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Drunken Hiccups
Old-Time, Texas Style; Air, Waltz, Jig, and Song Tune (3/4 time). USA; Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona.
ARTIST: From Ford;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: County 519, Reaves White County Ramblers - "Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 2." County 723, Tommy Jarrell - "Down at the Cider Mill" (appears as "Jack of Diamonds"). County 756, Tommy Jarrell (N.C.) - "Sail Away Ladies" (1976). Rounder 0421, Bruce Molsky - "Big Hoedown" (1997. Appears as "Clyde's Hiccups" as version was from Clyde Davenport). Voyager 304, Ora Spiva- "More Fiddle Jam Sessions" (appears as "Rye Whiskey"). County 724, Benny Thomasson (Texas) - "Country Fiddling." Tradition Records TLP1007, Hobart Smith - "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956). Recorded for Victor in 1928 by Jilson Setters (as Blind Bill Day) {b. 1860, Rowan County, Ky.} under the title "Way Up on Cinch Mountain." Cahan, Andy. Tribute to Tommy Jarrell, Heritage (Galax) 063, LP (1986), cut# 14; Jarrell, Tommy. Sail Away Ladies, County 756, LP (197?), cut# 1; Jarrell, Tommy. Folk Music in America, Vol.14: Solo & Display Music, Library of Congress LBC-14, LP (1978), cut#B.02; Ledford, Lilly Mae. Banjo Pickin' Girl, Greenhays GR 712, LP (1983), cut# 12 (Hiccup, Oh Lordy); Leftwich, Brad; and Linda Higginbotham. Young Fogies, Heritage (Galax) 056, LP (198?), cut# 21a; Lloyd, A. L.. English Drinking Songs, Riverside RLP-12-618, LP, cut# 10; Molsky, Bruce; and Big Hoedown. Bruce Molsky and Big Hoedown, Rounder 0421, CD (1997), cut#16 (Clyde's Hiccups); Molsky, Bruce. Lost Boy, Rounder 0361, CD (1996), cut#14; New Lost City Ramblers. Moonshine and Prohibition, Folkways FH 5263, LP (1962), cut#A.06; Reaves White County Ramblers. Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 2, County 519, LP (1970), cut# 10; Smith, Hobart. Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians, Tradition TR 1007, LP (196?), cut# 17; Smith, Hobart. Banjo Songs, Ballads and Reels from the Southern Mountains, Prestige International INT 25004, LP (196?), cut# 8; Smith, Hobart. Southern Journey. Vol. 6: Sheep, Sheep, Don'tcha Know the Road, Rounder 1706, CD (1997), cut# 5; Stepp, W. M.. American Fiddle Tunes, Library of Congress AFS L62, LP (1971), cut# 15; Thomasson, Benny. Country Fiddling from the Big State, County 724, LP (1970), cut# 8;
OTHER NAMES: "Drunkard's Hiccups," "Drunken Hiccoughs," "Rye Whiskey," "Jack of Diamonds," "Way Up on Clinch Mountain," "Clinch Mountain," "The Mocking Bird" (Pa.), "My Name is Dick Kelly" (Ireland), "The Lame Beggar" (Ireland), "The Cuckoo" (Ford).
SOURCES: Benny Thomasson (Texas) [Brody]; 'old man' Houston Galyen (Low Gap, N.C.) via Ben Jarrell via his son Tommy Jarrell (Mt. Airy, N.C.) [Reiner & Anick]; Louise and W.S. Collins (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; Kenner C. Kartchner (Arizona) [Shumway]; Emery Martin (Dunbar, Pa., 1946) [Bayard]; John Wolford (elderly fiddler from Fayette County, Pa., 1944) [Bayard]; Mary Ann Rogers (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 646, pgs. 566-567. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 92. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 126. Reiner & Anick (Old Time Fiddling Across America), 1989; pg. 93. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 17, pg. 8. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 54-55. Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p126; Collins, W. S. and Louise. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 54; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: A Major. AEAC# (Brody, Jarrell, Reiner & Anick, Shumway): AEAE (Ford). AABCC (Brody, Ford, Thede): AA'BB'CC'DD' (Reiner & Anick, Shumway). Paul Clayton identifies the tune as "old and of English origin." Arizona fiddler Kartchner called it a "favorite from the South." The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph. It was listed by the Tuscaloosa News of March 28, 1971, as one of the specialty tunes of Tuscalosa, Alabama, fiddler "Monkey Brown," who frequently competed in fiddlers' contests in the 1920's and 30's (Cauthen, 1990), and it was recorded by Herbert Halpert for the Library of Congress in 1939 on two separate occasions by Mississippi fiddlers Charles Long and W.E. Claunch. Mt. Airy, North Carlolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell knew the melody as a show piece in a repertoire heavy with dance tunes, having learned it from his father, Ben Jarrell (who recorded it with Frank Jenkins in 1927). Ben Jarrell, according to Tommy, had the tune from "old man" Houston Galyen at Low Gap, North Carolina. (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Bayard (1981) states it was a vocal piece before it was an instrumental one, and identifies the following songs from the British Isles and America as using the tune: "Johnnie Armstrong," "Todlen Hame," "Bacach," "Robi Donadh Gorrach," "The Wagoner's Lad," "Clinch Mountain," "The Cuckoo," "Rye Whiskey," "Jack of Diamonds," "Saints Bound for Heaven," "Separation," "John Adkins' Farewell." Instrumental variations from the British Isles he has identified include "Drunk at Night and Dry in the Morning" (noted variously in 3/4 and 6/8 time) and "Lude's Lament." Two and a half pages of the song can be found in "The Oxford Book of Light Verse." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
“Drunken Hiccups” can be traced back to one of its early sources, “The Cuckoo.” You can find background info for the different versions of “The Cuckoo” in this collection. "The Wagoner's Lad," "Clinch Mountain," "The Cuckoo," "Rye Whiskey," "Jack of Diamonds," are the related melodies and text in the US. Most American versions include a part that is supposed to suggest hiccups.
LYRICS:
Rye Whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I crave,
If I don't get rye whiskey I'll go to my grave.
I eat when I'm hungry, and drink when I'm dry,
And if whiskey don't kill me I'll live till I die.
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