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.[ADFraley and Interview speaking in the background as Fraley plays practice
notes. Interview talks about the Fraley records and recordings, much of conversation is unintelligible in places.]Interviewer:My husband said that J.P. he just always puts in one of those sassy
note or two so you know it’s him [laughs]. He said a sassy hop here and there. [Laughs].Fraley:Fellow said, “J.P., play that like you always play it.” I said, “Well, I
don’t ever play it like I always play it” [laughs].Interviewer:I guess it’s what makes it interesting. Well I thought you would
enjoy knowing [Fraley plays fiddle as they talk] that smart aleck [unintelligible].ADFraley:That’s the way I find him when he’s in jam sessions [Fraley plays as
she speaks, most of her words unintelligible] sounds different, you know, from the rest of them.[2:22---3:03 Plays “Little Star.”]
Fraley:I like that pretty tune. Did you know it’s really a Texas
tune?Interviewer:What is it?Fraley:“Little Star.”
Interviewer:“Little Star,” but it’s not----
Fraley:It ain’t “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Interviewer:Not that one.
Fraley:Was you a recording that?
Interviewer:Umm-hmm.
Fraley:Oh my Lordy mercy; I wasn’t playing it well. “Little Star.”
[Speaking in background as Fraley plays practice notes]
[3:33--- 4:55 Plays “Little Star.”]
Interviewer:Little soft shoe? [laughs]
Fraley:[Sings part of melody to the song] I think what it really was--- [plays
practice notes.]Interviewer:You didn’t go up for that?
Fraley:No, no, no. It wouldn’t that way. I mean when it was the way we was
playing it, the way it was when, like it was before it got like it is [all laugh].[ADFraley and Interviewer speak as Fraley plays practice notes.]
Fraley:I often thought of “Sugar Tree Stomp.”
Interview:“Sugar Tree Stomp.”
Fraley:Yeah, and, and that tune---
ADFraley:Do you play “Sugar Tree Stomp? I don’t know if I’ve never heard you
play it.Fraley:Why yeah. Used to play it all the time.
ADFraley:I remember “Maple Sugar.”
Fraley:Well, it’s sort of like we play what we called it “Little Stream of
Whiskey,” but it stream of whiskey.[6:24---begins playing song]
Fraley:Listen, we not a playing---
ADFraley:Okay maybe, maybe I can find it. Go ahead.
[6:42---7:44 Plays “Sugar Tree Stomp.”]
Fraley:It’s something like that.
Interviewer: “Sugar Tree Stomp?”
Fraley:Yeah. [Sings a melody]
ADFraley:Play “Maple Sugar.”
Fraley:Golly Annadeene,
ADFraley:I haven’t had this guitar out since last week [both begin talking at
the same time, ADFraley becomes unintelligible]Fraley:On that tape recorder if I really didn’t know it was on, I was playing it
[laughs]. I think we played it. We played that the other day? [Interviewer and ADFraley speak in background, Fraley and ADFraley begin “Maple Sugar” then stop]. Cut that off a minute.ADFraley:Why don’t you play that again?
Fraley:Was it on? You mean you had it off?
ADFraley:Well, you told her to turn it off.
Fraley:I know because [unintelligible].
Interviewer:We’ll let the truck or whatever it is get out of the driveway.
Fraley:[Sings melody] Is that Robin? This is off now, right? This is not on?
Interviewer:Now it’s on.
ADFraley:Why don’t you just quit worrying about the tape recorder?
Interviewer:I’ll put it down on the floor and you’ll forget it [laughs, all
begin talking over each other].Fraley:Can you put it on the front porch and sneak it back in here [laughs]?
Interviewer:I tell you what I’ve done is, I have listened through the tape
[Fraley begins playing practice notes], edited them, and on “New Money” I didn’t get started with the first of the song. If you feel like playing “New Money.”[9:40---
1:00Plays “part of “New Money.”]Fraley:I got out of it.
