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:[begins mid sentence] Most of the tunes from Burt Lang and Clayton
McMichen back when I was young.Interviewer 2:Uh-huh.
Bailey:But they wasn’t real old time fiddle players. That played on the radio a lot.
Interviewer 2: Yeah.
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Are you making a distinction between those people and maybe some
of the older people that were playing the fiddle throughout wherever—Bailey:Oh yeah. You’d have to make a distinction.
Interviewer 2: Okay. Well, I’m asking you if you are making a distinction.
Bailey:Yeah. They were professionals at that time.
Interviewer 2: Okay.
Bailey:The radio people were. And these I learnt from the country, of course,
wasn’t professional---like myself.Interviewer:Who’d you learn “Leather Britches” from?
Bailey:Well, I would say I probably learned it from George Hawkins.
Interviewer 2: Okay.
Bailey:Yeah, I got some George Hawkins and [Carlton ??], probably both of them.
Interviewer 2: You want to start off with “Leather Britches” then [both talking
at the same time].Bailey:Oh yeah, I’ll play that.
Interviewer 2: [Just so we got a name in there]
Bailey:You ready?
Interviewer 2: Sure.
Bailey:Okay. 1:02----2:33 Plays “Leather Britches.]
Interviewer 2: Do you know the words of it---
Bailey:Well, no.
Interviewer 2: Perchance?
Bailey:Is there words to it?
Interviewer 2: There are a few short little words occasionally found.
Bailey:I got on the last there that note I learned from George Hawkins on this
[plays the part he learned from Hawkins.] Right in there.Interviewer 2: Uh-huh.
Bailey:You heard that spot there?
Interviewer 2: Yeah.
Bailey:Some people don’t do that.
Interviewer:Yeah, it makes it sound distinctive to me.
Bailey:That’s my version of it.
Interviewer 2: Okay. Uncle, was it uncle Harry you learned some things from?
Bailey:Yeah, yeah. Here is one here I learnt. He didn’t know the name of it, and
I don’t either. [Sound of mic being moved]. [3:29--- Plays unknown song.] I don’t know the name of that one.Interviewer 2: Could you play that a little longer? Go through the second part
maybe twice.Bailey:[4:19---5:03 Plays song again].
Interviewer 2: Sounds like, sounds like you could sing an old song to it. Or is
it an old march or something like that at one time.Bailey:Let’s see, what other pieces he played I was trying to think. I had some
more he played. Here’s one.[5:19---6:29 Plays song.]
Interviewer 2:And you don’t have the name for that either?
Bailey:Someone called it “E, H, and I.” I don’t know what it is?
Interviewer 2: [Laughs]
Interviewer 2: “E, H, and I?”
Bailey: Yeah.
Interviewer 2: “E, H, and I.” [Everyone laughs]
Interviewer:That’s an interesting name.
Bailey:Now here’s one I learnt back there from somebody. I can’t remember who it
was. It’s called “Slow and Easy.” I don’t know whether I could play it now or not. [Laughs]. Let me see if I can.[6:48---7:50 Plays “Slow and Easy.”]
Interviewer 2: That’s a blues tune I guess.
Interviewer:Bluesy.
Interviewer 2: The key of G, and so was the other one before that.
Bailey:Yeah, yeah.
Interviewer:You mentioned Burt Lane as learning some pieces from?
Bailey:Oh yeah. I learned “Back Up and Push” from him and “Robert E. Lee,” and
“Whistlin’ Rufus” I learnt from Burt Lane. I learned a lot of them from him. He played on WLW Radio. They say he is ninety something years old and still living. I told you that down around Covington or somewhere [begins plays fiddle and overpowers Interviewees voices]. You ought to look him up; he was a famous fiddle player.Interviewer:It would be fun to go talk to him.
Interviewer 2:Where is Covington?
Interviewer:It’s south of Cincinnati.
Interviewer:It’s not that far.
Interviewer 2: Oh, okay.
Interviewer:Considering you have already come from Saint Louis. [Many voices
talking at the same time. Bailey is also playing fiddle.]Bailey:Here’s one I learnt a long time ago, but I couldn’t tell you what fiddle
player I learned it from exactly. But I think it was a fellow by the name of Davenport that played this when I was small, called “Birdie.”[9:00---
1:00Plays “Birdie.”] That’s a little piece off of [unintelligible] I never did play.Interviewer:Yeah, I come back this time and he plays three I haven’t ever heard
before [laughs].Bailey:I have them wrote down there.
