For this week I'm submitting the well-known, and well-loved, tune "Liberty." It's a tune that I learned in my first or second year of playing banjo, 40 years ago, from tablature. I play it pretty much the same way toay, and have never tired of it.
Although this melody is played just about everywhere in the US, in researching for this TOTW I must admit that I'm
Traditional Tune Archive: http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Liberty_(1)
LIBERTY [1]. AKA and see "Reel de Ti-Jean" (Canadian), "Tipsy Parson (1)," "Raccoon and the Possum," "Spanish Polka," "Liberty Two-Step," "Liberty Hornpipe." Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown. USA, Widely known. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (most versions). According to Paul Wells, the first recordings of the tune were by Texas fiddler Bob Wills, though Tommy Jackson also made a recording for Dot Records that may have helped popularize the tune. However, Meade finds earlier recordings by Georgia's Fiddlin' John Carson (1925), Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers (1928), and Herschel Brown (1928). Paul Tyler notes that "Liberty" seems to be the "hoedown" of choice among Cajun fiddlers, when asked to play one. "Liberty" is one of '100 essential Missouri tunes' listed by Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden. The reel is very popular among Ozarks fiddlers, according to Beisswegner & McCann, where it is often an introductory tune for beginning fiddlers (in simplified version), although the authors suspect it is a relatively recent addition to Ozarks fiddle repertoire. Indeed, "Liberty" has for some decades been an introductory tune for beginning old-time style fiddlers. In Martin Scorcese's period film The Gangs of New York (2002) a dulcimer player is briefly shown and heard playing the melody.
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Recorded sources: Apex AL 1613, "The Best of Don Messer and his Islanders, Vol. 6" (appears as "Liberty Two-Step"). Front Hall 010, Fennigs All Stars- "The Hammered Dulcimer Strikes Again." Gennett 6447 (78 RPM), 1928, the Tweedy Brothers (Harry, Charles, and George, from Wheeling, W.Va., who played twin fiddles and piano). Heritage 048, Golden River Grass - "Georgia Fiddle Bands" (Brandywine, 1982). Kicking Mule, Art Rosenbaum- "Five String Banjo." Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association 001, Pete McMahan - "Ozark Mountain Waltz." Rounder 0016, Vasser Clements- "Crossing the Catskills."
I'm pretty sure I learned my version from the Art Rosenbaum album mentioned above, plus the associated tablature book.
But, when listening to the earliest recordings of "Liberty" they don't seem to be the melody in D that I know, and really to me sound more like the melody that the Traditional Tune Archive lists as "Liberty [2]", and which sounds to me very much like the melody I know as "Red Apple Rag."
John Carson (1925)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIgFjdGubqs
Hershal Brown & His Washboard Band Orchestra (1929)
http://www.honkingduck.com/mc/content/liberty
The Tweedy Brothers (1928)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krp2BDehzaU
So, when I looked for the source of the tune I know, the earliest recording I found was by Don Messer in 1953. Don Messer was a fiddler from Canada (New Brunswick) who had been on radio and later television from 1929 until 1969.
Don Messer and His Islanders - Liberty Two-Step
Transferred from the LP "On The Air", a 1960 promotional item produced for Canada Packers, one of Messer's sponsors. The original single release was Apex 26394 (1953)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bsg2tuigvI
And then the next recording is the one of Jack Harris of East Texas (not sure of the date) which was transcribed in volume one of the Christeson collection published in 1973. Here is the recording of Jack Harris.
https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/liberty-4
So? So I wonder if the tune is is a relatively recent introduction to the US fiddle community, rapidly spreading through radio and fiddle contests.
I'm not alone in being confused on the source of the tune, as evidenced by this "mudcat" thread:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=13445
I hope someone in the Hangout community can shed some more light on the origin of this melody. I would point out that there is a page on the tune in a blog associated with Mark O'Conner, but I think there are some errors in that, which seem to be just repeated from other sources: http://americanstrings.blogspot.com/2012/01/liberty.html , still I have not been able to hunt down some of the British/Scottish tunes mentioned.
Anyway, it's a great tune There are 35 versions here in the BHO music archives, plus many in video. I'll attach one we recorded at our Wednesday session this week. I'll enjoy hearing more.
OH, I'm away from home, and when I get back I'll see if I can find an Ozark version that I got from hangout member M-D.