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.[Tape begins at the end of an unnamed song]
Interviewer:“Liberty”
Bailey:[
1:00---1:34 Plays “Liberty.”]Interviewer:[unintelligible] Hornpipe.
Bailey:[1:36---2:43 Plays unintelligible named Hornpipe]
Interviewer:“Lansing Quadrille.” Where did you get “Lansing Quadrille?”
Bailey:Got it from Mr. York. That’s what he called it.
[2:52--- 4:08 Plays “Lansing Quadrille.”]
Interviewer: “Durham’s Bull.”
Bailey:Okay, that’s a modern piece.
[4:16—5:24 Plays “Durham’s Bull”]
Interviewer:Now when you say modern, what do you mean?
Bailey:Uh, Buddy Durham wrote it. He’s a Canadian fiddler; he’s still living. [Coughs].
Interviewer:Who wrote it?
Bailey:Buddy Durham.
Interviewer:Buddy Durham?
Bailey:Umm-hmm.
Interviewer:I thought it was after Durham’s smoking tobacco.
Bailey:No, no.
Interviewer:[Laughs]
Bailey:He’s a Canadian fiddler player.
Interviewer:Buddy Durham, all right. “Red Apple Rag?”
Bailey:Okay, that’s, that’s [unintelligible] open. I’m going to play it in G;
some play it in A, but I’m going to play it in G.[5:54----7:17 Plays “Red Apple Rag.”]
Interviewer:Is that a modern tune? “Red Apple Rag’s” an older tune, inst it?
Bailey:Yes.
Interviewer:There’s a similarity there just a little bit. “Fiddler’s Dream.”
Bailey:[7:26—8:40 Plays “Fiddler’s Dream.”]
Interviewer:“Ragged Ann.”
Bailey:[8:45---
2:00Plays “Ragged Ann.”]Interviewer:“Stonewall Jackson.”
Bailey:[
3:00 --- 4:00Plays “Stonewall Jackson.”]Interviewer:Where did you learn that one?
Bailey:I’ve heard that one all my life. That’s an old one.
Interviewer:All right. One of those, huh? I have, have never heard that one
before. “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”Bailey:Ah, I told you [unintelligible—something about not remembering the song.]
[
5:00 --- 6:00Plays “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”]Interviewer:“Up Comes the [unintelligible.”]
Bailey:[
7:00 --- 8:00Plays “Up Comes the [unintelligible.”]Interviewer:[laughs and mumbles] “Old Coon Dog.”
Bailey:We did that one before.
Interviewer:We did, didn’t we? “Alabama Jubilee.”
Bailey:Yeah, okay. [
9:00 --- 10:00Plays “Alabama Jubilee.”]Interviewer:“Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down.”
Bailey:[
11:00 --- 12:00Plays “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down.”Interviewer:That has a lot of accidentals in it. Is that a more modern piece?
Bailey:Well, I made it [laughs]. Oh, I jazzed it up a little, I play it, could
play it, I could play it here in G and make it a little simpler maybe. But---Interviewer:You want to play it—[song begins mid sentence.]
Bailey:[
13:00 — 14:00Plays “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” in G.]Interviewer:Where did you learn that tune?
Bailey:Huh?
Interviewer:Where did you learn that tune?
Bailey:Oh, I’ve known that ever since I was that high.
Interviewer:Oh, I thought maybe—it sounded, it sounded it more modern like that.
Bailey:I modernized it there a little with the—see I learnt that modern
fiddling, some of that squalling fiddling from Guy Breakman used to be on WOW. He was with Burt Lane at that time. He was a fine fiddle player. He played with Burt Lane on WOW in the mornings, and that’s where I got that good ending, ending on my pieces.Interviewer:[Unintelligible]
Bailey:WOW, he was on there.
Interviewer:Radio station. I like that, uh, I like that ending. [Both
interviewer and Bailey speak at the same time.]Bailey:They like that up at Lexington too. Fellow down there by the name of
Zimmerman in Cincinnati, and he’s a fine fiddle player, and he told me about Blakeman, I never got to meet him after that. He’s still there. And he’s ---played in some of these fiddling contest, you know he said he might be down there. I said, ‘I’m going home if he’s down there.” He was down there. He said, “You don’t have to run from me.”Interviewer:[Laughs]
Bailey:He said, I said, “Well, he beat me.” He said, “I don’t know about that.”
But I played a lot—I was a copycat after him on some things, I mean.Interviewer:Well, he’s worth copying. So are you. You mentioned Cincinnati. You
want to play “Cincinnati Rag?”Bailey:Yeah, I’ll try it.
