Arkansas Traveler

      
    Arkansas Traveler is another of those songs that everyone is supposed to know, and I decided to blog on it so that I would for sure learn to play it!  Although Old Time musicians are pretty good at playing songs that they don't actually know, this particular song has a lot of rapid chord changes, and so you really have to know it in order to play it well. 
      I remember learning this song in music class in about the 5th grade.  It has also been used several times in cartoons from Warner Brothers, so if that doesn't qualify it as an American institution, I don't know what is. 
     Arkansas Traveler was written in the 1800s by  Colonel Sanford C. "Sandy" Faulkner.  

    Rick Good, Sharon Leahy, Ben Cooper (all regulars at the Trolley Stop) play in this version along with Janden Gladstone on the fiddle and Nick Dauphinais on guitar.  (thanks Yaffstone, whoever you are, for uploading  this on youtube).  

     Here is a version by Tommy Jarrell, a superstar fiddler from way back when who was still a tremendous fiddler into his 80s,  with Aly Bain, from a 1980's TV series called Down Home. There are a few high quality youtube videos out there that feature Tommy, so I would encourage any fan of Old Time fiddling to check them out.  It's the closest thing you can get to having a time machine. 

A  PART
D-G-  D---   A---   A--- 

D-G-  D---  D-G-  A-D-

B PART

D-G-  D-A-  D-A-  D-A- 

D-G-  D-A-  D-G-  A-D-

Oh, once upon a time in Arkansas, 
An old man sat in his little cabin door 
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear, 
A jolly old tune that he played by ear. 
It was raining hard, but the fiddler didn't care, 
He sawed away at the popular air, 
Tho' his rooftree leaked like a waterfall, 
That didn't seem to bother the man at all. 

A traveler was riding by that day, 
And stopped to hear him a-practicing away; 
The cabin was a-float and his feet were wet, 
But still the old man didn't seem to fret. 
So the stranger said "Now the way it seems to me," 
You'd better mend your roof," said he. 
But the old man said as he played away, 
"I couldn't mend it now, it's a rainy day." 

The traveler replied, "That's all quite true, 
But this, I think, is the thing to do; 
Get busy on a day that is fair and bright, 
Then patch the old roof till it's good and tight." 
But the old man kept on a-playing at his reel, 
And tapped the ground with his leathery heel. 
"Get along," said he, "for you give me a pain; 
 cabin never leaks when it doesn't rain." 

Hey Hey! Four cent cotton!

       Four cent cotton is a song about moonshine, which can have a cottony whitish appearance.  Lowe Stokes from Georgia cut a version in 1930 with the Skillet Lickers.  The song was also listed in the Fayettte Northwest Alabamian in 1929. 

       Some commentators have suggested that the tune is similar to Sally Gooden.   

       The song has a similar title to 11 Cent Cotton, 90 cent meat, but that song seems to be a farmer's lament about low market prices.  It also doesn't have much if any connection musically to Four Cent Cotton.  It's clear enough from Four Cent Cotton that several verses are about moonshine whiskey or some other alcoholic beverage.  
 
    This is a fantastic song for beginners to learn with because you can play nothing but C and make it work!  On the other hand fiddle players really have to earn their pay as it is a very fast song and there is some major league bowing needed (oh that's right---there ain't no pay for Old Time fiddle players.  Sorry).  

    At the Trolley Stop, we tend to stick in a G bass to use as a turnaround chord.  

      C     C     C   G/C
      C     C     C   G/C

    Fiddler Ben Cooper usually sings lead on this, and more often than not, the audience joins in on the "Hey Heys."  For that reason alone it is a great tune to play in front of an audience.   

