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1986OHO3.1c---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: Burt Lane used to play it on WLW, and that was about, that was nineteen
thirty, in the late thirties. Nineteen, and I was wondering whether it was traditional or not, but anyhow, I have played it ever since. I went to Lexington one night in a fiddling contest [laughs]. She didn’t, she said she wasn’t able to go, and that night she changed her mind about five o’clock, and said we’d go. So we got dressed and stop and got gas, and an hour and a half we was up in the Bluegrass Fair, and I got there and there was twenty six fiddlers in there. All these other acts, and so at eleven o’clock again I come up to play. And so I played, they had a music teacher, one of the judges, from the University of Kentucky there, and I played “Back Up and Push.” And, and he waved at me while I was playing it. He liked it. And when I come back off from the stage, all these fiddler players are trying to play that [laughs] “Back Up and Push.” But, they, uh, judge you by the applause, some of it was counted, and I didn’t get as good a hand as some of the local fiddle players there. So I told her, “We’re beat; let’s go home.” She said, “Well, let’s get a cup of coffee.” And so we went out to get a cup of coffee, and we met a fiddler there from [Braisailles], and he said, “Where you going?” And I said, “Home as soon a we get a cup of coffee.” He said, “You better stick around the way you played.” He said, “You win something.” I said, “You’re crazy.” He said, “You’ll see.” And when they called it off I was one of the four final fiddler players, but I didn’t win [laughs].Interviewer: [laughs]
Bailey: [unintelligible] Wound up the fourth. It went “Back Up and Push” for
that tune there.Interviewer: And about, about when was this you were doing this?
Bailey: It’s been fifteen, twenty years ago, Bluegrass Fair. That’s before I had
ever won first place at the Bluegrass Fair.Interviewer: And you won first place there since. Did you win on “Back Up and
Push” or what tune did you---?Bailey: Well, I don’t know. I think I won on something else. I don’t remember. I
think “Bill Cheatham” was one I won on.Interviewer: Well, let’s hear “Back Up and Push and “Bill Cheatham.”
Bailey: Okay, let’s try that “Back Up and Push” here.
[2:15 ---3:48 Plays “Back Up and Push”]
Interviewer: I like your endings. [laughs].
Bailey: I got that ending from Guy Breakman on Cincinnati. It was with Burt
Lane. He was fiddle player at that time. He always went up high that a way, and they said they liked that up at the Bluegrass fair they liked that ending, a lot of fiddle players do. That’s who I learned it from. I’m a copycat on that. Now you want me to play “Bill Cheatam.”[4:09--- 5:57 Plays “Bill Cheatham”]
[After the song ends there are a few false starts where the tape recorder
appears to have been turned on and off].Interviewer: How old did you say it was?
Bailey: That’s as old as two or three of me. [Laughs]
[6:17--- 7:54 Plays unnamed waltz]
Interviewer: Where did you learn that waltz?
Bailey: I learned it from Georgie [or George] Lee Hawkins.
Interviewer: Play something else---
Interviewer: And he didn’t know the name of it, but I found it out from another
old-timer from my friend that knew it, and his daddy played it, by the name of Brooks Reynolds. And it come from New Orleans, he said where they brought it up from.[Voice in the background says something about the river]. That’s where the man
learned it. He said they brought it up. Do you like that waltz?Interviewer: Oh, that’s a pretty waltz.
Bailey: I think so. I didn’t know the name of it for years until Brook Reynolds
told me the name of it.[tape turns off and on]
Bailey: That’s what I call Thompson Creek
[8:42---
1:00plays “Thompson Creek.”]Interviewer: “Gold Rush.”
[
2:00 --- 3:00Plays “Gold Rush.”]Bailey: Going to Play “Water is Shorter than the Gourd.”
[
4:00 --- 5:00“Water is Shorter Than the Gourd.”].Bailey: “Cotton Eyed Joe.”
[
6:00 — 7:00Plays “Cotton Eyed Joe.”]Interviewer: That’s not the “Cotton Eyed Joe” they play in Texas, you know.
[
8:00 --- 9:00Plays another unnamed song].Bailey: I never have played “Billy in the Low Ground” have I?
Interviewer: Not Yet.
Bailey: Well, I better play it then. Let’s see if I can get slowed down here enough.
[
10:00 --- 11:00Plays “Billy in the Low Ground.”]Interviewer: What is this?
Bailey: “Yellow Barber.” It’s an old time one.
[
12:00 --- 13:00Plays “Yellow Barber.”]Interviewer: Where did you learn that tune?
Bailey: Willie Thomas and Floyd Miller. Floyd Miller called it “Arthur Burley.”