M.Bailey:I don’t know where they are.
Bailey:I can tell you one of them was “Four Wheel Blues,” Clayton McMichen
played it. And then there was on, “Going Uptown.” I learnt it from a bunch of fiddle players on the radio.Interviewer:“Going Uptown?”
Bailey:“Going Uptown.” Did you ever hear that one?
[
2:00 --- 3:00Plays “Going Uptown.”]Interviewer:Did you learn that around here?
Bailey:Uh-hmm. I learned it from a bunch of fiddle players on the radio. They’re
called the Personality Boys, and I couldn’t think of who it was.Interviewer:[Laughs].
Bailey:But it’s been around quite a while, that one has. I don’t know how long.
This is, Clayton McMichen wrote this himself. It’s called “Farwell Blues.”Interviewer:Okay.
Bailey:[
4:00 --- 5:00Plays “Farewell Blues.”]Interviewer:I like his ending. Interviewer 2: Yeah.
Interviewer:He always has these [Everyone laughs and talks at the same time.]
Interviewer:You have plenty of time to get ready for the end.
M.Bailey:It gives the other musicians time to---
Interviewer:Time to cool off.
Bailey:This is, let me see if I can play a little bit of Burt Lane’s “Robert E. Lee.”
Interviewer:I like that one.
Bailey:
[
6:00 --- 7:00Plays “Robert E. Lee.”]Interviewer 2: You like the key of C pretty well.
Bailey:Yeah, I like to play in C.
Interviewer 2: [laughs]
Bailey:Real well. Do you like to play in the key of C?
Interviewer 2: Not particularly [laughs].
Bailey:It don’t give you nothing.
Interviewer 2: What do you mean it don’t give you nothing?
Bailey:You have to make them all; you have to make all the notes.
Interviewer:Yeah, you are right.
Bailey:You have to make all the notes. Easier ones are A and D.
Interviewer 2: Oh sure.
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Do you also play in B flat and---?
Bailey:Yes, I play some things in B flat. [Coughs]. Let’s see if I can play one.
[I think it’s called] “Thunder Hornpipe.” I don’t remember.[
8:00 --- 9:00Plays “Thunder Hornpipe.”]Interviewer 2: Where did you hear that?
Bailey:Oh, a long time---I heard that from Sleepy Marlin down in Louisville. Do
you remember Sleepy Marlin?Interviewer 2: No.
Bailey:Played on the radio, played on there. He was a champion national fiddler
for a while.Interviewer 2: Since it’s, it’s interesting, uh, because that tune is a fairly
popular piece at a fiddle contest in Missouri.Bailey:It is?
Interviewer:Is that right?
Interviewer:That’s right, yeah.
Bailey:“Thunder Hornpipe” huh?
Interviewer 2: But they call it “Thunder Bolt Hornpipe”
Bailey:Yeah, yeah.
Interviewer 2: They, they do, your bow work is a little straight, but they use a
triple bow.Bailey: Yeah.
Interviewer 2: [Makes sound to mimic the triple bow effect]. But that’s its main feature.
Bailey:I never put a lot of time in on it. I just play it.
Interviewer 2: Uh-huh [laughs]. But I was going to say it’s one of the tunes
that they do use the old triple bow.Bailey:Yeah, yeah.
Interviewer 2: It’s probably common to hear at fiddle contests. Or at least it
used to be [sound of Bailey playing fiddle overpowers Interviewer 2’s voice].[Sounds of voices talking as he plays around on the fiddle.
Interviewer 2: Did you ever get to hear the old man Ed Hailey play or JWJ? They
were over around Ashland.Bailey:No. Never heard of em. Heard Buddy Thomas.
M.Bailey:Same age, well younger.
Interviewer 2:Are there two different Buddy Thomas’s or just the one that would
be about fifty years old if he was still alive?Bailey:Only one I ever knew.
Interviewer 2: Okay.
Bailey:Yeah. That’s the only one I ever knew.
Interviewer 2: Did you learn any pieces from him, since we mentioned him?
Bailey:No, not really. Knew about all he played, and I guess he knew about all I played.
