Sunday, March 01, 2015

Prairieland-Clayville: "Walking in the Parlor," fine old southern Appalachian fiddle tune with a fine old southern Appalachian lilt

Blast email I sent out this afternoon --

March is coming in like a lyin' … oops, better rephrase that! It looks like March is lying to us again -- it's supposed to bring us spring weather, but so far all it's brought us is eight to 10 inches of snow.

The first week of March is also bringing us two of our regularly scheduled slow jams in the Springfield area:

-- Prairieland Strings, 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at Atonement Lutheran Church, 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield.

-- Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music, 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, March 7, Clayville Historic Site, Ill. 125, Pleasant Plains.

Let's kick off Tuesday's session with "Walking in the Parlor." It's a lively old southern Appalachian fiddle tune, with origins in West Virginia. I think it sounds best played with little bit of a lilt, a little oomph on the downbeat like old-time string bands so often do in Virginia and North Carolina. Here it is played by parking-lot pickers (well, it's looks like they're in a campground) at an old-time festival in Virginia:

James Leva - "Walking In The Parlor" (Musicalia 2013)

More information, as well as a link to a hauntingly "measured and tranquil" clawhammer banjo solo -- a cover of a version that traces back to the legendary Hammons family of West Virginia -- on Hogfiddle at

http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2015/03/walking-in-parlor.html

and I've posted the YouTube video to my Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/peter.ellertsen.

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