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1986OHO3.1b---Bailey
Transcriber’s Notes: Words or phrases in found brackets represent unclear or
unintelligible portions of the recording. Brackets are also used to provide the reader with helpful background information about the recording. Underlined text within the transcription represents more than one person speaking at the same time.Bailey: [Recording begins mid-sentence] Andrew Jackson’s wife, because they had
a song they sang about Rachel down there too also. So I’ll play this.[
1:00----1:13 plays “Rachel.”]Bailey: I am just going to play some old time ones. Now this an old time, it’s
called “New Money.” In C.[1:18—2:27 plays “New Money.]
Bailey: Now I’ll play another, another one here [clears throat]. Let’s see, how
about “The Girl Who/I Left Behind Me.”[2:45—3:40 Plays “The Girl I Left Behind Me.”]
Bailey: [Clears throat] Excuse me. I am going to play “Old Dan Tucker,” the
old-time way. A man taught me play this; it was played this way two hundred years ago. He had played the notes. So here it is, my version.[3:52---5:02 plays “Old Dan Tucker”]
Bailey: Okay, I’ll play a hornpipe. “Great Grand Hornpipe.”
[5:06---6:29 plays “Great Grand Hornpipe”] [Clock chimes in the background as
song ends].Bailey: I’ve got one on my mind. I better cut it off maybe. “Forked Deer.”
[6:39--- 8:19 Plays “Forked Deer”]
[8:19---9:47 Plays another unnamed song]
Bailey: Don’t know the name of that one. Just know it.
Interviewer: Where did you learn it?
Bailey: I learned it from a man, a way back been fifty years ago. The one that,
he knew how to read music, and he started teaching me on the fiddle. That’s my wife’s uncle, Harry Glasscock.Interviewer: What’s his name?
Bailey: Harry Glasscock.
Interviewer: Harry Glasscock.
Bailey: Umm-hmm. And he had taken a few violin lessons and wanted to, taught me
to play “Over the Waves” and a few other pieces, and tuned my fiddle.Interviewer: Oh.
Bailey: Yeah. So I’ll play you a little bit of “Over the Waves.”
Interviewer: Okay.
Bailey: The way he taught me. [laughs]
Interviewer: [Laughs]
Bailey: Or so.
[
2:00 --- 3:00Plays “Over the Waves”]Bailey: Okay, this is “The Old Pumpkin Vine.”
[
4:00 --- 5:00Plays “The Old Pumpkin Vine.”]Bailey: [Clears throat] Here is one I like just called “Old Flannigan”
[
6:00 --- 7:00Plays “Old Flannigan.”]Bailey: Okay got another one here. While we are in A we will play a little bit
of the “Peacock Rag.”[
8:00--- Plays “Peacock Rag” 9:00 ]Bailey: I said that was in A; it was in D.
Interviewer: [Laughs].
Bailey: Part of it. I’m going, I lost my train of thought again.
[
10:00 --- 11:00Plays “Little Burnt Potato”Interviewer: And that was “Little Burnt Potato.” And you are going play, uh, we
talked about “Haste to the Wedding.”Bailey: We’ll try it.
Interviewer: All right.
[
12:00 — 13:00Plays “Haste to the Wedding.”]Bailey: [Tape was turned off and then turned back on.] I’ll try to.
[
14:00 --- 15:00Plays “Redbird”]Bailey: I’ll play a little bit of “The Deer Walk.”
Interviewer: Perfect.
[
16:00 --- 17:00Plays “Deer Walk.”]Bailey: Let’s play a little “Leather Britches.”
[
18:00 — 19:00Plays “Leather Britches.”]Bailey: ‘”The Gray Eagle”
[
20:00 --- 21:00Plays “The Gray Eagle.”]Interviewer: Now what do we have there?
Bailey: Let’s see now, I had one figured out and I forgot was going to.
Interviewer: [Unintelligible]
Bailey: “Whistlin’ Rufus.”
Interviewer: “Whistlin’ Rufus.”
[
22:00 — 23:00Plays “Whistlin’ Rufus.”]Bailey: Well, why I am up here [clears throat], let’s see what—Let’s play lower
“Patty on the Turnpike.”[
24:00 --- 25:00Plays “Lower Patty on the Turnpike.”]Bailey: [unintelligible] Reel
[
26:00--- Play Reel, but tape stops at 27:00 ]Interviewer: Okay, “Sue’s Reel.”