Interviewer 2: Did you ever learn the old tune what they call “No Corn on Tiger?”
Bailey:No, never learnt that one.
Interviewer 2: Okay.
Bailey:I may call it something else, but
Interviewer:You do play an old Flannary [many voices talking at the same time.]
M.Bailey:I found a piece, not all of them. But I found one---
Bailey:I’ll tell you who plays “Flannary’s Dream.” It’s a Mr. Kelly.
Interviewer 2: Sanford Kelly.
Interviewer:Sanford Kelly played that.
Bailey:Yes, he did so. And I never learned it. Here’s “Stoneman’s Rag” [looking
at list of songs] I never played for you that day, “Boatin’ Up Sandy.” Let’s see, “Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad,” Wild---Interviewer:“Irish Rose”
Bailey:“Wild Irish Rose.”
M.Bailey:“Towns All Over.”
Bailey:“Towns All Over,” [“Shellman Rock”]
Interviewers:[“Shellman Rock!”]
Interviewer:And Stoneman’s, what’s that Stoneman’s?
Bailey:Shellman’s Rock I played all the time; “Shellman’s Rock I learnt from
Carlton Robbins over in Bath County. I see if I can play a little of it for you. I’ll have to think. Better turn that thing off. [Voices talking as he plays through song to practice].[
10:00 --- 11:00Plays “Shellman’s Rock.” ]Interviewer 2: And that’s what you call Shellman Rock?”
Bailey:And that’s what I call “Shellman Rock.”
Interviewer 2: Hmmm.
Bailey:I never did hear anybody else play that but him.
Interviewer 2: There seems to be a couple of “Shellman Rock” tunes over in West Virginia.
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer: 2 But none of them are that one. [Laughs].
Bailey:Yeah, so everybody has their different versions.
Interviewer 2: That’s right.
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Do you play any tunes in like the minor keys? Like A minor or A
mixed up?Bailey:A lot have them mixed up in there are minors, but they aren’t really in
minor. I just put the minor key in the---I never---Interviewer 2: You’ve heard like that “Flannary’s Dream is a minor.
Bailey:Yeah, that’s a, Walter Kelly did that, about the only fiddle player
around here that could do that really.Interviewer 2: Uh-huh. What about another one he played was “Lonesome John.” Do
you know that one?Bailey:No, I don’t know that one.
Interviewer 2:okay.
Bailey:He played one called “Wild Hog in the Red Bush” too.
Interviewer 2: Uh-huh. [Laughs]
Bailey:[Laughs]. The only one I learnt from him was the “Fox Chase.”
Interviewer 2: You want to try that?
Bailey:Yeah, I can’t play it like him because he barked with his mouth and
everything else.[
12:00 --- 13:00Plays “Fox Chase.”]Interviewer 2: Do you think he made that up or is there a real tune called “Fox Chase?”
Bailey:Oh, I’ve heard a lot of people play it. But not like him. He had the pup
in the fence and all when he’d bark.M.Bailey:He was a showman.
Bailey:He was a showman with it.
Interviewer 2: Okay.
M.Bailey:Especially on that piece.
Bailey:See, pup was whining to get through the fence.
[Everyone laughs as Bailey makes sound of whining puppy on the fiddle].
M.Bailey:He’d do a little on the fiddle, and then he would act it out.
Bailey:Wanted to experience of getting through the fence like the old hounds.
Interviewer 2: Because it seems to me everywhere I’ve been there is a Fox Chase
tune, and it’s never the same. It’s never really the same piece [laughs].Bailey:Yeah, never the same.
Interviewer 2: Except for some, there’s the old harmonica solo.
Bailey:Yep, yep. I used to play it some on the harmonica too. I’m not going to
try it for you because [laughs].Interviewer 2: You’re not? [Laughs]
Bailey:I gave that up a long time ago. I, uh, I want to show you something if
I’ve got it. I’ve got in here in one of these cases. I’ll show it to you, [unintelligible.] Must be in the other one. I’ve got a harp here that’s a big one. And I played, I used to play the French harp until fifteen years old, but I got so where I can’t play it anymore. I don’t have the breath to do it. My false teeth gets in the way, but I could play one at one time. Yeah, there’s a big harp.Interviewer 2: An old Lady Finger. [Someone blows on harmonica]
Interviewer:They are cute little things, aren’t they? [More playing of harmonica]
Bailey:It’s sprung some.