ADFraley:See how much better it is to tape when he doesn’t know it’s there. It’s
all right the other times.Interviewer:He’s always dissatisfied with the way
Fraley:I was thinking what leaving the [begins playing notes again, all talk in
the background] See, I used to close it [plays closing notes]. It’s a pretty sound.ADFraley:I tell you, I don’t believe this is my day for knowing how to follow a fiddle.
Fraley:I think they kindly out of a fiddle. Let’s cross key the fiddle.
ADFraley:Do “New Money” first. She’s wanting to hear that.
Fraley:Let’s see. [Sings through a few notes]. C. It’s hot in here.
[
2:00 --- 3:00Plays “New Money,” ends mid song]I’m a going blanker by the minute. Bear with me here.
[Plays practice notes.]
[
4:00 ---- 5:00Plays “New Money.”]Interviewer:[Speaking on the telephone.] Is Robin here?
ADFraley:Robin isn’t here [laughs].
Interviewer:I thought she was. I saw her a while ago. No, she’s not. I’m sorry.
How long she been gone?ADFraley:She’s been gone about an hour.
Interviewer:[Speaking on the telephone] She’s been gone about an hour.
Fraley:Who is it?
Interviewer:All righty. It’s Marty. Went to school with her.
Fraley:Marty?
ADFraley:Oh well, she had to, she went over to---
Interviewer:Let me let you talk to her mom, okay? I just want to get the---
Fraley:[Sings melody] You better save your tape.
[
6:00 --- 7:00Plays “Fiddler’s Dream”]Fraley:Okay. That’s the “Fiddler’s Dream” or “Dance All Night With a Bottle In
Your Hand.” Oh---Interviewer:Play something your daddy played.
Fraley:That was one of them right there. This uh, [plays notes] you don’t hear
that open as much. I mean that was a [unintelligible] I mean a opening that the strings. [sings melody] We played the “Dusty Miller” the other day didn’t we?ADFraley:Uh-hmm.
Fraley:I am trying to think of some.
ADFraley:I don’t remember if we played “Dusty Miller” or not. Yes we did because
remember talking about the flowers.Fraley:[Sings melody.]
ADFraley:See, some of the things that’s on the record he never plays anymore
like [unintelligible, Fraley begins playing practice notes as Interviewer and ADFraley speak to one another].Fraley:I guess I should just go ahead and cross key. Let’s do it. [Tunes
fiddle]. Boy I don’t know. Oh Lordy. [ADFraley talking in the background as Fraley tunes]. The trouble cross key is not [unintelligible] out of it. [Continues tuning].[
8:00 --- 9:00Plays “Granny Will Your Dog Bite?”]ADFraley:You didn’t sing the verse that goes with it.
Fraley:I know. It’s “Granny Will Your Dog Bite.”
ADFraley:You didn’t sing the verse that goes with it.
Fraley:Oh [laughs].
Interviewer:What is the verse?
Fraley:Well, everybody thinks it’s a bawdy song, but it ain’t. It just sounds
like it. [Sings], “Granny, granny will your dog bite? Dog bite?, Dog bite? No child no. Granny will your dog bite, dog bite, dog bite. Johnny cut biter off a long time ago.” [laughs].[
10:00----plays first part of song then stops.]ADFraley:What is that?
Fraley:[unintelligible] the river.
ADFraley:Been so long since I heard it.
[
11:00 --- 12:00Plays “Boating Up the River.”]Fraley:That’s “Boating Up the River” or “Boating Down the River” or “Boating Up
Sandy.” That was one of the tunes I never did crank with it much. I tried a little, didn’t really like it. But I kind of wished I learned it a little more. The one where the fiddler would sing with the tune. It’s kindly quaint. No where? I see [plays practice notes, ADFraley speaks in the background with Interviewer]. That’s one of his tunes, but I never could play it.ADFraley:What was it?
Fraley:Like that “Baldheaded Indian” [unintelligible].
