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CORN STALK FIDDLE AND SHOESTRING BOW
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Mississippi.
ARTIST: Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Frank Kittrell (Lauderdale County, Miss.);.
ARTIST: Frank Kittrell
Listen: Clyde Davenport; Cornstalk Fiddle And A Shoestring Bow
Listen: Mabe Wilson; Cornstalk Fiddle And A Shoestring Bow
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1800’s; 1939 first recording
RECORDING INFO: Nagler, Eric. Fiddle Up a Tune, Elephant LFN 8206, LP (1982), cut#B.03. Davenport, Clyde. Puncheon Camps, Appalachian Center Ser. AC002, Cas (1992), cut# 22
OTHER NAMES: Lightning in the West (Bud Meredith); Open the Gate and Walk On Through; Grapevine Twist; Floating title with Cotton-Eyed Joe.
SOURCES: Clyde Davenport [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994- pg. 56; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: Kitrell's 1939 Cornstalk Fiddle And A Shoestring Bow recording is not on "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" as reported by Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion. The CD does have three Kitrell tunes. The Cornstalk Fiddle And A Shoestring Bow recording is located in the Library of Congress but as far as I know has not been made available to the public.
Cornstalk Fiddle and a Shoestring Bow (standard, key of G) is a fiddle tune identified with Clyde Davenport. According to Davenport, “That was one of my daddy's tunes. Never did hear nobody else play it.” It is similar to “Open the Gate and Walk on Through,” which Clyde plays. The high part is like “The Grapevine Twist,” a minstrel tune printed in 19th-century collections. [Titon]
Mabe Wilson's tune is different [Listen: Mabe Wilson]. He says it's the same tune as "Lightning in the West" by Bud Meredith [http://www.myspace.com/budmeredith/music/songs/lightning-in-the-west-1293626] and gives the opening lyrics:
Where did you get that cornstack fiddle,
Where did you get that bow?
The cornstalk fiddle is a type of bowed string instrument made from a cornstalk, with slits cut into the shaft to allow one or more fibrous sections to separate from the main body and serve as "strings." Pieces of wood or other material are wedged under the strings before they rejoin the body to serve as a nut and bridge.
The fiddle can be bowed with a bow made from another cornstalk, made from a shoelace or other piece of string, or with a standard violin bow.
The instrument is mentioned in Mary A. Howe's 1864 book "The Rival Volunteers: or, The Black Plume Rifles."
Herbert Halpert recorded Frank Kittrall of Meridian, Mississippi playing the song in
May, 1939.
The Corn-Stalk Fiddle [Poem]- Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an African American poet.
When the corn 's all cut and the bright stalks shine
Like the burnished spears of a field of gold;
When the field-mice rich on the nubbins dine,
And the frost comes white and the wind blows cold;
Then it's heigho! fellows and hi-diddle-diddle,
For the time is ripe for the corn-stalk fiddle.
And you take a stalk that is straight and long,
With an expert eye to its worthy points,
And you think of the bubbling strains of song
That are bound between its pithy joints--
Then you cut out strings, with a bridge in the middle,
With a corn-stalk bow for a corn-stalk fiddle.
Then the strains that grow as you draw the bow
O'er the yielding strings with a practised hand!
And the music's flow never loud but low
Is the concert note of a fairy band.
Oh, your dainty songs are a misty riddle
To the simple sweets of the corn-stalk fiddle.
When the eve comes on, and our work is done,
And the sun drops down with a tender glance,
With their hearts all prime for the harmless fun,
Come the neighbor girls for the evening's dance,
And they wait for the well-known twist and twiddle--
More time than tune--from the corn-stalk fiddle.
Then brother Jabez takes the bow,
While Ned stands off with Susan Bland,
Then Henry stops by Milly Snow,
And John takes Nellie Jones's hand,
While I pair off with Mandy Biddle,
And scrape, scrape, scrape goes the corn-stalk fiddle.
"Salute your partners," comes the call,
"All join hands and circle round,"
"Grand train back," and "Balance all,"
Footsteps lightly spurn the ground.
"Take your lady and balance down the middle"
To the merry strains of the corn-stalk fiddle.
So the night goes on and the dance is o'er,
And the merry girls are homeward gone,
But I see it all in my sleep once more,
And I dream till the very break of dawn
Of an impish dance on a red-hot griddle
To the screech and scrape of a corn-stalk fiddle.
Notes from Kuntz: "G Major. Standard. AABB. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Thought Davenport's tune is not "Cotton Eyed Joe," the title "Cornstalk Fiddle" may be in some locals a floating or alternate title for "Cotton-Eyed Joe." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
CORNSTALK FIDDLE- Davenport
Listen: Clyde Davenport
My bow's sugar; my bow's sweet;
My bow's sugar and she can't be beat.
Cornstalk fiddle and a shoestring bow,
Cornstalk fiddle, and a shoestring bow.
CORNSTALK FIDDLE- Standard lyrics
Cornstalk fiddle, shoestring bow,
“Look out Boys”, says Cotton-Eyed Joe.
Cornstalk fiddle, shoestring bow,
“Play a little tune”, says Cotton-Eyed Joe.
NOTES: "A Major. The tune is perhaps "Cotten Eyed Joe," the title being taken from the lyric." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
CORNSTALK FIDDLE- *Kitrell
Cornstalk fiddle and shoestring bow,
Come down gals on Cotton-Eyed Joe.
Wanna go to meeting and wouldn't let me go,
Had to stay home with Cotton-Eyed Joe.
Come a little rain and come a little snow,
The house fell down on Cotton-Eyed Joe.
*Source of lyrics-not corroborated
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