Two great old-time players – Adam Hurt and Bruce Molsky -- gave me the gift of these two tunes, said to be related, or as the Traditional Tune Archive puts it, they’re companions. Adam played an entrancing Lost Girl on piano on his 2006 CD “Insight”. Bruce plays Lost Boy on fiddle and, in fact, has a 1996 CD titled “Lost Boy.”
Lost Girl has been covered more times than Lost Boy and was a Tune of the Week almost fifteen years ago: Lost Girl--TOTW 8/14/09. Both tunes were originally recorded by Kentucky fiddler John Salyer between 1940-41: Lost Girl and Lost Boy. The two tunes make a nice medley in open G tuning, though other clawhammer banjo tunings can do them justice. See the tab pdf below for four versions of Lost Girl.
Clyde Davenport (as played here by Abigail Gruber), Walter McNew, Melvin Wine, Dwight Diller and Emmett Lundy are other significant fiddlers who passed on Lost Girl in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. It's surprising how different is each version. I was smitten with Adam Hurt's Lost Girl on piano. It was slower and conveyed great emotion. Here's Adam playing on banjo with Mike Compton and Stephanie Coleman in 2010. Jim Pankey offers a nice clawhammer teaching video.
There aren’t many videos to share of Lost Boy and according to Jeff Titon in his seminal book Kentucky Fiddle Tunes, John Salyer was the only source he knew of. From the above link in the Traditional Tune Archive, Bruce, "commenting in Fiddler Magazine [1997-09-01], said 'Lost Boy' is pretty much 'Lost Girl', but with the first part being in 9-time instead of 8" (though I'm not sure what he meant by that, regarding the timing). Here are two videos of Lost Boy: Bruce Molsky and Philip A. Lederer.
Hope you enjoy this week's TOTW two-fer and share more examples of the two tunes. And congrats to Adam for winning the clawhammer banjo championship at Clifftop this year!
Edited by - JanetB on 08/09/2024 10:31:27
"Lost Girl" never gets old, at least not to me. Interesting to hear the differences and similarities of the two. I occasionally play it in C (ala Walter McNew) as well as G on fiddle or mandolin, since it's one string over. I've probably listened to "Lost Boy" in the past but forgot it was related. I think the term "9-time" is most likely referring to there being an extra beat (I am hearing the A-part being slightly crooked), much like I've heard "count to 9" for playing Ernie Carpenter's "Elk River Blues" as it's a mix of 4/4 and 5/4.
Steve Baughman recorded a nice syncopated version of "Lost Girl" on his solo gourd banjo album, "Shootout at Convict Lake": https://youtu.be/wbdDAxh7cgY?si=CWSIuoSr6Z94him9
It does beg the question, when paring the two tunes together: "Did the lost boy and lost girl find each other?"
I really love Nick Hornbuckle's version of Lost Girl on his album 12x2(+/-1) The F tuning (fGDCD) gives it a haunting sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl1TlZgrZzQ&t=53s
quote:
Originally posted by JanetB.
Melvin Wine
https://augustaartsandculture.org/document/melvin-wine-visit-to-fiddle-class-1-of-3-7-30-1984/
upper at 28:20
There are two Salyer home recordings of Lost Girl-both are beautiful and worth a listen if you are not familiar with them.
Edited by - Andy B on 08/10/2024 19:33:14
quote:
Originally posted by carlbquote:
Originally posted by JanetB.Melvin Winehttps://augustaartsandculture.org/document/melvin-wine-visit-to-fiddle-class-1-of-3-7-30-1984/
upper at 28:20
Janet emailed me, and I tried, that the link didn't work.
Here's how I found that site.
I did a Google search (actually Norton Safe Search) with the words:
lost girl Melvin Wine
The text of the third entry:
Augustaartsandculture.org
augustartsandculture.org/documents/melvin-wine-visit-to-fiddle-class-1-of-3-7-30-1984
Melvin Wine; Visit to fiddle class; 1 of 3; 7/30/1984
More text was date and list of tunes
When I clicked on that entry, I arrived at the page.
Thanks, Carl. I tried to find Melvin Wine's Lost Girl again and came up with a link. Melvin talked about you, saying that you had the skill of sharing chords with the guitar player, your wife, whereas he -- Melvin -- couldn't talk and fiddle at the same time! Lost Girl starts at 28:25.
quote:
Originally posted by carlbMelvin Winehttps://augustaartsandculture.org/document/melvin-wine-visit-to-fiddle-class-1-of-3-7-30-1984/
upper at 28:20
Surprise! your link comes up w/ error 404. But mine (though apparently the same) works OK:
https://augustaartsandculture.org/document/melvin-wine-visit-to-fiddle-class-1-of-3-7-30-1984/
I found out the culprit: your link includes the following text at the end of the link: at 28:20
quote:
Originally posted by Noah Cline"Lost Girl" never gets old, at least not to me. Interesting to hear the differences and similarities of the two.
Steve Baughman recorded a nice syncopated version of "Lost Girl" on his solo gourd banjo album, "Shootout at Convict Lake": https://youtu.be/wbdDAxh7cgY?si=CWSIuoSr6Z94him9
It does beg the question, when paring the two tunes together: "Did the lost boy and lost girl find each other?"
Steve Baughham is mega-talented. His lilting version might be called Finding the Lost Children. :)
Sorry for the comment above having Steve Baughman's name mispelled.
Andy B, perhaps you can find us a link for a second recording made of John Salyer fiddling Lost Girl. The one I used is from the home recording by his sons, Grover and Glen Salyer, in 1941, and I can't yet find another.
On the Traditional Tune Archive site it's stated "A 'Lost Girl' tune was played at the Berea, Kentucky, fiddlers contests in 1919 and 1920 by H.F. Green and by Anderson Bowling, according to records of the events reviewed by Titon, although what version (or tune) they may have played is not known." in Jeff Titon's book Old Time Kentucky Tunes, he also noted other fiddlers whose names I'm familiar having played Lost Girl, like Luther Strong, Manon Campbell, Walter McNew, Burl Hammons and more recently Bruce Greene.
Here's another recording to enjoy from the playing of Chance McCoy and the Appalachian String Band. Adam played banjo for Chance's debut CD. This version comes from Walter McNew.
My own mp3 below begins with the McNew Lost Girl and goes into the Salyer version, as learned from Adam. (Tab was included in the original post for them both.)
Edited by - JanetB on 08/13/2024 16:46:32
I played the Salyer version in G for twenty years then suddenly, about fifteen years ago, it disappeared from jams overnight and was replaced by the McCoy version in C. . It is amazing how influential one CD can be.
I am just now starting to hear the G version in jams again.
Janet B., I was referring to the second of two versions of “Lost Girl” recorded by John Salyer on the family recordings made in the early 1940s. It’s faster and not as clearly recorded as the one you linked to. It’s included on the two CDs of the complete Salyer recordings. I can’t find it online to link to. The Slippery Hill one you linked to is the first of the two recordings included on that set. It’s better for learning the tune. But both versions are great.
Newest Posts
'Bill Bailey' 1 min
'Ain't Misbehaving' 2 min
'Mood Indigo' 4 min
'Davenport Blues' 5 min
'After You've Gone' 5 min
'The Mooche' 7 min
'Sweet Lorraine' 8 min
'Canal Street Blues' 9 min
'Good Saturday Morning' 3 hrs
