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Cider/ Cider Mill/ Stillhouse/ Down To Cider Mill
See Also: Sal Went Down To Cider Mill
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- USA, North Georgia.
ARTIST: From Tom, Brad and Alice.
Listen: Skillet Lickers; Sal's Gone to the Cider Mill (fiddle w/lyrics) 1930
Listen: Eddie Bond; Cider Mill; (fiddle w/lyrics)
Listen: Skillet Lickers; Paddy Won't You Drink Some (fiddle w/lyrics)
Listen: Riley Baugus; Cider (banjo solo)
Listen: Reed Martin; Old Stillhouse (banjo solo)
Listen: R.D. Lunceford; Old Stillhouse (banjo solo)
Listen: Matokie Worrell Slaughter; Down to the Still House (banjo solo 1991)
Listen: Delmar and Calvin Pendleton; Stillhouse (Fiddle w/banjo)
Listen: Grover and Martin Cockram; Stillhouse (banjo w/guitar)
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: Baugus, Riley (Alvin). Life of Riley, Yodel-Ay-Hee 038, CD (2001), trk# 9 (Cider); Block, Allan. Alive and Well and Fiddling, Living Folk LFR 104, LP (197?), trk# 7; Camp Creek Boys. Camp Creek Boys, County 709, LP (1967), trk# 8
Carlin, Bob. Banging and Sawing, Rounder 0197, CD (1996/1985), trk# 15 [1982-85] (Cider); Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins. Down to the Cider Mill, County 713, LP (1968), trk# 12; Deseret String Band. Utah Trail, Okehdokee --, LP (197?), trk# 3
Hooven, Greg. Tribute to Fred Cockerham, Heritage (Galax) 079C, Cas (1993), trk# A.02; Krassen, Miles. Krassen, Miles / Clawhammer Banjo, Oak, sof (1974), p25
Mainer, Wade & Julia. In the Land of Melody, June Appal JA 065C, Cas (1991), trk# 14
McNeil, Keith & Rusty. Coarse & Fine, WEM MC 250, LP (1977), trk# B.04 (Cider)
Molsky, Bruce. Soon Be Time, Compass 7 4432 2, CD (2006), trk# 11 (Cider)
Skillet Lickers. Skillet Lickers, Vol. 1, County 506, LP (1965), trk# A.02 [1930/04/14] (Sal's Gone to the Cider Mill); Skillet Lickers. Old Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from N. Georgi, County CD 3509, CD (1996), trk# 4 [1930/04/14] (Sal's Gone to the Cider Mill)
Stoneman, Ernest; and the Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers. Day in the Mountains, County 512, LP (196?), trk# 8a [1928/02/22] (Serenade in the Mountains)
OTHER NAMES: Cider Mill; Still House (Stillhouse); Paddy Won't You Drink/Sip Some (Good Old) Cider; Down to the Still House to Get a Little Cider; Down To Cider Mill;
RELATED TO: Black Eyed-Susie
SOURCES: Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Folk Index;
NOTES: Structure: AA B verse B B chorus B AA, Key of D. One of a group of similar fiddle tunes with lyrics including Sal's Gone to the Cider Mill, Stillhouse (Old Stillhouse) and Down To Cider Mill.
Lyrics include: Cider, cider, little more cider
Down to the stillhouse get a little cider
It's possible the lyrics have originated from the 1852 popular minstrel song "A Little More Cider" which begins:
1. I love the white girl and the black,
and I love all the rest,
I love the girls for loving me,
but I love myself the best.
O, dear I am so thirsty,
I've just been down to supper,
I drank three pails of apple jack,
and a tub of apple butter.
CHORUS
O, little more cider too,
a lttle more cider too,
a lttle more cider for Miss Dinah,
A litte more cider too.
On the first recording of "Cider Mill" in 1928 (titled "Serenade in the Mountains") Ernest Stoneman declares: "Say, let's play a little tune together we ain't played together in a coon's age. Let's play that good old tune 'Down to the Stillhouse to Get a Little Cider.' Listen: Serenade in the Mountains;
The Skillet Lickers titled their version "Sal's Gone to the Cider Mill" which was recorded two years later in 1930 [Listen: Skillet Lickers]. Another similar tune is the Skillet Lickers, "Paddy Won’t You Drink Some Good Ole Cider." [Listen: Skillet Lickers;]
The tune has become a popular clawhammer banjo solo with most version based on Matokie Slaughter's solo, titled "Down to the Still House." [Listen: Matokie Worrell Slaughter; Down to the Still House] Here's a bio on her from Wiki:
Matokie Worrell Slaughter (sometimes known as "Tokie" Slaughter) (December 21, 1919 – December 31, 1999) was an American clawhammer banjo player.
Born in Pulaski, VA to a large musical family, she performed regularly with her family on local radio in the 1940s. She and her sister Virgie (later Virgie Worrel Richardson) also appeared regularly at local fiddler's conventions. She was discovered by the larger old-time music community when some of her recordings appeared on Charles Faurot's clawhammer banjo anthologies during the 1960s. Later, she made many appearances at folk music festivals and workshops throughout the US and formed a band called Matokie Slaughter & The Back Creek Buddies with her sister Virgie and old-time music revivalist Alice Gerrard. The band issue a cassette-only release, Saro, in 1990.
Excellent solo banjo versions (based on Slaughter's) include my friend Riley Baugess (my band played a concert with Riley's band in the late 1990s at High Point College in NC) [Listen: Riley Baugus; Cider] and Reed Martin [Listen: Reed Martin; Old Stillhouse].
From: More Pious Friends and Drunken Companions: Songs and Ballads of Conviviality by Frank Shay; with drawings by John Held Jr. 1928
A LITTLE MORE CIDER
As sung by James O'Reilly
Miss Dinah when she goes to church
She looks so neat and gay.
She has to take the dogs along
To keep the boys away.
Chorus: A little more cider
And a little more cider, too;
A little more cider for Miss Dinah
And we all like cider, too
Miss Dinah is a coffee pot
Her nose it is the spout;
And every time she turns around
The coffee it pours out.
Chorus
Miss Dinah when she goes to bed,
She turns herself about.
She puts the candle in the bed
And blows herself right out.
Chorus
Miss Dinah is an ugly bird,
She carries an ugly bill:
She lights right down in the middle of the field
And plucks out hill by hill.
Chorus
I went down to Miss Dinah's home,
Miss Dinah was a-grubbing.
She picked up a club and lit into me
And give me a devil of a clubbing.
CIDER- Tom, Brad and Alice
You be the horse and I'll be the rider
Down to the stillhouse to get a little cider
CHORUS: Cider, cider, a little more cider
Down to the stillhouse to get a little cider
*Hickory horse and a white oak saddle
And a pretty little gal ridin' a-straddle
Chorus
Sal went down to get a little cider
Little white dog run along 'side her
Chorus
We rode down to the foot of the hill
If we hadn't come back we'd a-been there still
Chorus
Sal went down with me along 'side her
Down to the stillhouse to get a little cider
Chorus 2X
* [Usually sung:] Big grey horse and wide old saddle
And a pretty little girl ridin' a-straddle.
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