coon were treed, one was shot down*
The pups knew just what they had run
The next week we were so eager
It was doing the pups so much good
But this hunt was unlike any other
With some dogs not doing what they should
We heard the hound dogs bawling
They were running something for sure
But the scent of skunk that was on them
Wouldn’t come off of their fur
We’re not at all discouraged
We’re ready to go even sooner
In four more days we’ll go down by the pond
Let the pups learn the way of a cooner
(*The shot-down raccoon was brought to a family who ate raccoons.)
Bill H - Posted - 06/15/2025: 04:05:46
This is a great choice. I have an arrangement of Coon Dog based on Rayna Gellert's playing.
Coon Dog
Mtngoat - Posted - 06/15/2025: 11:27:56
Lyle, I am always amazed at the interconnections within the Old Time community. I don’t know how I missed the original Spangler recording. Thanks for picking it up.
Janet, Thanks for the recording and tab. It is always a pleasure seeing what you do with a tune.
My grandfather used to take me and my cousins coon hunting when we were pre-teens. We never caught a coon but we had great fun listening to the dogs and scrambling through the dark woods on a crisp fall night by the light of a handheld carbide lamp.
Bill, Thanks for the tab. It is interesting to compare Ms Gellert’s fiddle solo with her Uncle Earl performance. The same but different.