Interviewer:Did you get this off of WLW?
Bailey:No, no. Learnt this later.
Interviewer:Oh, is that right?
Bailey:A few years ago.
Interviewer:Is that right? New tune.
[both talk at the same time.]
Bailey:[
15:00 --- 16:00Plays “Cincinnati Rag.”]Interviewer:Sally, oh, “Twinkle Little Star.”
Bailey:[mumbles]
Interviewer:Twinkle, Twinkle.
Bailey:Now this is an old-time one. And there’s two different ways of playing
this. There’s a breakdown way and this is the old-time way they used to play it. I learned it from an old man. He was an old man when I was young.[
17:00 --- 18:00Plays “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”]Interviewer:That’s the old one, isn’t it?
Bailey:Uh-hmm. You want the new way?
Interviewer:You play it too? Yes.
Bailey:[
19:00 --- 20:00Plays new version of “Twinkle, Twinkle Star.”]Interviewer:“Sally Johnson.”
Bailey:“Sally Johnson,” that’s one of my favorite pieces.
[
21:00 --- 22:00Plays “Sally Johnson.”]Interviewer:“Agnes Campbell.”
Bailey:“Ages Campbell.” Agnes.
[
23:00 --- 24:00Plays “Agnes Campbell.”]Interviewer:“Down Yonder.”
Bailey:“Down Yonder!”
[
25:00 ---- 26:00Plays “Down Yonder.” Sounds like recording ends in mid song and then picks back up again with a different song or different part of song. 27:00 ---- 28:00is the new song or different part of the song].Interviewer:That rocks it right away, doesn’t it? Oh boy. “Sweet Bunch of Daisies?”
Bailey:Hmmm?
Interviewer:“Sweet Bunch of Daises.”
Bailey:Yes, okay.
[
29:00 --- 30:00Plays “Sweet Bunch of Daisies.”]Interviewer:Where did you learn that one?
Bailey:Along time ago.
Interviewer:Along time ago. “Just Because.”
Bailey:[
31:00 --- 32:00Plays “Just Because.”]Interviewer:I thought that was going to be a slow wedding type of song.
[Laughing in background]. Is there a wedding type of song that they play at weddings that’s “Just Because?” “Drinking Hiccups.”Bailey:“Drunken Hiccups.”
[
33:00 --- 34:00Plays “Drunken Hiccups.”] I play that tuned up on the fiddle and I forgot about it.Interview:[Other unintelligible voice in the background.] Well, tune up, and you
can play it up with “Black Mountain Rag.”Bailey:Play it after while, yeah.
Interviewer:uh, Bull Cows?
Bailey:Bell
Interviewer:“Bell Cows!”
Bailey:I’ve got to tune up for that.
Interviewer:Oh, well do you want to wait and come back to “Black Mountain Rag,”
and “Bell Cow,” and “Turkey Buzzard?”Bailey:[mumbles] [
35:00 ---- 36:00Plays unnamed song. Probably one of the afore mentioned songs.]Interviewer:“Sugar Tree Stomp.”
Bailey:“Sugar Tree Stomp.”
[
37:00 --- 38:00Plays “Sugar Tree Stomp.”]Interviewer:Is that a modern tune?
Bailey:Uh-umm [no].
Interviewer:Where did you learn it?
Bailey:Long, long time ago. Oscar Smith used to play that down at the Nashville
[or National] a long, long time ago.Interviewer:Oh, okay. “Pluck the Devil’s Eye.”
Bailey:Well, I don’t pluck it; I use the bow. I should pluck it.
[
39:00 --- 40:00Plays “Pluck the Devil’s Eye.”] Carlton Robbins could play that, and he could pluck it. But I never did take the time to learn it.Interviewer:[Laughs]
Bailey:With his fingers.
Interviewer:“Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home?”
Bailey:[
41:00 --- 42:00Plays “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home?”]Interviewer:Two hornpipes coming up: “Monroe Hornpipe” and “Fisher’s Hornpipe.”
Bailey:[
43:00 --- 44:00Plays “Monroe Hornpipe.”] ‘Fisher’s?”Interviewer:Yes.
Bailey:[
45:00 --- 46:00Plays “Fisher’s Hornpipe.”]Interviewer:You played that in F, didn’t you?
Bailey:Uh-huh.
Interviewer:I saw you do that. Liza Jane, “Ole Liza Jane.”
Bailey:“Liza Jane.”
[
47:00 --- 48:00Plays “Ole Liza Jane.”][
49:00 --- 50:00Plays different version of the same song.]Interviewer:Is that rocking the boat there?
Bailey:Uh-uh. Might have been, yeah.