ADFraley:It’s not that [Fraley begins playing again and drowns out ADFraley
speaking]. I can’t even think of it now. [Continues to play practice notes]. Strange note somewhere there.ADFraley:He always likens it to the “Baldheaded Indian.” [Fraley begins playing again.]
Fraley:Well, it’s “Sugar Hill.”
ADFraley:[singing] “Boys stay away from the girls [unintelligible] and give them
plenty of room.”Fraley:That is the “Baldheaded Indian.”
ADFraley:[continues singing] “They’ll [unintelligible] and they’ll beat you till
your dead [Fraley joins in singing] with the baldheaded end of the broom.” That’s not that tune. It just sounds like it.[
13:00 --- 14:00Both begin playing song and then stop.]Fraley:[unintelligible] That was one of his that never, never I didn’t record
it. Don’t reckon it was ever recorded.[
15:00 ---- 16:00Plays “Gallinipper”]Interviewer:Did we say “Galley, G-A-L-L-Y?
Fraley:Gallinipper— I don’t know how you spell it.
ADFraley:Your spell is as good as ours.
Fraley:I just call it G-A-L-L-I-N-I-P-P-E-R. I reckon. Gallinipper.
Interviewer:Gallynipper. I was thinking of the galley on a ship or---
Fraley:No, no, no I don’t know about that, but it was a, I said,
“[unintelligible] what in the world is a gallinipper?” He said, “It’s a big miskeeter.” And that was them big miskeeters, you know? You see, you go around, those gallinippers.[sound of tape turning off and then back on.]
Fraley: [Begins mid sentence] and, but till I was a playing it and she said she
kept relating it to a piece of music that was written like a concerto or something. And she said it, thought maybe it might have given rise to that tune. I said, “If it did I don’t know anything about it. It was strange.”ADFraley:It was funny; there was somebody here [Fraley tunes fiddle, ADFraley
becomes unintelligible; Interviewer also begins talking].Fraley:Let’s try that.
ADFraley:What is it?
Fraley:“Jack of Diamonds” or “Drunken Hiccups.”
[
17:00---has a few false starts, tunes fiddle, begins playing again at 18:00 --- 19:00quits mid song].ADFraley:I am not in tune.
Fraley:I’m going to quit. I know. But that is a quaint way of playing that. We
got to get it straightened out. We are not together. I might be tuned [begins playing again, plays until 20:00 ].[sound of tape recording being turned off].
[Fraley tunes fiddle and hums a tune.]
Fraley:Okay, here’s “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”
[
21:00 --- 22:00Plays “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”][All talking and tuning instruments.]
Fraley:You’re going too high.
ADFraley:Let me get back on this and see.
Fraley:You are going too high.
ADFraley:I am. Think I’ll turn it on too, might help [more sounds of ADFraley
tuning, Fraley speaks in the background about how he used to have perfect pitch].Fraley:Isn’t that funny. I know, I used to have perfect pitch. Still close. I
can hear [laughs, unintelligible talking].ADFraley:Well, you are not perfect pitch on here, I’ll tell you.
Fraley:No.
ADFraley:You’re wiggling around on here when you talk [laughs].
Fraley:You ain’t got it yet.
ADFraley:Well, according to here it is.
Fraley:Well, maybe hit the other strings with it.
ADFraley:Well, she that’s why I though [strums guitar to check tuning; more
talking and tuning].Fraley:[laughing] The cross key you have to stay pretty well on [unintelligible]
or it sounds awful. This is a play party tune or a dance tune for children really. It’s [been the same tune where the fiddler fiddling] called “The Clucking Hen.”[
23:00 --- 24:00Plays “The Clucking Hen.”]Fraley:Okay. Now do that. Don’t know whether I can get it right for you or not.
[Unintelligible] hit it again.ADFraley:You just told me to quit [laughs].
Fraley:There’s nothing wrong with that.
ADFraley:It don’t sound right to me.
