LyleK - Posted - 07/18/2025:  07:08:26

“Grotts” and “Elam’s Jaybird” are from downstate Illinois fiddler Stella Elam.  In addition to these tunes, I want to close the loop on a previous TOTW (Sam & Elzie) as that was in Stella Elam’s repertoire.  And who was Stella Elam?  Much more on that below, but first, the tunes.

Grotts

Here’s with Lynn “Chirps” Smith (fiddle), Jim Nelson (guitar), Dave Landreth (guitar), Fred Campeau (banjo), and Curtis Buckhannon (mandolin):

vigortonerecords.bandcamp.com/track/grotts

Elam’s Jaybird

Stella Elam (fiddle) and Lyle Mayfield (guitar) recorded in 1966

archive.org/details/elammayfie...ssion1966 (#8, track 8)

Stella Elam recorded by “Chirps” Smith in 1976

slippery-hill.com/content/jaybird-0

Laura Sleade (fiddle) and Ed Hawkes (guitar) at the 2024 Illinois State Fair fiddle competition, for which Laura took first place in the adult division!  See the YouTube video below at 52 minutes in.  In the 2023 Illinois State Fair Laura took first place in the overall division playing Grotts, but sadly there’s no YouTube for that.

Sam & Elsie (“Crooked Road”)

archive.org/details/elamandmayfield1 (#2, track 10)

Stella Elam and her connection to Illinois fiddlers

Much of the information I have is taken from the liner notes for the 1962 “Green Fields of Illinois” LP.  Incidentally, the title of the LP comes from the opening track, which is Elam fiddling “The Green Fields of America.”  While the liner notes are no longer available, they can be found webpages.charter.net/dnance/gr...index.htm">here.  Where I have unattributed quotes those are from the liner notes.  Genealogical information comes from familysearch.org where I have taken a decidedly patrilineal approach.  This is because of the patronymic system.  As an aside, of the 65 “source performers” listed for the Garry Harrison collection in (the sadly, out of print) “Dear Old Illinois” only three were females and Stella Elam was the only fiddler among the three.  Note that although she is often listed as “Stelle,” the Elam headstone gives her first name as “Stella.”  Also note that although I have listed this section as “Stella Elam and her connection to Illinois fiddlers,” this is only because fiddlers were the source for her tunes.  This is not meant to exclude banjo players, and indeed Elam had a “short flirtation with the banjo” having traded her fiddle for a banjo.  But from the liner notes, once her husband gave her a fiddle, she abandoned the banjo (sniffle, sniffle).

As far as genealogy is concerned, we should start with Stella’s paternal grandfather, William Stipp, who was listed in the 1870 census (age 40) living in Oskaloosa Township, Clay Co., Illinois along with sons James (age 18, Stella’s father) and John (age 6, Stella’s uncle “Jack”).  In the 1910 census there was a (widowed) James H. Stipp (age 57) living in Alma Township, Marion Co., Illinois along with his son Riley (age 24) and his daughter “Meta” (I think this is a misreading of “Stella”) (age 8).  Alma, IL is about 17 miles west of Oskaloosa, IL.  In the 1920 census there was a James Stipp (age 67) living in Kinmundy Township, Marion Co., Illinois along with his 18-year-old daughter Stella.  I have listed this (tedious?) genealogical information because it was Stella’s Uncle “Jack” and her brother from who she learned a lot of her tunes. To quote at length from the liner notes: “At the age of ten Stelle first took up the fiddle. Her brother brought his fiddle home one day and took the trouble to show her how to play "Soldier's Joy." Little Stelle tried and tried until she got more and more notes to sound right. She very often heard her uncle, Jack Stipp, play the fiddle, too, and she would go home to try to reproduce what she had heard. In fact, since she was around her uncle Jack a lot (or made it a point to be), she learned most of her fiddle tunes from him, even more than she learned from her brother.

Her brother (how much we owe to the generosity of that brother!), seeing that Stelle was indeed serious about taking up music, bought her a fiddle of her own, and the young apprentice set about acquiring a repertoire of tunes.”

The description of Stella Elam (she married Marquis Elam) in “Dear Old Illinois” notes that she was from Brownstown (Fayette Co., Illinois) and that she “learned much of her music from older relatives.” The liner notes indicate that she had learned many of her tunes from her uncle “Jack” and that unlike her uncle, she learned all her tunes by ear.  Her uncle could both read music and acquire tunes by ear.  The liner notes also have “One thing she never could seem to learn, however, was Uncle Jack's method of bowing: he held the bow at the end, like a classical violinist, but Stelle chokes up, like a batter about to lay down a bunt.”