 There is a Lowe Stokes version on Youtube: 

I also like this version from a group called the Georgia Crackers.  The video was made circa 2009: 

Fours cent Cotton, by Lowe Stokes (see the Bluegrass Messengers, http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/four-cent-cotton--lowe-stokes--1930.aspx

Old John Davy is dead and rottin’
He got drunk on four-cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton  

(Fiddle)

Sleep all night with a hole in your stockin’
Get no more of the four cent cotton’
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton

(Fiddle)

All year runnin’ in cotton
I went broke on four cent cotton.
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton

(Fiddle)

Billie goat a-runnin’ in the holler
We gonna sell some four cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton

(Fiddle)

Four cent cotton sure as you’re born
I’m gonna drink some Georgia corn,
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton
Hey,  hey four-cent cotton

ds

Welcome to the Old Time Jam at the Trolley Stop

     Every Wednesday night at 930, a group of music lovers gathers at the historic Trolley Stop restaurant and bar in the Oregon Arts District in Dayton Ohio, 530 E. Fifth Street, 937-461-1101. We play Old Time string music, which loosely speaking is made up of the old folk songs that came to us from the British Isles, and which were modified by the early American settlers.

    Please bring your instrument, pull up a chair and join us if you like, or if you prefer just sit for a spell and we'll entertain you.  

    I'm a newcomer to the group, having moved back to the Dayton area after living in Morgantown, West Virginia the past nine years or so.  In West Virginia I picked up my guitar which had lain in a closet for some 30 years or so.  I took lessons from Dave Asti, a brilliant musician who happens to play banjo and mandolin professionally for the Hillbilly Gypsies.  Dave plays bluegrass but also plays Old Time as well as other styles. 

    It turns out that Morgantown is a major world power in the area of Old Time music, and I was fortunate enough to find out that there are several jams that meet weekly, including the Brew Pub jam on Wednesday nights, Percival Pickers on Tuesday at (where else) Percival Hall on the WVU campus,  Elmer Rich's jam at the Senior Center in Westover, and Irish music at the Blue Moose on Friday night.  So I made a lot of friends and learned a lot about music.  

   I'm not particularly strong musically, but I'm interested in learning about the songs that people play, and so for a couple of years, I've been posting in a blog called the Morgantown Old Time Music Jam Wednesday Night at the Brew Pub.  It's been a way to kind of organized the songs that I'm working on, and to share some information.  It's also been interesting because people from around the world follow it.  

    Now however, my job situation has led me to pull up stakes and move back to the Dayton Ohio area.  I was thinking I would have to learn some other type of music, but amazingly enough there is a very strong jam every Wednesday Night at the Trolley Stop.  Organizers are Rick Good (banjo), Sharon Leahy (bass and guitar) and Sharon's son Ben Cooper (fiddle and bass). Rick and Sharon have worked together in diverse venues such as Rhythm and Shoes as well as Shoefly.

You can read about Rick and Sharon here:

http://www.leahygood.com/ 

  They are joined by regulars Lynn (mando), Israel (bass), Big Ben (fiddle), Rick Donahoe (guitar), Ryan on guitar and vocals, and little old me on 12 string baritone guitar.  We might be joined by several others on any given night.    There are some ridiculously talented people at the Jam, and others who are just ridiculous, like me.  The thing about Old Time musicians however, is that they are about nicest people that you could ever meet.  You would never guess that they are famous or acclaimed for their work (which they are).  

   I really think that there is something profound that happens when you sit down with a group of people and play music together.  Perhaps this is something that God wants us to do as part of living in a community.  It makes you feel connected in a very special way, almost like an extended family. 

   

   I plan to stay with this hobby for as long as I'm able, and if there is a way that I can help others to discover the joy of music making I will certainly do so.  This blog may be a modest step in that direction.    I hope it provides a little insight about the songs, and if I can supply some tips for the beginning or intermediate players, I'll try to share what I know.

  In the meantime, I'll share a few videos I made last week.  Dan Gellert came to the jam and led us in a few new tunes (new to me that is).  

 Here's a song I don't know. One of the weird things about Old Time musicians is that they can generally play songs that they don't know, as long as the leader knows it. 

  Here's another song I don't know.

                                 

This one is Old Mose (thanks Dan!).

                                And another...