This week, I picked Old Mother Logo as the Tune of the Week. I can't find a lot of background on this tune; there doesn't seem to be much history available, at least on line. The fiddler's companion has it in D major, but everything I have heard is in D minor, so I didn't know what to make of that. I know that I first heard it on R. D. Lunceford's "Dropthumb" album, and that he got it from Mel Durham, who passed away a few years ago. To quote R.D. from an archived BHO thread;
Mel Durham, I think, is ultimately the source for the tune.
I first met Mel in 1969 at the Southern California Old-Time Fiddlers' Association.
He is a Southern Illinois fiddler, and posseses a fund of rare tunes, a few of which
are included in my Drop-Thumb and Cotton Blossom recordings. Old Mother Logo is on Drop-Thumb.
Mel picked the tune/song up from his grandfather Jonathan Durham (probably born in the 1860's) who would sing it
while working on the family farm. I believe the tune to be unique to the Durham family.
Mel has taught it to many people throughout the years. There was in fact a local So. Cal.
band called "Old Mother Logo" that I recall from the '70's and '80's. Maybe they're still around.
My version is based on Mel's fiddling and singing of the tune.
Old Mother Logo, she likes whiskey
OldMother Logo, she likes wine
Old Mother Logo, she got drunk
Crossed the river on a pumpkin vine.
Old Mother Logo, she had children
Old Mother Logo, she had three
Old Mother Logo, she had children
One of them looked just like me.
Oh the death of my poor children
Oh the death that they did die
One got drunk, the other one drowned
One got choked on a pumpkin vine.
In the same discussion, Bob Flescher (BHO moniker: Sandy Bob) said that:
The song came from Mike Seeger who got it from Bob Durham, Mel Durham's brother whom wa the banjo player of the three brothers and the guy who taught me to drop thumb. The New Lost City Ramblers used to follow Bob around to get old tunes from him. I was there the night that Bob gave them Old Mother Logo, back state at the Ashgrove in Los Angeles about 1964. Next time I heard it, outside of me playing it, was at a Merl Watson festival when Mike was singing it solo. I was back behind the stage when I hear someone singing this song which I thought only I knew. I about fell down and said to my self, "Who the heck is singing this song that only I know?" When I saw it was Mike I remembered when Bob gave to him. I guess the "yoke" was on me. Yes, the Deadwood Revival does a good job but the second verse they sing was not in the original song. It only had 3 verses. Verses 1, 3&4 are the original song. Bob told me that the song comes from Southern Illinois and probably goes back to an old English drinking song. Makes sence because in the song the lyrics are: " Old Mother Logo she likes whiskey, Old Mother Logo she likes wine, Old Mother Logo she got drunk and swam across the river on a punkin'vine."
I was very taken by R. D.'s version when I first heard it, and put it on my list of tunes to learn, "later", as I was having enough trouble with the more common tunes at that time. But one day when jamming with J-Walk, he showed me the basics of the tune, in D minor, in double D tuning. It really wasn't that hard to pick up. I started listening to a few other versions for comparison. The first I found was the Deadwood Revival version on their self titled album. You can hear a pretty good sampling of it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QQSU9Q/ref=sr_1_album_25_rd?ie=UTF8&child=B000QM41OI&qid=1262010654&sr=1-25
There are several YouTube versions, each with some variance from each other, by the bands Yellow Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORLgCxQKbVQ
and Hey! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSLaoXC_sjM , as well as YouTuber "scanbran", who used R. D.'s Tab book to learn it (wish I had bought that!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u26gpfB9QGY
But I have to say that my very favorite version, I discovered right here on the Hangout, an mother and son duet by Linda and Wes ZenPickin. According to Linda:
Linda and Wes (Mother and son of the Bumpass One Boot Band) celebrate that we are now a TWO Chuck Lee banjo family. We were playing Old Mother Logo, together and this is what appeared. Both of us have been playing banjo way less than a year, but I'm pretty pleased with the result! Enjoy!
When I head that two-banjo version, I was blown away. I didn't pick up the fact that they both new players until putting together this post. Quite a few variations on the theme of the original, some interesting improvisation, and an almost hypnotic, trancelike quality. Listen for yourself: http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/music.asp?id=21435&musicid=8978
I put together a video of my own interpretation of the tune, not to the level of any of the others mentioned, but I really do have fun playing it, so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcFzbvAr5yM . I'd love to hear, or see, any of your versions.