Interviewer 2: Yeah, it’s---
Bailey:I was playing “Casey Jones,” but it’s sprung.
M.Bailey:You tell him where you got it because---
Bailey:I got it from a wounded German. I was patching him up when I was a medic.
Interviewer 2: Uh-huh. [Laughs]
Bailey:That was ornery wasn’t it?
M.Bailey:Yes, because that was his livelihood to keep things a going.
Interviewer:It’s a nice one though, isn’t it? It’s an Honor.
Bailey:Yeah, it’s from a watch chain or something or another, and I just whacked
it off. [Laughs]M.Bailey:You thought that was worth it, what you did for it, huh?
Bailey:No, I didn’t think very well.
Interviewer:Well, you took care of it all these years. Someone else might have
gotten it---[Many voices talk at once.]Interviewer 2: Trash can.
Interviewer:Yeah, you’ve been taking care of it.
Interviewer 2: Yeah, I am mostly interested in what you’d call ole hoedowns or breakdowns.
Bailey:Okay, here is one I call a hoedown I played for a lot of dances. It’s
called “Walking in My Sleep.”[
14:00 --- 15:00Plays “Walking in My Sleep.”]Interviewer 2: Do you remember where you learned that one?
Bailey:No, not really.
Interviewer 2: You picked it up---
Bailey:Known it a long time.
Interviewer 2: Here and there, huh?Bailey:Just years ago.
Interviewer:Have you heard “Deer Walk?”
Interviewer 2: “Deer Walk?” No, not yet.
Interviewer:Alfred plays a tune called “Deer Walk.”
Bailey:Oh, yeah, I play the “Deer Walk.”
Interviewer:It’s kind of a----
Bailey:I don’t play it enough often now, but I play one called “Rocky Mountain
Goat” that’s about like it.Interviewer:Well, you have the advantage because he doesn’t know it. [Laughs]
Bailey:
[
16:00--- Plays song and tape stops during mid-song. Picks back up at 17:00and ends at 18:00 ].I’m going to change fiddles here. I believe I can get a long better on this one
maybe. I haven’t practiced that enough to---Interviewer 2: That’s what you call “Deer Walk?”
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Do you play the tune they call “Marmaduke’s Hornpipe” or [Unintelligible]?
Bailey:No, I don’t play that one.
Interviewer:You know “Pumpkin Vine.”
Interviewer 2: I don’t know “Pumpkin Vine.”
Interviewer: Alfred plays old “Pumpkin Vine.”
Interviewer 2: I’ve tasted em. [Everyone laughs].
Bailey:I heard someone call it “Possum Up the Holler.”
[
19:00 --- 20:00Plays “Pumpkin Vine.”]Interviewer 2: Key of G.
Bailey:Mm-hmmm.
Interviewer 2: I’m kind of puzzled by what key it’s in.
Bailey:Here’s one I didn’t play for you. It’s called “The Fun’s All Over,” and I
am going to play it, there’s two different ways. I’m going to play it the old-time way first.[
21:00 --- 22:00Plays “The Fun’s All Over,” old time version.]Interviewer 2: Do you know the song to it?
Bailey:No, I don’t know the words to it.
M.Bailey:He used to play it at the end of his dances. They all knew that was the
last piece.Interviewer 2: The fun’s all over [laughs].
[Recording stops.]
[Recording begins again mid-song.]
Bailey:I’m going to play “Boating Up Sandy.”
Interviewer:That’s a good one.
Bailey:
[
23:00 --- 24:00Plays “Boating Up Sandy.”]Hadn’t played it in a long time either. Missed some on those [unintelligible]
part of it. And let’s see, there’s one here called the woods on fire, “Set the Woods on Fire.”Interviewer 2: “Set the Woods on Fire?”
Bailey:[Begins playing, but has trouble remembering the song; recording is
turned off]. I can’t think of it.[Recording begins again]. I am trying to think of another Sandy that Kenny Baker
played, but you remember that one. [Begins playing through song]. I am trying to think if I play in B flat, that song. Can’t think of another one now. [Plays a few more practices notes]. Well, what do you want to hear?Interviewer 2: I was just thinking, do you the old “Blackberry Blossom?”
