The Last of Callahan TOTW (OT) 5/2/2014
I’ve chosen The Last of Callahan for this installment of TOTW. Callahan is an example of the fiddler’s farewell legend in which a condemned man somehow comes into possession of a fiddle on the gallows, plays a self-composed tune, offers the fiddle to the audience, and getting no takers, destroys the instrument before his execution. The tune forever more carries the hanged man’s name.
Titon says The Last of Callahan was a popular tune among eastern Kentucky fiddlers and was played at the 1919, 1920, and 1924 Berea contests. Callahan was the first tune Kentuckian Lily May Ledford, of Coon Creek Girls fame, learned to play. She was nine years old at the time. Some versions of Callahan have three parts but two-part versions are common in Kentucky and particularly favored by banjo players.
Recordings
McKinley Asher of Leslie County, Kentucky was recorded by Lomax in 1937 playing a straight forward Kentucky style. McKinley Asher
Jewell Middleton of Boone County, Kentucky recorded his version for John Harrod in 1982. Jewell Middleton
Travis Wells plays Callahan on track 32 of the Rounder Kentucky Old Time Banjo. This snippet was recorded in Estill County, Kentucky in 1973. Travis Wells
Lee Sexton of Letcher County, Kentucky plays Callahan in his living room. Mr. Sexton has hosted many visitors from this same chair over the years. Lee Sexton
History
Although the particulars of the Callahan hanging are somewhat nebulous most sources place the event in or near Clay County, Kentucky and scholars note the tune is “curiously confined” to Eastern Kentucky.
Jess Wilson wrote a long running local history column for the Jackson County (KY) Rural Electric Cooperative newsletter. His treatment of the Callahan legend is perhaps the best documented reporting of the event. Read it here: When They Hanged the Fiddler
Other accounts of the tune’s origin can be found in the Traditional Tunes Archive here: Last of Callahan
Wayne Erbsen says frontier fiddlers were always in demand to play for community events where drinking and dancing were common. Old time fire and brimstone preachers frowned on such activities and accused fiddlers of toiling for the devil himself, a view supported by the frequent encounters between fiddlers and hangmen.
Kentucky seems to have been the epi-center of fiddler hangings. Folklorist D.K. Wilgus describes three Kentucky fiddlers who played their final tune on the gallows here: Fiddler's Farewell .
Interesting historical reporting of the Pennington and Coleman hangings can be found at Pennington’s Farewell and Coleman's March
Notation
I was unable to find a tab for Callahan but you should be able to pick it up by listening and watching the Lee Sexton video. Titon gives standard notation for Kentucky fiddler Luther Strong’s version.
Final Notes
Have at it TOTW fans. Performances and tabs are encouraged. The world awaits your contribution.
