|
Blind Fiddler, The
Bluegrass and old-time song and breakdown. Missouri; Arkansas
ARTIST: Collected from Emma Dusenberry.
|
MP3 Listen: The Blind Fiddler- Pete Seeger
SOURCE: Traditional Ballad Index; Mudcat; Folk Index; Arkansas Encyclopedia On-line;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1800's- According to Sing Out the song dates back to about 1850, through Mrs. Emma Dusenberry and was first recorded by Joe Hickerson. Other notes (American industrial Ballads) say the song dates to the last half of the 1800s. Both use the lyrics, "in the blacksmith's shop in the year of 56' to assume the date was 1856, which has not be corroborated by older versions.
RECORDING INFO: The Blind Fiddler
Rt - Old Time Blackberry Blossom
Faulkner, Nolan. Legendary Kentucky Mandolin, Old Homestead OHS 90064, LP (1976), trk# 1
The Blind Fiddler (Traditional)
Atwater-Donnelly. Where the Wild Birds Do Whistle, RIM 1005-2, CD (1997), trk# 7
Gingerthistle. Grandad's Porch, Kudzu KPP 007, CD (1998), trk# 9
Hickerson, Joe. Joe Hickerson, Folk Legacy FSI 039, LP (1970), trk# A.02
McCutcheon, John. How Can I Keep from Singing?, June Appal JA 003, LP (1975), trk# 6a
Reid, Harvey. Steel Drivin' Man, Woodpecker WP 107, Cas (1991), trk# A.07
Rothfield, Jane; and Allan Carr. There and Back, Temple TP 011, LP (1983), trk# B.05a
Seeger, Pete. American Industrial Ballads, Folkways FH 5251, LP (1956), trk# A.02
Stecher, Jody. Snake Baked A Hoecake: Jody Stecher and Friends, Bay 203, LP (1974), trk# 4
Old Time Blackberry Blossom
Rt - Blackberry Blossom; Blind Fiddler
Wine, Melvin. Hannah at the Springhouse, Marimac AHS 2, Cas (1989), trk# 16
RELATED TO: "The Rebel Soldier" "Old Time Blackberry Blossom (minor key)"
OTHER NAMES:
NOTES: Minor key usually Dm 4/4; Typical lyrics are: "I lost my sight in the blacksmith's shop in the year of 'Fifty-six." The singer, with no other trade available, has had to become a wandering fiddler. Not even Doctor Lane of San Francisco could help him. He hopes his family is safe and well.
The song and instrumental "The Blind Fiddler" was collected by Belden (p. 446, 1 text)
in 1923. It's been reworked by Eric Andersen (considered a different version than the original or at least with different original lyrics), Steven Stills, Joe Hickerson, Pete Seeger and others. Jody Stecher does a fine version with fiddle solos (see version 2).
The traditional lyrics seem to come directly from a single source Emma Dusenberry and various adaptations of her version were made by Joe Hickerson and then Pete Seeger.
Biography of Emma Hays Dusenbury (1862–1941) by Robert B. Cochran, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville:
Emma Hays Dusenbury was an outstanding traditional singer; her work is represented by some 116 songs in the nation’s leading folksong archive at the Library of Congress.
Emma Hays was born on January 9, 1862, probably in Habersham County or Rabun County, Georgia, to William Jasper Hays and Mary Jane Pitts. She came to Arkansas with her parents and four siblings in 1872, staying first in Crittenden County but eventually settling in Baxter County, near Gassville. Sometime after 1880, she married Ernest Dusenbury, who was from Illinois. Two years later, she had a daughter. In about 1894 or 1895, she suffered a serious illness that left her blind.
Before settling near Mena (Polk County) in about 1907, Dusenbury lived an itinerant life; her husband worked railroad and packing plant jobs, and the whole family picked cotton in the summers. Dusenbury’s husband died in 1933, leaving the family to live in poverty.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, guided by F. M. Goodhue, a teacher at a nearby radical labor school, Commonwealth College, Dusenbury was recorded by some of the best-known folksong collectors in the region and nation. John Lomax, Vance Randolph (whose Ozark Folksongs lists November 1928 as the date of his first collecting from her), and Sidney Robertson all visited, as did poet John Gould Fletcher and Little Rock (Pulaski County) composer and symphony director Laurence Powell. All were greatly impressed; Lomax wrote in his autobiography that she sang continuously for two days and recorded more traditional Anglo-American ballads than any other singer.
Dusenbury’s one brush with celebrity came in 1936 when she sang in Little Rock as part of the celebration of Arkansas’s statehood centennial. Her photograph appeared in the newspaper, along with two feature articles about her (one written by Powell) that are even today the primary sources of information about her. Powell later based the final movement of his Second Symphony on three of her traditional songs.
Dusenbury’s repertoire was more than simply large—it was remarkably varied, including many rarely recorded songs in addition to the old Anglo-American ballads especially prized by the collectors of the period. “Abraham’s Proclamation,” for example, a scoffing number denouncing President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and believed by scholars to originate in blackface minstrelsy, has been collected from no other singer.
Dusenbury died on May 6, 1941; she is buried, as Emmer Duesberry, in the small community of Rocky (Polk County), near Mena.
Traditional Ballad Index: Blind Fiddler, The
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: homesickness poverty rambling separation fiddle injury family doctor hardtimes music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden, p. 446, "The Blind Fiddler" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, p. 364, "The Blind Fiddler" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 55, "The Blind Fiddler" (1 text)
DT, BLINDFID*
Roud #7833
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Blind Fiddler" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blind Man's Song" (theme)
cf. "Jilson Setters's Blind Song" (theme)
cf. "The Blind Man's Regret" (theme)
NOTES: Until this century, there was nothing resembing a social safety net for the victims of industrial accidents -- in particular, no workers' compensation, and little chance of compensation by the employer.
Pete Seeger dates this song from 1850, with no supporting documentation; as the first line reads "I lost my eyes in the blacksmith shop in the year of '56", this date is doubtful. It has the feel of the mid-19th century about it, but I've dated it only back to the field recording for safety's sake. - PJS
Joe Hickerson, who probably would know, implies that this is the earliest recording known to him, though the fact that there is also a version in Belden implies that it is older. He speculates that it is derived from the earlier "The Rebel Soldier"(primarily on the basis of the final line; "I am a (blind fiddler/rebel soldier) and far from my home." - RBW
FINAL NOTES: The song is related to "The Rebel Soldier"(primarily on the basis of the final line; "I am a (blind fiddler/rebel soldier) and far from my home" and "Old Time Blackberry Blossom" which is played in a minor key also. It's in the repertoire of fiddler Jon Cooper from Maine.
According to Sing Out the song dates back to about 1850, through Mrs. Emma Dusenberry and was first recorded by Joe Hickerson. Other notes (American industrial Ballads) say the song dates to the last half of the 1800s. Both use the lyrics, "in the blacksmith's shop in the year of 56' " to assume the date was 1856, which has not be corroborated by older versions.
THE BLIND FIDDLER- Emma Dusenberry
MP3 Listen: The Blind Fiddler- Pete Seeger
I lost my eyes in the blacksmith's shop in the year of 56
While dusting out a T planch which was out of fix
It bounded from my tongs and there concealed my doom
I am a blind fiddler and far from my home
I've been to San Francisco, I've been to Dr. Lane
He operated on one of my eyes but nothing could he gain
He told me that I'd never see and it's no cause to mourn
I am a blind fiddler and far from my home
I have a wife and three little ones depending now on me
To share all my troubles, whatever they may be
I hope that they'll be careful while I'm compelled to roam
I am a blind fiddler and far from my home
|