[
28:00 --- 29:00Plays “Sue’s Reel.”Bailey: This is “Wedington’s Reel.”
Interviewer: Wedington?
Bailey: Umm, Wedington.
[
30:00 --- 31:00Plays Wedington’s Reel][
32:00 ---- 33:00Plays unnamed song][
34:00 --- 35:00Plays unnamed song.]Bailey: That’s one I played about the longest. I’d say give the fiddler [unintelligible].
Interviewer: [laughs].
Bailey: You’ve heard that one I guess.
[
36:00 — 37:00Plays unnamed song][
38:00 --- 39:00Plays song]Bailey: I think Clayton McMichen and Burt Lane wrote it because they were
brother in laws. And Burt Lang was a famous fiddle player. You may have never of him. And he’s still living down at Covington, and he’s ninety two or three, maybe fours years old now. And he was one of the finest fiddle players I think I ever heard. And he’s one-eyed. And he played with the Skillet Lickers. And I learnt a lot of pieces off of the Skillet Lickers records, and Burt Lane, Clay McMichen, and [Wally Brookin] were doing the playing on there. And they played “The Bully in the Town” two different ways. I know the old “Bully in the Town.” But they's—Interviewer: Let’s hear it.
Bailey: The old “Bully in the Town”
Interviewer: And “Bile them Cabbage.”
Bailey: You want, “Bile the Cabbage” first?
Interviewer: Either one.
Bailey: Okay.
[
40:00 ---- 41:00Plays “Bile Them Cabbage Down”]Bailey: You want the old “Bully of the Town?”
[
42:00 --- 43:00Plays “Bully of the Town.”]Bailey: Been a long time since---
Interviewer: Where’d you get that version?
Bailey: Off the Skillet Licker records. That’s the first “Bully of the Town”
they wrote. And they improved it. McMitchen wrote it, and Burt Lane helped him.Interviewer: Is Burt Lane still alive?
Bailey: I sure enough think he is as far as I know. They celebrate his birthday
every once in a while over in Indiana. And he was one of the finest second fiddle players you ever heard. He could just get in with you, and I mean he could make you sound like you----but he played, but he played “Back Up and Push” and “Robert E. Lee.” I learned all these old pieces from him. [Unintelligible].[
44:00 — 45:00plays unnamed song.]Bailey: Now what’d want to hear?
Interviewer: What’ve you got?
Bailey: Well, I’ve got [someone in the background mentions “Sally Goodin.”]
Let’s play a little bit of [tape stops then starts again]. “Paddy Won’t You Drink Some of My Good Old Cider.”[
46:00 --- 47:00Plays “Paddy Won’t You Drink Some Good Old Cider.”]Interviewer: Paddy won’t you drink some of my---?
Bailey: Good old cider. [Sound of tape turning off]
Bailey: There are so many running through my head I don’t know what to play
next. [Background voice unintelligible]. Oh, I’ll play a little “Sally Goodin.” My version.Interviewer: All right.
Bailey: It’s a little different from everybody else.
[
48:00 --- 49:00Plays “Sally Goodin.”]Bailey: This is “Brickyard Joe.”
[
50:00 --- 51:00Plays “Brickyard Joe.”]Interviewer: “Brickyard Joe?”
Bailey: “Brickyard Joe.” This is the “High Level Hornpipe.”
[
52:00 --- 53:00Plays “High Level Hornpipe.”]Interviewer: Are you going to play “Fifty Year Ago Waltz”?
Bailey: Yeah, okay.
[
54:00 --- 55:00Plays “Fifty Year Ago Waltz.”]Interviewer: Want to play another waltz?
Bailey: Another waltz? Okay, let’s uh, place this “Festival.”
[Plays
56:00 — 57:00--- “Festival Waltz”]Interviewer: Oh, that’s gorgeous. That was “Festival Waltz?”
Bailey: [Unintelligible] Put the “Eight of January” on there. Everyone likes
that one I think. “Eight of January.”[
58:00 --- 59:00Plays “Eighth of January”]Interviewer: That’s a good version of that.
Bailey: Want another one?
[
60:00End of recording.]�PAGE �
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©Kentucky Oral History Commission Kentucky Historical Society 61:00