This is a Midwest tune that is not, at least at present, that geographically widespread outside of the Midwest. Maybe that will change…
The Goods
1. There is a recent video by Charlie Walden at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoc0eRFOBw&t=2s
Be sure to listen to Charlie’s narration from about 2:00 to 3:00, where he says that he learned the tune from either Brenda Koenig or Laura Sleade at the Friends Creek Campground. Brenda and Laura are both fiddlers from Champaign, IL (where I live). It was Laura who played Decatur Reel at the Campground. Also check Charlie’s text for a bit more tune history.
2. TikTok from “jaybirdfiddle”
https://www.tiktok.com/@jaybirdfiddle/video/7257506296876911918
The text has that this is a Dwight Lamb tune gotten from Willi Carlisle. But I think it is from Willi Goehring and Allison Williams’ YouTube (next one here) that is posted at Willi Carlisle’s channel.
3. Video from “Old Ties” (Willi Goehring, fiddle and Allison Williams, clawhammer banjo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxQvOkoGRUE&t=4s
The text has that this is a Dwight Lamb tune that they got from Rachel Reynolds Lustre, “a folklorist working in the Missouri Ozarks”. As you’ll see in the tune history below, “Decatur Reel” is a Missouri Valley tune, and more specifically a Missouri tune.
I think that’s about it as far as available videos or recordings go, for reasons that may become apparent in the tune history (below).
Tune History
I started with a query to Howard Marshall, as about all I could tell was that Decatur Reel was a Dwight Lamb tune. If you are not familiar with Dr. Marshall, see his Wikipedia listing or https://mofiddledance.org/profiles/howard-marshall/ or search for him at banjohangout and you will find many references to him for TOTWs. He has published, among other things, three authoritative books on Missouri fiddling: “Play me Something Quick and Devilish: Old-Time Fiddlers in Missouri,” “Fiddler’s Dream: Old-Time, Swing, and Bluegrass Fiddling in Twentieth Century Fiddling in Missouri” and “Keep it Old-Time: Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s to the Present” (all from MIZZOU Press). While Dwight Lamb was from Onawa, Iowa (so not the state of Missouri), Lamb’s contributions to Missouri Valley (in general) and Missouri (in specific) fiddling were substantial.
Dr. Marshall got back to me with information on the tune and suggested that I contact Amber Gaddy, David Cavins, and Nate Kemperman. If you want to hear all three of these individuals playing with Dwight Lamb in celebration of Lamb’s 80th year go to https://missourivalleymusic.com/product/dwight-lamb-80/ where you can download a zip file (free!) with 29 tunes and liner notes. However, you will not find Decatur Reel here.
I heard back from Amber that they (she, David, Nate…) learned an unnamed tune from Dwight Lamb that he had gotten from Bob Walters. As the tune did not have a title, they dubbed it “Decatur Reel” after Decatur, NE, Bob Walter’s birthplace located about 11 miles west of Onawa, IA, where Lamb lived.
Amber indicated that having learned “Decatur Reel,” the tune got spread around quite a bit, in part because it was taught at the Bethel Youth Fiddle Camp. There's a brief YouTube video of Dwight Lamb fiddling at Bethel in 1995. For information about the Camp’s history see the 25-minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNem_nrrxXw. Highpoints of the video are a description of the founding of the camp in 1983 (6:15-6:35, with a photo of a young Charlie Walden), a very brief view of Amber fiddling (21:48-21:50), and a camp student supported by camp staff (that’s probably Amber on piano) playing “Molly Put the Kettle On” from about 21:50 to the end. OK, maybe that will not sound like the “Molly” or “Polly” that you know from the nursery rhyme song (TOTW 337), as this is the Bob Holt (Missouri) version which he introduces in the slippery-hill *.mp3 as an “unnamed tune”. Speaking of nursery rhyme songs, measures 1, 2, 5, and 6 of the A-part of “Decatur Reel” should sound familiar.
Joe Hinkebein got “Decatur Reel” from Amber and Nate. Hinkebein is a Missouri fiddler, here playing, appropriately enough, “South Missouri” at Clifftop in 2009.
