It looks like this week's volunteer won't be able to post at all, so I will post a quick emergency back-up tune.
That tune is Sheep Shell Corn (aka Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattling of His Horn). It comes to us from the fiddling of Emmett Lundy.
EMMETT LUNDY
Emmet Lundy (1864-1953) was born in Grayson County, Virginia. He took up the fiddle as a teenager and learned primarily from an older man named Green Leonard, who had been born in the area around 1810. Emmett was recognized as an excellent fiddler throughout his life but never pursued music professionally save for one trip to New York City in 1925 to accompany Ernest V. Stoneman during an Okeh Records recording session. Other than the two sides released by Okeh that featured Emmett's fiddle playing, the only direct record we have of his music comes from a 1941 Library of Congress field recording session conducted by Alan Lomax.
Lundy is regarded as a vitally important source of traditional southwestern Virginia fiddle tunes and techniques, perhaps giving us a glimpse - through his apprenticeship with Green Leonard - of the region's music dating back to before the Civil War. He greatly influenced numerous younger fiddlers and passed on many tunes that might otherwise have been lost.
You can read more about him here https://oldtimeparty.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/emmett-lundy/ and here http://www.oldtimemusic.com/FHOFLundy.html
THE TUNE
Sheep Shell Corn is in the key of A, and follows the typical AABB pattern.
Its title is a phrase that occurs in a number of Southern folk songs and poems. The most complete and detailed of those works is probably the song "Sheep Shell Corn" which is included in Thomas Talley's groundbreaking 1922 book "Negro Folk Rhymes", and which contains the stanza
Oh: When de sheep shell co'n wid de rattle of his ho'n
I wishes to de Lawd I'd never been bo'n;
Caze when de Hant blows de ho'n, de sperits all dance,
An' de hosses an' de cattle, dey whirls 'round an' prance.
(The complete lyrics can be read here: http://readbookonline.net/readOnLine/59398/. Talley sets them to an entirely different tune.)
When used as a song lyric, the phrase is usually part of a collection of simple floating verses, as in this typical example (used by Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs on their 2007 self-titled collaboration):
Never seen the likes since I've been born
Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Bowls in the cupboard and butter in the churn
Never seen the likes since I've been "burn"
Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Never seen the likes since I've been born
Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Never seen the likes since I've been born
Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Swing that girl with the red dress on
Richard Matteson has included a thoroughly researched history of the tune and its lyrics on his Bluegrass Messengers website: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/sheep-shell-corn--version-2-brown-collection.aspx
Even he, however, cannot answer one mystery - how exactly a sheep would shell corn by rattling his horns. It seems to be a curious phrase whose ultimate origin is unknown.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Source recording, solo fiddle: Emmett Lundy, 1941: http://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/sheep-shell-corn-rattling-his-horn
Solo fiddle, by Steve Blake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3iZL5B3yqA
Solo banjo, by Flatfoot Jimmy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6slDA6RVE8
Banjo/Fiddle, posted by David Allen:http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/audio_player2.asp?musicid=17197&archived
Dulcimer, by Gwen Caeli: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulb5qJ-Pp6c
Band: The Highwood Stringband, from the 1994 "Young Fogies" compilation: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012A0MFU?ie=UTF8&%2aVersion%2a=1&%2aentries%2a=0
Band: Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R5htfaefwU
Band: Joe Herrmann, Sam Herrmann, David McLaughlin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJlZqPDqkF8
Jam, featuring David McLaughlin, Paul Hammerton, Jamie Gart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUe6JthGSQ
TAB
Talbature by Maya Whitmont can be found on the MossyRoof site: http://stringband.mossyroof.com/Sheep_Shell_Corn.png