Bailey:Oh yeah. Not the old one. I never did hear anybody can play that but Mr.
Kelly, the old one.Interviewer 2: Oh, okay. That’s the one I was asking you about.
Bailey:Yeah, I couldn’t play it. He played it. There’s nobody I ever heard.
Interviewer:Is that right?
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Is that different from what J.P calls “Garfield Blackberry Blossom?”
Bailey:Sure, that’s different because he plays in G minor, strictly, Mr. Kelly did.
Interviewer:I was wondering if those were two different tunes that Mr. Kelly had
[Sound of mic being moved].Bailey:Yeah, he played in G minor.
Interviewer 2: And there wasn’t [sound of mic being moved drowns out Interviewer
2’s voice] the G minor in the second part?Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Yeah, that’s really well known.
Bailey: It sure does.
M.Bailey:Alfred, what about that Blackberry, “Black Mountain Rag” you change
keys for?Bailey:Oh, that’s a modern piece.
Interviewer 2: Yeah, that’s a modern piece.
Bailey:He doesn’t want to hear that.
Interviewer 2: You wouldn’t happen to know any other tunes in that way of tuning
the fiddle though?Bailey:Yeah, I know two or three but, like “Drunken Hiccups” and ‘”The Bell Cow”
something like that. But I can play the “Bell Cow” without tuning up.Interviewer 2: Well, why, why, why would you want to avoid tuning up?
Bailey:Tuning up was an easy way of playing the fiddle, and they got more volume
in olden times. They didn’t have microphones. You played a lot of open notes, and you got more volume. They played just about everything in A, the old time fiddle players did.Interviewer 2: Okay, why don’t you try the old “Bell Cow,” whatever the tune is [laughs].
Bailey:You want me to tune up to do it?
Interviewer 2: No, we’ll leave it like it is. We’ll get you to tune it up later.
Bailey:[
25:00 --- 26:00Plays “Bell Cow.”]Interviewer 2: You play it in the key of D.
Bailey:Uh-hmm. Play it in D.
Interviewer 2: But when you tune for it what key do you end up playing it in?
Bailey:In A.
Interviewer 2: Okay.
Bailey:Let me do it on this other fiddle here, and then I won’t have to retune it.
[Sounds of fiddle being tuned]
M.Bailey:Are you a music teacher that’s collecting all these?
Interviewer 2: No, no mam, I am not.
M.Bailey:You’re just collecting---
Interviewer 2: I am just interested [laughs].
Interviewer:He devoted his life to this. Last summer he worked in West Virginia,
and this is his summer vacation. Some people go fishing, and some people go---Interviewer 2: This is going fishing [laughs].
Interviewer:He’s fishing for fiddle tunes.
M.Bailey:I thought maybe you wanted to collect all the pieces that you could.
Bailey:You can tune a fiddle up this way, can’t you?
Interviewer 2: Yeah. Are you just going to straight A or are you going to like
“Black Mountain Rag” A?Bailey:You can do “Black Mountain Rag” this way too.
Interviewer 2: I don’t practice enough to, but I will show you what I can do. I
haven’t practiced in a long time. Now here goes the “Bell Cow.”Interviewer:I like the way it sounds.
M.Bailey:I do too. I like it better than the other way.
Interviewer:Well, it’s interesting to hear it both ways.
Bailey: [
27:00making practice notes, begins playing “Bell Cow.” Song ends at 28:00 ]Interviewer 2: Okay, which part is the, where is the part that supposed to be
the bell cow?Bailey:Right here. [Plays bell cow part].
Interviewer 2: The high part’s supposed to be the bell cow.
Bailey:Yeah. [Plays it again]. You’re supposed to pull it out and try and make
it ring.Interviewer 2: Okay, [laughs]. Where did you learn that one from?
Bailey:Oh, I learnt that one from Floyd Miller, I believe. He played, he could
play fifty pieces on it that a way. He played the “Wild Goose” and I don’t know what all.Interviewer 2: Can you try to think of some while you got the fiddle tuned up?
Bailey:No, I couldn’t play many of them because I never did practice enough.
[Plays “Drunken Hiccups.”]M.Bailey:You ought to tell him the name of that, he couldn’t tell that.
Bailey:Well, “Drunken Hiccups.”
Interviewer 2: “Drunken Hiccups,” yeah.
