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Lighter Folklore: Central Kentucky Fiddle Tunes, 1870s? (1) Folklore: Central Kentucky Fiddle Tunes, 1870s? 29 Apr 24


Mr. Louis Ashley of Glendeane, Ky., about midway between Louisville and Nashville, wrote to the "Breckinridge News" of Cloverport, Ky., on Oct. 5, 1903:

"I have got a fiddle 100 years old, and I am fifty years old...[T]he names of some of the pieces I play:

"Arkansaw Traveler, Big-Footed Nigger, Raccoon on a Rail, Devil's Dream, Natchez Under the Hill, Unfortunate Dog, Dogs and the Dogs [sic: possibly a typo], Girl I Left Behind Me, The New Married Lady, The Irish Wash Woman, The Camel's [sic] a Coming, Drunken Sailor, Leather Breeches, Downfall of Paris, Steward's Long Bow, Sugar in the Gourd, Whoe's [sic] Been Here Since I've Been Gone, Little Bell Cow Running in the Grass, Forked Deer, The Cuckoo [sic] Nest, Possum Up a Gum Stump.

"These are some of the oldest pieces played by the old settlers of Grayson county."

Ashley presumably learned these tunes as a young man, around 1870, or during the Civil War.

Most of the twenty titles are familiar, though three or four appear to be unique.


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