High on a Mountain Top

     In the last blog (Cluck Old Hen) I wrote a little about different modes used in Old Time Music, especially when it gets cross-linked with Celtic music or blues. So, although most of our "normal" folksongs use three basic chords (I, IV and V), songs in other modes have different chord progressions.  

     In Morgantown, we play High on a Mountain Top in the key of G. The 7th chord (F) shows up in this song, just as it does in Cluck Old Hen.   Again, we can blame the Celtics for using the Mixolydian Mode (named after the Greek town first associated with that scale).   The pattern of going back and forth between the 1st and 7th chords is often associated with the Mixolydian mode. 

    As far as I am aware, Del McCoury was among the first to record the song, using the title "High on a Mountain" (there's a church hymn called "High on a Mountain Top," so I guess he didn't want to use the same title). Del's version differs from the Morgantown version to some extent.  The video shows his left hand on the guitar neck (thank you very much).  Although it looks like Del may be playing the C-Chord where we play the F chord, it may be that he is actually playing F with a C base.  Also, it sounds to me as though he is actually singing in a minor scale, while the guitar at least is playing major chords. I don't think that they teach you that at the Julliard, but it works well for him. 
     Note that the banjo playing is kind of mimicking the Old Time Clawhammer sound, but it looks like what the banjo player is doing is actually doing is kind of a mandolin cross-picking using mainly the thumb pick.  It's kind of a hybrid style I would say.
     So should High On a Mountain Top be performed as Old Time, or is it something else?   Opinions on this subject vary, of course, but my feeling is that it is important to be able to play songs in the Old Time manner, but it is also okay to venture outside that space and to continue to write songs and find new ways to perform the old songs. Music by its nature evolves, and the fact of the matter is that we never play any song exactly the same way twice. That's why live performance (or just sitting around playing with your friends) is so important.  High on a Mountain Top is a more modern composition, but it works well for Old Time musicians.  So I hope others will continue to create new compositions in the same tradition.

*******Post Script**********
After I wrote this blog, Paula wrote a note below pointing out that Ola Belle Reed probably was the original composer.  Unfortunately the discographies available on the web are not detailed enough to give us a date and to verify the identity of the composer, but very likely Ola Belle wrote this song and peformed it on the radio, although Del may have made the first recording of it.  

Mixolydian key of G,  

(G)                   (F)                   (G)
As I look to the valleys down below
                     (F)                                 (G)
they were green just as far as I could see.
       (G)                  (F)       (G)                            (C)
as my memories return, oh how my heart does yearn
    (G)                   (D)                   (G) 

for you and the days that used to be.


(Chorus)
 (G)        (F)                       (G)            (C)
High on a mountain top, wind blowin' free
 (G)                 (D)               (G)
thinkin' about the things that used to be
 (G)                (F)               (G)            (C)
high on a mountain top, standing all alone
 (G)                              (D)                            (G)
wondering where the years of my life have gone.


Oh I wonder if you ever think of me
or has time blotted out your memory
as I listen to the breeze whisper gently through the trees
I'll always cherish what you meant to me.