It’s two different names. Two different fiddle players I learned it from. One of them called it “Yellow Barber” and the other called it “Arthur Burley.” That’s an old time one. Now I know that’s an old time fiddle tune because I heard it even before I couldn’t play a fiddle. That’s why I know it’s an old time fiddle tune. They called it the, most of them call it “Arthur Burry” at that time.Interviewer: Tape recorder turned off and then comes back in mid sentence]
“Black and White Rag.”Bailey: I learned it from Sleepy Marlin down at Louisville.
[
14:00 --- 15:00Plays “Black and White Rag.”]Bailey: “Silver Dollar.”
[
16:00 --- 17:00Plays “Silver Dollar.”]Interviewer: That was gorgeous. “Blackberry Blossom?”
[
18:00 --- 19:00Plays “Blackberry Blossom.”]Interviewer: “Rickett’s Hornpipe?”
Bailey: [
20:00 --- 21:00Plays “Rickett’s Hornpipe.”]Interviewer: How bout a little “Buffalo Gals?”
Bailey: [
22:00 --- 23:00Plays “Buffalo Gals.”][
24:00 --- 25:00---Recording only contains white noise, and begins again mid-conversation.][Voice in the background in conversation]
Interviewer: I want to hear “Washington Swing” again.
Bailey: Tell me when you are ready.
Interviewer: Ready. “Washington---- [Bailey begins playing and overpowers
interviewer’s voice.]Bailey: [
26:00 --- 27:00Plays “Washington.]Interviewer: Let’s hear a little “Tom and Jerry.”
Bailey: “Tom and Jerry.”
[
28:00 --- 29:00Plays “Tom and Jerry.”] I like that one.Interviewer: “Precious Memories?”
Bailey: “Precious Memories.”
[
30:00 --- 31:00Plays “Precious Memories.”]Interviewer: Oh! How bout “Dill Pickle Rag?”
Bailey: [
32:00---4:00 Plays “Dill Pickle Rag.”]Interviewer: “I Don’t Love Nobody,” you’ve got a new one and an old one. Which
one are you going to play first?Bailey: I’ll play the old one.
Interviewer: All right.
Bailey: [
33:00 --- 34:00Plays “I Don’t Love Nobody.”] New one?Interviewer: Yeah, let’s hear that new one.
Bailey: [
35:00 — 36:00Plays “I Don’t Love Nobody.”]Interviewer: You want to play “Jack of Diamonds?”
Bailey: [
37:00 --- 38:00Plays “Jack of Diamonds.”]Interviewer: “Fire on the Mountain.”
Bailey: [
39:00 --- 40:00Plays “Fire on the Mountain.”Interviewer: “Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.”
Bailey: [
41:00 --- 42:00Plays “Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.”]Interviewer: “White Horse?”
Bailey: [
43:00 --- 44:00Plays “White Horse.”]Interviewer: “Golden Slippers.”
[
45:00 --- 46:00Plays “Golden Slippers.”]Interviewer: I really like that second, second part on that. Umm, “Bitter Creek.”
Bailey: [
47:00 ---- 48:00Plays “Bitter Creek.”]Interviewer: “Shannon Waltz?”
Bailey: “Shannon.” [
49:00 --- 50:00Plays “Shannon Waltz.”]Interviewer: “Old Coon Dog.”
Bailey: [
51:00 --- 52:00Plays “Old Coon Dog.”]Interviewer: Boy I like that one. Ah, “Goodnight Waltz.”
Bailey: [
53:00 --- 54:00Plays “Goodnight Waltz.”]Interviewer: “Peek-a-boo Waltz.”
Bailey: [
55:00 --- 56:00Plays “Peek-a-Boo Waltz.”]Interviewer: “Nobody’s Business What/If I Do.”
Bailey: [
57:00 --- 58:00Plays “Nobody’s Business If I Do.”]Interviewer: It’s eighteen fifty six, Hayes, Tilton in the Whitehouse. What does
that mean?Bailey: Tilton is in [clears throat], eighteen seventy-six he run against Hayes,
and he got the most popular votes, but he lost the electoral votes, and he didn’t win the election. And I learnt this from an old French Harp player. It’s called “Tilden in the Whitehouse.” 59:00----1:00-20 Plays “Tilden in the Whitehouse.”]
Interviewer: “Rodner’s Reel?”
Bailey: [1:
60:00 ---1: 61:00Plays “Rodner’s Reel.”]Interviewer: Where’d you learn that?
Bailey: Georgie Lee Hawkins.
Interviewer: Georgie Lee Hawkins. Umm, “San Antonio Rose.”
Bailey: [1:
62:00 ----1: 63:00Plays “San Antonio Rose.”]Interviewer: That’s the Kentucky version of that song, isn’t it? That’s a good
one! Uh, “Kentucky Waltz?”[1:
64:00Recording ends.]�PAGE �
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©Kentucky Oral History Commission Kentucky Historical Society 65:00