M.Bailey:Well, I didn’t know whether he recognized it or not.
Interviewer: Do you sing? That one has words.
Bailey:I don’t know whether I could play the “Black Mountain Rag” or not.
[
29:00 --- 30:00Plays “Black Mountain Rag.”]Interviewer 2: Can I see your fiddle for a second? [Plucks strings].
Bailey:I don’t know whether it’s exactly in tune or not.
Interviewer 2: It’s close enough. Do you play, uh, now what I always figured as
being the parent to that tune is the tune called “The Lost Indian” that’s played with the fiddle tuned the same way.Bailey: Never, no I couldn’t come close to playing “The Lost Indian” that a way.
Interviewer 2: Okay, you play the “Lost Indian” in the key of D?
Bailey:No, key of C.
Interviewer 2: Key of C.
Bailey:No, D, I went to C once.
Interviewer:D and then it goes to C minor.
Bailey:Goes into a minor key.
Interviewer 2: Oh, D minor.
Bailey:D minor
Interviewer 2 :Okay, yeah that’s the----
Bailey:I wouldn't know even how to start though.
Interviewer 2: [Talking as fiddle is being played] It’s a different piece. Same
name different piece.Bailey:Yeah, I’d say it is.
M.Bailey:Oh, Indian,” Lost Indian?” He got that from---
Bailey:I learnt it from Curley Farmer. That’s who I learnt the “Lost Indian”
from. He’d got it from up in California. Nobody knew it around here at one time. [Many voices talking at the same time]. That’s the only way I know how to play it. You want to play it?Interviewer 2: You want me to play the “Lost Indian” for you?
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Give me the other fiddle [laughs.]
Interviewer:Oh, in the other tuning.
Interviewer 2: Yeah.
[Everyone begins talking at the same time as Interviewer 2 tunes the fiddle;
Interviewer asks Baileys to talk about the pictures she has, and they try and name the people in the pictures. Interviewer 2 is tuning the fiddle, which often overpowers everyone elses’s voice.][
31:00 ---- 32:00Interviewer 2 plays song for Bailey. Bailey records Interviewer 2 playing the song].Bailey:Well, that sounds like what Floyd Miller played for “Wild Goose.”
Interviewer 2: For “Wild Goose?”
Bailey:Uh-huh. Just exactly.
Interviewer:That is interesting isn’t it?
Bailey:He played one he called “The Wild Goose.”
Interviewer 2: Do you play it?
Bailey:No, I never did learn it. But Floyd was an old time fiddle player, and
most pieces he could play was in that way. But now most of the old time-fiddle players, that’s the only key they played in.Interviewer:Where did Miller live?
Bailey:He’s dead a long time ago. He lived out here at Hilltop.
M.Bailey:[Unintelligible] County.
Interviewer:Oh, he did. Did any of his family ever tape him?
Bailey:Not very little I suppose. I doubt it because he died before people taped much.
M.Bailey:His wife played the piano.
Interviewer 2: Okay, you’ve got the E string run down. Do you ever, like, run it
back up so it would be like a [unintelligible] on the high strings?Bailey:Now, some people plays like dropping the E string and leaving it like it
is, on “Black Mountain Rag” they do.Interviewer 2: Okay, leave the basses alone and just leave the E string.
Bailey:And they can play that a way.
Interviewer 2: I’m not asking what other people do. I am trying to ask what
you’re capable of doing.Bailey:I can play the other way with dropping D and A and just E, but I don’t
practice it, but I can play the “Black Mountain Rag” that a way. But you can pick that-a way where you can’t the other way.Interviewer 2: Right, right.
Bailey:You put your pick in there.
Interviewer 2: I am still not sure if we are communicating. [Laughs].
Bailey:Yeah, yeah. See you can pick, you can pick “Black Mountain Rag’ without,
without hearing a [plays example from “Black Mountain Rag.”]Interviewer:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Okay, yeah. What I am trying to ask you is that there is another
way to tune the fiddle with the E strings run up, so that the A and the E are the normal set up. But the bass----Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Do you understand what I am trying to say?
Bailey:Yeah, you get the A just like the E, huh?
Interviewer 2: No, it’s just the E string is a different place than it normally is.