“Sam & Elzie”, “Sam & Elsie”, “Wilson’s Tune,” and “Crooked Road” (see banjohangout.org/archive/201787)

OK, I should be long done with genealogy, but wait, there’s (much) more!  William Stipp (Stella’s grandfather) also had a daughter Darthula (Stella’s aunt) who married a Krutsinger, whose daughter, married a fiddler named Monte Bray (originally from Oskaloosa, Clay Co., IL).  Monte Bray had sons Nate (mandolin), Harley (banjo), and Francis (bass) who formed the Bray Brothers bluegrass band.  So, the Bray brothers were first cousins once removed of Stella Elam.  As noted by the Canote Brothers, they got the tune “Sam and Elzie” (see banjohangout.org/archive/201787) indirectly from Harley Bray.  Stella Elam was recorded (probably in the 1960s) playing this tune as “Sam and Elsie.”  But when "Dear Old Illinois" was released this tune was listed as “Crooked Road.”  That the "Dear Old Illinois"  listing of “Crooked Road” is “Sam and Elzie” isn’t all that clear until you listen to Red Cravens and the Brays Brother version of “Sam and Elzie” (see the sixth clip at banjonews.com/2021-06/harley_bray.html ). Incidentally, I heard from Laura Sleade that Chirps Smith told her the tune name had been lost for Stella Elam’s “Sam and Elsie” and that the tune name “Crooked Road” was used at press time for "Dear Old Illinois". The name “Wilson’s Tune” comes from the oldest of Monte Bray’s sons, Monte Wilson Bray (who went by Monte or Wilson), who was both a fiddler and a violinist.  For more on the tune’s history, see glendessaryjam.com/index.php/t...and-elzie .  From that we have “It is believed that the tune was named for Sam and Elzie Crutchfield, father and son, who ran square dances in the early 1900s near Omega, Illinois.” Also see tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:S...Elzie%27s where it is mentioned that Sam and Elzie were a father/son fiddle and guitar duo.  Now, who were Sam and Elzie?  Samuel Crutchfield and his son Elza (with “Elzie” apparently being a nickname) appear in the 1900 census living in Meachum Township, Marion Co., Illinois.  To confuse matters, Elza married Elsie Hanson.  The bottom line here is that the Crutchfields, Monte Bray, and the Stipps (Stella Elam’s maiden name) all lived in Marion Co. or the adjacent Clay Co., although Monte Bray later moved with his family to Champaign, Il.  So, “Sam and Elzie” started as a very local tune in a small part of the Great State of Illinois.

Elam’s Jaybird

I am referring to this tune as “Elam’s Jaybird” because although it is related to the usual “Jaybird” in the key of D, Stella Elam played the tune in the key of G, and the B part deviates from both the “Revival Jaybird” and John Summers’ version of “Jaybird.”  See Jack Beuthin’s excellent discussion of the variants of “Jaybird” in his TOTW.  I had Jack check Elam’s version, and he does think that the B part is yet another variant.  In the TOTW thread Carl Baron posted a copy of “Jaybird” from the Hamblen Collection.  That version is in D and again the B-part is not the same as Elam’s.  I have resisted calling Stella Elam’s version “Illinois Jaybird” because I suspect that her version was not at all widespread.  I first came across “Elam’s Jaybird” when I was playing with Laura Sleade and Ed Hawkes at an American Legion BBQ lunch.  I hadn’t practiced with them for this, and, as I was recently arrived from Tennessee, Laura was suggesting tune names for tunes she thought I might know.  She suggested “Jaybird,” which I thought was odd because I was in a typical D-tuning (aDADE).  She told me it was in G, so I switched to a G tuning, thinking I just had to transpose.  All was fine until we hit the B-part where I was lost on the first few times. 

So, why did Stella Elam play this in G?  First off, in standard fiddle tuning (GDAE) the strings are a fifth apart, so going from the key of D down a fifth to the key of G is generally smooth sailing.  Second, and as a bonus, in Stella Elam’s B-part, the fiddle can do a slide on the A string from a D up to a unison with the E string.  This device is used a lot in G tunes but doesn’t work in D tunes.

Grotts

This is another tune I learned from Laura (she is very patient!).  In “Dear Old Illinois” the comment for this tune is “Learned by Mrs. Elam from her brother, who she said gave it this title.”  The track notes for Chirps’ playing of the tune has “I haven't a clue what the title refers to.”  Here again we are back to genealogy.  In the 1880 census there was a Thomas Grotts living in Fayette Co., IL, the next county north of Marion Co.  It appears that Riley Stipp, Stella’s brother, named the tune using a surname common in the area.  Perhaps there was a person with the Grotts surname who played fiddle?