Interviewer:What would you call that?
Bailey:I guess it’s just rocking the boat in a way, it’s just, yeah.
Interviewer:“I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight.”
Bailey:[
51:00 --- 52:00Plays “I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight.”]Interviewer:In C. “Dusty Miller.”
Bailey:[
53:00 --- 54:00Plays “Dusty Miller.”]Interviewer:“Cumberland Gap.”
Bailey:What?
Interviewer:“Cumberland Gap.”
Bailey:Oh yeah, “Cumberland Gap.”
[
55:00 --- 56:00Plays “Cumberland Gap.”]Interviewer:“Big Sandy.”
Bailey:Cut that off a minute. [Recorder turns off]
[
57:00comes back in mid song. Song ends at 58:00 ]Interviewer:Where did you get that tune?
Bailey:I heard it at, uh, let’s see. I be danged. I think I learnt it---I can’t
tell you right now who I did learn it from.M.Bailey:[speaks in background]
Interviewer:It’s a new one?
Bailey:Yeah, it’s a new one. It’s new “Big Sandy” yeah.
M.Bailey:Alfred, didn’t you get it---
Bailey:I got it down at Rough River. I, I tell you who I got it from was Kenny Baker.
Interviewer:It’s on a Kenny Baker album. [Many voices talking at once.]
Bailey:Yeah I got it down there too.
M.Bailey:See, Cumberland Gap and Big Sandy goes through there, that area.
Interviewer:Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?
M.Bailey:The river. And Cumberland Gap [unintelligible.]
Interviewer:[You always play both of those together] [Many voices talking at
once making most of the conversation unintelligible.]Bailey:[Unintelligible] Well I forgot how to start is the reason I stumped you.
Interviewer:[Interviewer begins talking, but the words are unintelligible due to
Bailey playing in the background.] “Blue Mountain.”Bailey:[
59:00 --- 60:00Plays “Blue Mountain.”] I read in a some book that that was the oldest fiddle tune in the United States. About the first one they started playing over here.Interviewer:Is that right? I, I didn’t know that. We found a notation in very
early writings to the Pilgrims had gotten here that there was a mention of fiddle and a social get together, and it was like in the sixteen thirties.Bailey:Yeah. And “Soldier’s Joy” I am sure is very old too.
Interviewer:It’s a well-known tune.
Bailey:Yeah, It’s from the Revolutionary War.
Interviewer:It’s a well known---
Bailey:They call it the “King’s Head” up in Washington. When I was up there
that’s what they called it.Interviewer:Oh, is that right?
M.Bailey:Same song.
Interviewer:Same song?
Bailey:Yep. They call it “The King’s Head” though.
M.Bailey:See it was the King’s Head that they was after, to get their independence.
Interviewer:[laughs]. I never had made that connection, Mary. I am glad you
brought that up.M.Bailey:Well, that’s why, that’s what I figured because when they told me what
they called it---Bailey:[talking at the same time] Well, that’s what it meant, yeah.
M.Bailey:Had to be the king’s head.
Interviewer:Oh, and it was the soldier’s joy to get the king’s head?
M.Bailey:Uh-huh. Yes. Getting the king’s head because they were getting their
independence. We were, our ancestors.Interviewer:“Wildwood Flower.”
M.Bailey:Well that’s one, that’s an old one.
Bailey:[
61:00 --- 62:00Plays “Wildwood Flower.”]Interviewer:I like that; I like that. “Ole Little Joe.”
Bailey:[
63:00 ---- 64:00Plays “Little Joe.”] There’s another part, but I forgot it. I’m sure, I think.Interviewer:Is that right?
Bailey:And I didn’t want to ruin it. I knew part of it.
Interviewer:“Bully of the Town” new way.
Bailey:Now this is the way I play it. I learnt this one from Guy Breakman.
[Stops mid song] I got a catch in my finger. Wait a minute.
[
65:00 --- 66:00Plays “Bully of the Town” new way]Interviewer:That has words?
Bailey:Oh yeah.
Interviewer:My daddy sings the words to it.
Bailey:[Unintelligible]
Interviewer:He loves that tune.
Bailey:Clayton McMichen wrote it.
Interviewer:I didn’t know that.
Bailey:Yep. And he wrote “Boil Them Cabbage Down” too, him and Burt Lane wrote
that, wrote that piece.Interviewer:Uh-hmmm. Uh, “Mississippi Sawyer.”
Bailey: Yeah.
[
67:00--- Plays “Mississippi Sawyer.” Ends mid song at 1: 68:00 ][Recording ends 1:
69:00 ] 70:00