Today's TOTW volunteer had to postpone doing a tune, and now the fill-in volunteer is unable to post - so this is a very quick double-emergency back-up Tune of the Week. :-)
The tune is Mississippi Snagboat, which comes to us from Kansas fiddler Bert Payne, via Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains. I came across the tune on the CD/DVD release "The Spotted Pony" from Spencer & Rains, on the Old Time Tiki Parlour label, which I picked up at Clifftop this year. The album is subtitled "And Other Tunes From the Midwest Corridor", and feature tunes from Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
While down in southeastern Ohio this week - where my family is from - I stopped by the Ohio River Museum in Marietta (http://tinyurl.com/OhioRiverMuseum) and therefore am in somewhat of a riverboat frame of mind; thus my choice for this Tune of the Week
BERT PAYNE
I have been unable to discover much about Bert, other than the fact that he was from Hill City, Kansas, and was born in 1873.
TRICIA SPENCER AND HOWARD RAINS
Tricia and Howard both grew up in musical families in the aforementioned Midwest corridor (Kansas and Texas, respectively). They met at an east Texas festival in 2012, and soon formed a musical partnership devoted to preserving and passing on the traditional music they grew up with.
SNAGBOATS
The term "snagboat" referred to steamboats equipped with apparatus designed to remove "snags" - downed trees, logs, and other debris - from the path of riverboat traffic.
A few photos:
THE TUNE
Mississippi Snagboat is in the Key of D.
Tricia and Howard had this to say about the tune in the liner notes to "The Spotted Pony":
"In searching for rare Kansas tunes, a friend of ours, J. F. Stover, sent us old recording that were made in his home in Hill City in the early 1960s. The playing was of Bert Payne (born 1873) on the fiddle and his daughter on piano in a powerful yet distinctly late-19th century Midwestern style. This beautiful tune was on of many in Bert's unusual and lost repertoire."
AUDIO, VIDEO, AND TAB
Spencer & Rains, fiddle/guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxVj8HNd8Cc
Howard Rains and unknown fiddler, twin fiddles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjUQVU3ysU8
Tab by Ken Torke on his TaterJoe's website: http://taterjoes.com/banjo/index.html