Now for the Missouri path to Illinois, Laura Sleade and guitar-playing spouse Ed Hawkes were at a party/jam at Geoff Seitz’s place. Seitz is a well-known Missouri fiddler and luthier (here’s Seitz kickin’-off the “Missouri Fiddlers” playing “Molly Put the Kettle On” at Clifftop, Note to Janet: someone’s got to do this version of “Molly” as a TOTW). Laura heard Joe Hinkebein at the party/jam playing a tune that she really liked, and when she heard that it was called “Decatur Reel” (Laura’s spent a lot of time in Decatur, IL) she asked if she could record the tune. Joe obliged and then Laura learned the tune and I learned it from Laura. So, now you have as complete a history as I can find for how a tune traveled about 440 miles as the crow flies from Decatur, NE to Champaign, IL. The nice thing about the spread of the tune is that it was not done electronically (save for Laura’s recording of Joe’s fiddling so that she could woodshed it when she got home). This trip, ultimately to Champaign, IL of Decatur Reel was from fiddler-to-fiddler sans YouTube, *.mp3s, CDs…
Laura spread the tune around here, including at a jam at Techline Furniture in Champaign, IL. Techline Furniture was owned by the now retired shop owners guitar-playing luthier Paul Breen and banjo playing Christine Breen (“Strokestyle” at BHO ). Christine does mention “Decatur (Reel)” in comments on TOTW #138 and says that Decatur (Reel) came from Laura. But I think that is the only mention anywhere in BHO of this tune.
A TOTW in The Making
Take-one: During the Spring, one of the bands I play with (mostly fiddle and a bit of banjo) was putting together a set-list for an upcoming contra dance. When we are playing dances, I play fiddle and we do medleys of two tunes. I was trying to find something to pair with “Briar Picker Brown” and out popped “Decatur Reel.” I asked the other band members what that was, and then I remembered. When we go to dances I like to take standard music notation with me for the inevitable “How does that go?” moment. I couldn’t find notation for “Decatur Reel.” After the fact, I did find it in a somewhat obscure source, which is as tune #432 (“Decatur”) in Billy Mathews’ “500 Fiddle Tunes: Old-Time Archive” (with notation by Emily Elam). Billy lists the source as “At a jam at Techline” (so, from Laura Sleade). Without the benefit of ready-made notation, I did a quick “banjo” tab in tabledit (just the melody) and printed it as standard notation to take to the dance. Then I turned it into a proper banjo tab for the band’s banjo player. That is the attached tab.
Take-two: A bit later the other band I play with was putting together a set-list also for a contra dance. I usually play banjo (sometimes a bit of fiddle) with that band, which consists of me, Laura Sleade (fiddle), Ed Hawkes (guitar), and Susan Frankenberg (autoharp). When we were practicing, I recorded us playing “Decatur Reel,” which is attached here. My banjo playing on this is simplistic (compared to the tab) as Laura is carrying the melody (and the day!).
Actually I liked your "simplistic" banjo backup on this tune. It offered a nice steady back ground to the busy fiddle. A lot of times the banjo's job is to make the fiddler and the tune shine while offering a toe-tapping back ground rather than a toe stepping ON the tune arrangement that detracts rather than enhances. Just my two cents. Nice job! banjered
That's a great string band sound you have there, Lyle, and Pat's comment about the banjo's role at times is right on. The "dance feel" is definitely there.
My arrangement is of the more complex banjo sort that imitates the fiddle, and Charlie Walden is a fiddler worth learning from. He's given much to promote Midwest music. Here's his list of 100 Essential Missour Fiddle Tunes, but Decatur Reel isn't on it (maybe, though, the list will give us more TOTW ideas).
I tried a few permutations of hammer-on, pull-offs and slides and also tried a Galax Lick in the 9th, 13th and 17th measures. My tab is similar to yours, Lyle, with some small melodic differences from following Charlie's version.
Thanks Tom and Janet for the comments. Yes, one has to strike a bit of a balance playing clawhammer banjo with a band. At one end of the scale (sorry, bad pun) is solo or banjo & fiddle together (Carlin's Banging and Sawing is a good example of the latter) and at the other is playing in a band. For a band you can take things too far away from the fiddle and just end up "bum ditty-dittying" your way through chords.
Re: Charlie Walden, Decatur Reel isn't in his 100 Essential Missouri Tunes because he hadn't heard it until Laura Sleade played it this summer. I asked Amber and David about this, because it seemed strange to me that Charlie would have missed a Dwight Lamb tune. But Amber pointed out that Charlie spent more time with Cyril Stinnett than with Dwight Lamb. Further to the 100 Essential Missouri Tunes, I had big plans to tab them all out. I only made it to 76 of the 100. They are at https://vrteach.org/lylek/ listed with "M100."
quote:
Originally posted by JanetBThat's a great string band sound you have there, Lyle, and Pat's comment about the banjo's role at times is right on. The "dance feel" is definitely there.
My arrangement is of the more complex banjo sort that imitates the fiddle, and Charlie Walden is a fiddler worth learning from. He's given much to promote Midwest music. Here's his list of 100 Essential Missour Fiddle Tunes, but Decatur Reel isn't on it (maybe, though, the list will give us more TOTW ideas).
I tried a few permutations of hammer-on, pull-offs and slides and also tried a Galax Lick in the 9th, 13th and 17th measures. My tab is similar to yours, Lyle, with some small melodic differences from following Charlie's version.
Forgot to comment on your *.mp3. Gorgeous as ever. Is it a cello banjo?
