From the band's website, possumridge.org
Guide To The Tunes
This is a non-authoritative guide to the tunes on The Road Back Home. The Possum Ridge Public Library is a little thin in the ethnomusicology section. For authoritative information, we suggest the Library of Congress. We welcome corrections and/or additions to these notes. Please email
[email protected].
1. New PotatoesThis traditional Irish tune appears sometimes as a jig and sometimes as a reel. It is listed as a reel in O'Neill's (1850). It is listed as a jig in O'Possum's, so of course we play it that way.
2. Father KellyAccording to Ken Kolodner-"Often the titles for tunes in traditional music are lost and the tunes are known by the composer or by a musician who popularized the tune. Such is probably the case for this well-known Irish reel. It comes from a Galway piano-accordion player who happens also to be a missionary priest." We learned our version from the playing of Ken Kolodner on his album "Walking Stones".
3. Kerfunken JigThis tune comes from a village in Brittany. Apparently the Breton "ker-" is something like the Irish "-kill" meaning church.
4. Miss McLeod's Reel (Hop High Ladies)This is an American version of the Scottish tune Mrs. Macleod of Raasay’s Reel, (printed in a Gow collection of 1809) and can be found with a variety of spellings and song titles, such as McCloud’s, Uncle Joe, or Hop High Ladies. Apparently it was used in 18th century Ireland as a "cake dance". Some sources say that this was the original Virginia Reel.
5. Jonah's WaltzThis beautiful tune was written by hammered dulcimer player Steve Schneider to commemorate the birth of Jonah, the first son of a long lost friend.
6. Ragtime AnnieThis reel is one of the earliest fiddle tunes ever recorded. In most parts of the country, only the first two strains are played whereas on this album we play all three parts.
7. Gary Owen's JigAlso known as Garry Owen or Garryowen (the name of a suburb of Limerick), this was the unofficial marching song of the Seventh Cavalry. General Custer reportedly heard the song among his Irish troops and liked it. The tune was then played so often the 7th became tied to it. The tune is first documented as Auld Bessy in 1788. It was later (1800) in the opera Harlequin Amulet (the Majic of Mona). About that time it was attributed to "Jackson of Cork" by a book of Country Dances by William Campbell. It also appeared in part two (1802) of Nathaniel Gow's four volume Complete Repository of the Original Scotch Slow Tunes.
8. Arran Boat Song / Comb Your Hair and Curl ItArran Boat Song is named for the Scottish Arran [isles], not the Irish Aran. It is often spelled incorrectly, but the melody refers to Queen Mary's Escape from Loch Leven Castle. It is an old traditional Scottish tune. Comb Your Hair and Curl It is an Irish slip jig, with nine eighth notes to the measure. It can be found in O’Neill’s Dance Music.
9. Possum Up a Gum StumpThis tune was mentioned in chronicles before the year 1830 (Mark Wilson). It was cited as having been played in a 1914 Atlanta, Ga. fiddlers' contest and listed in the Northwest Alabamian of August 29, 1929, as one of the tunes likely to be played at an upcoming fiddlers' convention. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. There are several notable gum stumps up on Possum Ridge.
10. The ColeraineColeraine is a town in northern Ireland. The tune has long been a staple of New England contra dances. The earliest printing appears to be in Kerr’s Merry Melodies (c. 1886), where it is included in a section of Irish jigs.
11. Cabri WaltzJoe Pancerzewski, legendary Northwest fiddler originally from North Dakota, said that this tune was brought to North Dakota by fiddler Bill Smith from Cabri, Saskatchewan. Joe made it popular in the Northwest, and versions of it are known all over the country.
12. The Boys of BluehillO'Neill's source George West had the tune from a 'strolling fiddler named O'Brien', but did not clarify whether this musician was from Ireland or the US. West was a young man, and evidently left in a hurry. The alternate title Beaux of Oak Hill does have older sources--Ryan's/Coles and Kerr, for example, dating from 1883 (for Ryan, perhaps earlier for Kerr). The tune appears as The Two Sisters in the American George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume I (1839), though it usually appears as Beaux of Oak Hill in mid-nineteenth century collections. It is just possible that the Boys of Bluehill title derived from the title Boys of Oak Hill, a mishearing perhaps.
13. Red WingThis popular Tin Pan Alley song about an Indian maid was composed by Kerry Mills in 1907. It quickly entered the American fiddling and square dance tradition.
14. Smash the Windows (Roaring Jelly)Smash the Windows was first printed in Niel Gow’s third repository of Scottish tunes (1799). In that collection the tune was called Roaring Jelly. We are left to wonder exactly what roaring jelly really is.
15. Brian Boru's March / Black Nag / ChildgroveBrian Boru’s March. Brian Boru was the 10th century king who first unified Ireland. He finally ended the Viking threat at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, at which Brian himself was killed. The tune can be found in O’Neill’s 1850 Melodies. Black Nag is an English country dance tune that was written as a jig around 1650 and appears in Playford in the 1657 edition. Childgrove, still popular at country dances today, dates to around 1701 and appears in many English country dance collections.
16. Over the Waterfall / LibertyOver the Waterfall is, according to Alan Jabbour, a reworking of an old British tune called the Job Of Journeywork. Liberty is an American tune widely known in Bluegrass and old-time music circles. It is probably of fairly recent origin, and was popularized by Texas fiddler Bob Wills.
17. BoatmanBoatman is a minstrel song credited to Dan Emmett in 1843.
18. Paddy RollerFrom the notes to the CD "Drop Thumb" by R.D. Lunceford: "Oklahoma banjo player Bill Shelton relates that his grandmother told him that her grandfather had been a 'paddy roller', meaning that he patrolled the boundaries of his father's plantation near Lexington, Mississippi on the lookout for runaway slaves. 'Paddy Roller' may likely be a mispronunciation of patroller."
19. Return to Fingal (Battle of Aughrim)Like many tunes in the oral tradition, this one is known by several names. To further confuse matters Battle of Aughrim is the name of several tunes and medleys of tunes. This tune, according to Clannamore, was written about 1014 as a final tribute to Brian Boru, the greatest king Ireland ever knew. He is credited with defeating the Vikings by organizing the princes of several kingdoms.
20. Ways of the WorldThis is William Stepp's version, not really a 'version' but an entirely different tune of the same name. "Local fiddlers told Bruce Greene that the real name of Stepp's tune was 'Who's Been Here Since I've Been Gone'..." (Titon, Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes, p. 191).
21. Staten IslandThis hornpipe can be found in James Aird’s Scottish collections, printed in the 1780’s, and is popular today, unchanged in two hundred years.
22. Sadie at the Back DoorThis tune was composed by Seattle old-time musician Jere Canote, originally written as a banjo tune. It is rumored that Sadie was a cat, not a possum like the one that came to our back door during the recording session.