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14 Jan 21 - 11:15 PM (#4088022) Subject: Origins: Indian Creek From: cnd One of Fiddlin' Arthur Smith's most popular instrumental recordings is song titled "Indian Creek." I was reading the booklet which comes with Fiddlin Arthur Smith and his Dixieliners Vol. 2 (and the first volume, too) when I came upon the following: "Indian Creek" originated with the Stringer Brothers, in Humphreys county, about 1920. The Stringers learned it from another old west Tennessee fiddler who called it "Band Piece" because he got it off an old phonograph recording of it played by a brass band. The Stringers modified it, Arthur modified it still more and named it "Indian Creek" in honor of the road the Stringers lived on near McEwen.Does anyone know which potential brass band song Arthur's song is based on? I haven't been able to find a recording by the Stringers (if one does indeed exist at all), which makes this a bit harder, since we've only got the song twice removed. |
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15 Jan 21 - 07:19 AM (#4088064) Subject: RE: Origins: Indian Creek From: GUEST,Hootenanny Probably muddying the waters here but there is an audio clip of Oscar "Rd" Wilson on You Tube where he is asked if he knows 'Ladies on the Steamboat' when he says that Steve Ledford (who was half brother to "Red's" father)called it Indian Creek, a discussion follows regarding the Burnett & Rutherford version. Smith knew the Ledford Family a couple of whom claimed that Smith's tune Sugar Tree Stomp was 'stolen' from the Ledfords Indian Creek is the second tune on this clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAytqDpw26g |
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17 Jan 21 - 02:05 PM (#4088456) Subject: RE: Origins: Indian Creek From: GUEST,# cnd, I think the 1920 date is way out of whack, especially if the claim is that it came from an old recording of a brass band. Switch that to the 1930s and it may help to find the record you're looking for. |
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18 Jan 21 - 12:11 PM (#4088618) Subject: RE: Origins: Indian Creek From: cnd Thanks for that Hootenanny; rather than muddying the waters, that seems like a good start to an answer to me. Now to find out if it was released on phonograph in the 20s/30s, as I believe GUEST,# rightly assumes. The only problem with that so far is that the only recordings titled Ladies On the Steamboat (or alternate titles, such as Tugboat) I can find from the 20s/30s are proto-bluegrass versions from the 1920s by Burnett and Rutherford (click) and The Kessinger Brothers (click). It is, of course, possible that both Burnett and Rutherford and the Kessinger Brothers learned it from the same man who learned it from the brass band recording that the Stringer Brothers supposedly did, since they were all in Kentucky. Anyone wanting to hear the Red Wilson recording can click the link or skip to about 2:25 (click). I believe it's a version of what Smith played, but I'm not so good at keeping tunes in my head. If anyone else wants to give their two cents, you can hear Smith's version here |
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18 Jan 21 - 12:27 PM (#4088625) Subject: RE: Origins: Indian Creek From: GUEST,Hootenanny Just to clarify: Oscar "Red" Wilson and the Ledford Family were from North Carolina. Burnett & Rutherford were from Kentucky The Kessingers, Clark and Luches were from West Virginia |
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18 Jan 21 - 12:39 PM (#4088629) Subject: RE: Origins: Indian Creek From: cnd Yes, sorry, I meant to say they were all "relatively" close to KY |