Bailey:Well, they’re both tuned to E now. [Sound of strings plucking]. It’s
dropped down with the Es. [Sound of bows on the string.] That’s as close as you can get them to each other.M.Bailey:He’s telling you something else though.
[Sound of bow on strings]
Interviewer 2: That’s the note there that’s matching C sharp.
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: But I am saying, you can raise this string up to this normal
position where it’s not right now. Do you play anything with it raised up? With the basses left the same?Bailey:No, no.
Interviewer 2: It’s what they’d call straight A. This is what they call crooked
A or cross-eyed A or backward.Bailey:I never tried anything that a way. Never seen anybody.
Interviewer 2: Okay, because I had a few tune titles to ask you about. [Laughs].
Bailey:Something new to me. I never heard of it before.
Interviewer 2: Okay, like “Blind Steer in a Mud Hole.” [Laughs]
Interviewer:Is that a Missouri tune?
Interviewer 2: No, that’s a [Portsmouth] tune.
Interviewer:Oh, is that right?
Interviewer 2: “Tomahaw,” [perhaps “Tomahawk,”] another Portsmouth tune.
Bailey:Did you ever hear of Matt Mahan fiddling out in Missouri?
Interviewer 2: Yeah.
Bailey:He’s a good fiddle player.
Interviewer 2: Sure. [Laughs]. Matt Mahan is the guy learned from his family,
and they asked if he’d record those tunes, and he said, “Well, I have to work them up first.” As opposed to playing, you know. I mean he is a real good fiddle player. He won, what did he win-- the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Association a couple of years ago. His big thing is “Eck Roberts” and “Sally Goodin.”Interviewer: Oh yeah.
Interviewer 2: You know, so. [Laughs].
Bailey:He’s got one he calls “Dance Around Molly.”
Interviewer 2: Yeah, that’s fairly, that’s popular Missouri tune.
Interviewer:Huh.
Interviewer 2: For contest.
M.Bailey:He was, we met him at Rough River.
Bailey:Rough River.
M.Bailey:Two years ago, wasn’t it two years ago?
Bailey:Yeah.
Interviewer 2: Well, see, I don’t mess around with, but rarely, a contest
fiddler in Missouri. There’s a real separation between old time and contests fiddlers, and there’s all this Texas influence [laughs] too.M.Bailey:Yeah, that got the Texas fiddler.
Interviewer 2: See, so very rarely do I go visit any of the people who are
involved with the contest. I try to find---Bailey:Yeah, they run a lot extra in their fiddle tunes.
Interviewer 2: That’s right.
Bailey:There’s some good fiddle players.
Interviewer 2: Yeah, but that’s, that’s not old time, that’s something that they
have evolved themselves into. [Bailey or Interviewer 2 continues to play practice notes in background]. Do you have any suggestions?Interviewer:“Little Burnt Potatoes.”
Interviewer 2: “Little Burnt Potatoes?”
Interviewer: “Brick Yard Joe?” You know that tune?
Bailey:[
33:00 --- 34:00Plays “Little Burnt Potatoes.”]Interviewer 2: That’s the “Little Burnt Potatoes?”
Interviewer:Now, where did you pick that up?
Bailey:I learnt if off of a record here, record, I don’t know who this fellow,
who was a playing. That’s where I learnt “Agnes Campbell” off of this record that he had on there. But he is a fine fiddle player.Interviewer 2: Is that a recent record or?
Bailey:It’s not too old. Of course he,
Interviewer 2: I mean is it 33 or 38 [laughs]?
Bailey:Not, it’s a record that hasn’t been made too long, maybe fifteen twenty years.
Interviewer 2: Uh-hmm.
Bailey:But these pieces have been around a long time. Leo Blair plays it. Yeah,
yeah I’ve heard him play it.Interviewer 2: Leo Blair is a violinist? Is that right? What a memory!
Interviewer:You did pretty good. [Laughs].
[Bailey plays fiddle, talking in back ground]
M.Bailey:He started out with the old timers.
Interviewer:[Unintelligible] I have enjoyed the times I’ve been here.
Interviewer 2: Is that [unintelligible] Hornpipe?
Bailey:Yeah, I play it in G because it’s easier. I’ve got it in F and B flat. I
don’t do too good playing it. I don’t do as good a job on them. [Plays a few notes on fiddle].[Recording ends
35:00 ]. 36:00