Stay tuned! (always good advice for a banjo player)

Anymore, tunes seem to spread thanks to easy transportation and the internet.  Certainly, this was the case for “Sam and Elzie” moving from a few counties in Illinois to the west coast and then becoming a TOTW.  But for tunes to spread like this they must be available for the listening.  A fraction of Stella Elam’s tunes is available, and this is only thanks to “Dear Old Illinois” and hosting of recordings of her playing at slippery-hill.com/.  I have contacted Larry Warren to let him know about recordings of Stella Elam at archive.org, so I think the unique tunes from Stella Elam will eventually be at Slippery-Hill.  So, stay tuned! (and tell your fiddle friends).

My recordings and tabs

Nothing special here.  My recording of “Grotts” follows Elam’s fiddling pretty closely at first and then goes into the triple appoggiaturas (grace notes) that Chirps throws into the B-part (the way I learned it from Laura Sleade).  I don’t have those in the tab because tabledit can only handle singles and doubles.  My recording of “Elam’s Jaybird” is played out of gEADE tuning, so the tab is written in that tuning.  That’s my go to tuning for tunes in G or E minor.  While you could do this tune in gDGBD tuning, you would have to replace the slide into the E note at the beginning of the 15^th measure with a quick hammer-on at the second fret on the first string.  That will work, but you lose that nice slide effect that on the fiddle is so common in G tunes.

Edited by - LyleK on 07/18/2025 07:11:19

Grotts

Elam's Jaybird

Grotts

Elam's Jaybird

JanetB - Posted - 07/18/2025:  09:21:40

Before even beginning to take in this voluminous effort you've put out here, Lyle, let me say a simple thanks.  That's pretty neat to be learning about the only female fiddler in the DOI collection.  I'm contacting Steve Harrison to see what he may contribute to the discussion, as he was part of the compilation process, plus I've already looked in my newer edition of DOI to see how many tunes of Stella's (or Stelle's) are in there.  It appears to contain ten of her tunes.  One of them, Green Fields of America, also appeared in O'Neill's Music of Ireland, published in 1903.  Another one is called Stelle's Jig.  (Her name is written as "Stelle" throughout the book.)  There is more than one Schottische, which I'll need to review as a tune type. This thread should perhaps be called Tune of the Month for this week -- there's a heavy load of homework here!

LyleK - Posted - 07/18/2025:  10:42:36

Thanks Janet. I know there's a lot to digest there and I'll be very interested to hear what Steve has to say. I also get a count of 10 Elam tunes out of DOI. I got the book and CDs when Garry was still alive and had a website for Pick Away Press such that you could order directly from the website. I'm thinking you probably got the reissue through cdbaby, but I don't think there were any changes from the original release (Steve would know). Now that it is out of print, I've seen prices over $300 for DOI.

Of the two Stella Elam schottisches, I did a recording of 3/4 of a band I'm in playing one of them, which is attached here. You commented on the original post, which I (rudely) never replied to, as follows:



"Does your group have a name? Do you get to play for dances? Where does your repertoire come from?"



That was 3/4 of "Acoustic Mayhem" (a Muppets reference), with the guitar player subbing in for Ed Hawkes (Laura Sleade's husband).  Incidentally, the autoharp player is my spouse.  We do play for dances, see urbana-contra.org/sched_summer.html.  If you go there you'll see that I'm listed for another band.  In that one I play fiddle.  "Acoustic Mayhem's" repertoire is eclectic, though a lot of it, thanks to Laura Sleade and Ed Hawkes, is from Illinois.

As far as DOI tune titles are concerned, some of them are for tunes that are better known under other names.  "Six Pounds of Feathers in a Cuckoo's Nest" is "Red Haired Boy" (which has a lot of alternate titles).  "Sliding Eights" is "Twin Sisters" (which again has a lot of alternate titles).  There are also cases like "Charlie's Hornpipe" (from Charlie Myrna) which is the Irish hornpipe (Little) Stack of Barley.

Edited by - LyleK on 07/18/2025 10:45:06

Raven Schottische

 

JanetB - Posted - 07/21/2025:  16:54:50

Thanks for sharing so much, Lyle, including Stelle Elam's history, your music, tabs and a bit about your own band's playing.  I'm fortunate to have the DOI collection on my laptop and listened to her for these arrangements.  Stelle (or Stella, as it says), mostly plays in an AAB pattern in the three tunes I listened to.  They go well together, I thought, and so arranged them in double C and put them together in a medley.

Stelle Elam medley of three tunes (TOTW)

Grotts, Jaybird, Crooked Road medley (CH) tab