This one's a regional tune that would've filled the warm summer air a late night or two in 1920's south-central Kentucky, at some generous host's moonshine-fueled square dance. The fiddlers might've been "teed up a little," as ol' Jim Bowles phrased it. Up all night sawing away at this soaring melody.
It first caught my ear when I joined the jam at the Dallas Heritage Village one September day last year. It's a simple tune, but one that hooks you quick. Key of D, I play it in aDADE. The coarse part hovers low to the ground, kicking up dust before breaking through to that fine part (real fine), where the melody launches into the sky on a high A, hits a little turbulence before gaining even more altitude to the B note. Then back to earth.
A few of the fiddlers who attend the Dallas old-time jam play the tune as part of a medley containing Shamrock Shoddy and Wolf Creek. There's supposed to be a great live version by Bruce Green, but I didn't have much luck tracking it down (Bruce Green did incidentally take a few of the field recordings I link to below). The two most available field recordings are performed by Isham Monday (of whom I wasn't able to learn much about) and Jim Bowles. I wish Jim's rendition would go on for twenty minutes (we get a measly 50 seconds!). He's got a great, very musical sense of ornamentation, throwing in these nice trills, sometimes where you don't expect it.
Now this isn't to be confused with the Texas style tune of the same name. From what I can tell the TOTW differs from Apple Blossom Time as well. There also might be some kinship between our TOTW and one called Dubuque (or Duck River). On recordings from Clifftop, you can hear the stellar old-time band Bigfoot play a tune I've seen labeled as Dubuque, that is in fact a carbon copy of our TOTW (played masterfully).
A link to field recordings of Isham and Bowles:
And a link that'll lead you to John Lusk's version, which is a good deal different than Isham or Bowles', but is listed in the same section in the Fiddler's Companion.
http://slippery-hill.com/M-K/
Here are some great versions to be found on Youtube:
This fella learned his version from the WildRoot String Band.
Group jammin' at Mount Airy in 2010.
Bullet train of a rendition of Lusk's version--again, Fiddler's Companion calls it the same tune as Isham's, but it's quite a variation. Similar feel in the fine part.
Tune called Apple Blossom Time played by Tennessean Chuck Tramel on banjo (as mentioned on Fiddler's Companion), that's clearly a close kin to the TOTW.
And my rendition:
And some other cool stuff...
Links to parts one and two of a great Old Time Herald article from '94, about Jim Bowles, written by Jim Nelson. Well worth the read, some great quotes from Bowles (including the one about gettin' teed up):
I'd love to hear some renditions from y'all! Happy to make this my first TOTW!