Fraley:[Plays practice notes]. Going to play a fiddle tune called “Dry and
Dusty.” This tune originally was played with “Bonaparte’s Retreat.” It was the charge. I don’t know, I think maybe that the name probably got changed during the dustbowl out west, dry and dusty.[
25:00--- 38: 06 Plays “Dry and Dusty.”]Fraley:But anyway, that’s an idea of it, “Dry and Dusty.” I got to listen to
this back, I might----Interviewer:You played that in D, didn’t you?
Fraley:Yeah, it’s still all, all of that is, now you are limited when you are
playing in a cross key.Interviewer:You are limited if you are trying to play “Clucking Hen,” “Cackling---“
Fraley:“Clucking Hen.”
Interviewer:That’s on your album. It was one of the first things I tried to play
in 1977, 1978 when I was so pitiful. Tried to play that over and over, never realizing you were in tuning. You ought to try to play that when you can’t play anyway [laughs]. You talk about putting up little barriers there [laughs].[
26:00 ---- 27:00Plays “Midnight on the Water.”]Fraley:That was “Midnight on the Water.”
Interviewer:Where did that come from?Fraley:I learned it really from Benny
Thomason. But that is my own, only version. And I learned the melody from him.Interviewer:Well, we’re still in D.
Fraley:And that is supposed to be a Texas waltz. I didn’t know whether you knew
that or not, according to Benny now. I figured he’s probably been a [sage] on it. I don’t know, maybe yes, maybe no.ADFraley:I heard something about that being Canadian or something.
Fraley:I don’t know.
ADFraley:Maybe it was a Canadian fiddler that played it that I heard or something.
Fraley:[sings and tunes fiddle, Interviewer and ADFraley speak to one another in
the background].I don’t know; they lived in Lewis County. Hit D or hit something.
[ADFraley strums as Fraley tunes and hums]
[
28:00 ---- 29:00Plays “Chinquapin” or “Sweet Sixteen.”]Fraley:[Laughs.] Chomp it just a little bit. I just ain’t with it somewhere.
[
30:00---44: 10 Plays song again]Fraley:That’s “Chinquapin” or “Sweet Sixteen.” Well, I think we done it the
other day maybe. Probably done it better. I mean there’s no, I just feel like there’s no drive at all. It’s crazy ain't it. No, no I meant it’ something [Fraley plays notes as ADFraley and Interviewer talk].[Recorder turns off, comes back in mid song at
31:00 --- 32:00 ]Fraley:The further I go the worse I get. You know that one don’t you?
Interviewer:“Hop High Lady.”
Fraley:Yeah.
Interviewer:“Did You Ever See the Devil Uncle Joe.” “Mrs. McCloud’s Reel.”
ADFraley:Did you ever see the devil----
Fraley:[singing] “Did you ever see the devil uncle Joe.”
Interviewer:I hadn’t heard that time?
Fraley:You hadn’t heard that?
Interviewer:I hadn’t heard have you ever seen the devil.
Fraley:[singing] Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe; did you ever see the Devil Uncle Joe?” [laughs]
Interviewer:Play me another one before I have to go.
[Fraley plays practice notes, ADFraley talks in the background]
Fraley:You might just put this on here a little bit because someday I’ll put
this tune together. This is part of “Maysville.”Interviewer:Let’s here part of “Maysville.”
[
33:00 ---- 34:00Plays part of “Maysville]Fraley:That’s part of a melody. That’s one part of it, and there’s another one.
And then there’s another little stuff that goes in there. I had it a going a here once and quit playing it. That’s why we ought to put them on a tape while they’re going.ADFraley:I think we do, but I think we lose them.
Fraley:It’s a strange tune [plays practice notes]
ADFraley:Well, we’re not in tune here.
Fraley:Some feller said I got one of them hainting (haunting) sounds. Give me a
pitch on E or A or D. [tunes fiddle].[
35:00 --- 36:00Plays “Billy in the Low Ground.”]Interviewer:That’s a good place to end.
[Recording ends
37:00 ] 38:00