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Forked Deer
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. Widley known.
ARTIST: Lyrics from Currence Hammons, learned from her uncle "Old Pete" Hammons.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Knaff in 1839 and then Cole in 1879;
RECORDING INFO: County 202, "Eck Robertson: Famous Cowboy Fiddler." County 527, Charlie Bowman (East Tennessee) and His Brothers- "Old-Time Fiddle Classics, Vol. 2." County 707, Major Franklin- "Texas Fiddle Favorites." County 756, Tommy Jarrell- "Sail Away Ladies" (1976. Learned from Fred Hawks, though Tommy's father Ben Jarrell also played it). Flying Fish FF-009, Red Clay Ramblers - "Stolen Love" (1975). Flying Fish FF-055, Red Clay Ramblers - "Merchant's Lunch" (1977). Front Hall FHR-021, John McCutcheon - "Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (1981. "Inspired by" J.P. Fraley and Tommy Hunter). June Appal 007, Tommy Hunter- "Deep in Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, James W. Hunter of Madison County, N.C.). Kanawha 301, French Carpenter (W.Va.).
OTHER NAMES: "Forked Buck," "Forky Deer," "Forked-Horn Deer," "Forked Deer Hornpipe," "Long-Horned Deer." AKA and see "Deer Walk," "Bragg's Retreat," "Van Buren."
SOURCES: J.P. Fraley (Ky.) and The Highwoods String Band (N.Y.) [Brody]: Will Hinds (Haskell County, Oklahoma) [Thede]: George Helton (Dixon, Missouri) [Christeson]; Frank George and John Rector (W.Va., Va.) [Krassen]; Charlie Bowman (Ga.?) [Phillips/1989]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 110. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 1), 1973; pg. 64. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 45 (the first part is similar to some versions of "Grey Eagle"). Frets Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 7, July 1981. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), No. 2, 1982/1988; pg. 5. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 43 (includes one 'B' part variation). Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook: Old Time), 1989; pg. 20. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 91. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 135. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 80; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Meade;
NOTES: First found in Knaff in 1839 and then Cole in 1879 this fiddle tune is usually played in D Major. The lyrics to Forked Deer come from Pete Hammons via his neice Currence Hammons:
I've been hunting
for five or six years,
And all I killed was
A forked horn deer.
Forked Deer is most likely named after a river in western Tennessee that has the same name. Here are some notes from other sources:
Forked Deer- Bruce Molsky (new) (fiddle tuned ADAE, key of D)
One of the most venerable of American old-time fiddle tunes is Forked Deer. It is also one of the most widely-distributed tunes in the United States, being played, heard, and documented seemingly everywhere. What seems to be the earliest published folio of Forked Deer is found in Knauff’s Virginia Reels, Folio 1, published by George Willig Jr in Baltimore in 1839. In playing it from this folio, it sounds very similar to how it is played by most fiddlers today. We must assume that before George Knauff collected it and set it in the pianoforte arrangement we find in Virginia Reels that the tune had been in circulation for a while, as it seems to be quite robust, with nary a hint of old-world to it, to my way of thinking. This melody is oft-printed through the intervening 167 years since Knauff first notated it. It remains recognizable throughout, as I noted. One of these printings was published in 1973 in The Old-Time Fiddler’s Repertory (University of Missouri Press), featuring hundreds of transcriptions of tunes by R.P. “Bob” Christeson. The Forked Deer he prints [#89, page 64] is transcribed from a recording he made of George Helton in July 1956. What to me is most intriguing, moreso than the transcription itself, is Christeson’s head-note where he states, “This tune bears considerable resemblance to ‘Rachel Rae,’ found in some of the older Scottish tune collections as well as in White’s Solo Banjoist (Boston, 1896).” Some people have taken this statement as perhaps meaning that Rachel Rae is an antecedent of Forked Deer, but I do not believe that is what Mr. Christeson intended. He merely noted the melodic contour similarity, and only on one part of the tune, for that matter.
Rachael Rae was first published in 1844 in a set of Scots tunes, Collections, by John Lowe. Lowe stated that it was composed by his father. John Hartford wrote in his notes to the Ed Haley reissue, Forked Deer (Rounder 1131/1132, and the source version for Bruce’s rendition) that John Lowe’s grandfather Joseph Lowe composed it in 1815. To some of us who study such things, given these dates, the publishing dates, and how slowly news (and tunes) traveled in the early 19th Century, it is rather doubtful that Rachel Rae is a parent to our Forked Deer. Paul Wells, of Middle Tennesee State University’s Center For Popular Music, told me recently that it seems more likely that there is a common parental tune to both Forked Deer and Rachel Rae rather than one being the parent to the other.
I agree with Paul’s analysis and scenario and am also indebted to him for providing some of the research material I have used in this entry. There are no absolutes in anything I’ve written here, as it mostly is speculation on my part and what Paul has discussed with me is speculative as well, but it is based on the printed and aural historical record. And for the record, one of the writings has more than casually influenced me. Mark Wilson wrote in his notes to the CD reissue of J.P and Annadeene Fraley’s Wild Rose of the Mountain, “ R.P. Christeson hypothesized that the tune traces to Joseph Lowe’s Rachel Rae, but I am dubious, being familiar with how the latter tune is played in Scots tradition.” I concur wholly with the concept of style being part and parcel to the possibility of transmission and such.
Now, coming from this point, there is an interesting sidelight to examine. One A. Porter Hamblen (born 1875) arranged and copied a number of tunes that his father Williamson (1846-1920) and grandfather David R. (1809-1893) played. A copy of Hamblen’s folio is in the Library of Congress, whence many of us obtained copies. David was originally from Virginia, near the Cumberland Gap in Lee County, and moved his family to Brown County, Indian in 1857. Page 30 of the Hamblen folio gives us A. Porter’s transcription of his dad Williamson’s playing what they called Forked Ear. It is recognizably a variant of our Forked Deer, except that the coarse part does not go to the A chord at all, like most renditions of this tune do. In that respect, it has a rather vague similarity to the coarse part of Rachel Rae. This makes me wonder if old Rachel had some sort or a melodic or tonal impact on its cousin or sibling, The Forked Deer?
If you are interested in checking out Rachel Rae for yourself, the most easily accessible version of it can be found in Cole’s One Thousand Fiddle Tunes, and it’s predecessor, Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883), where it is found in the reels section as Jimmy Holmes’ Favorite Reel. Paul Wells reports that this setting is very, very similar to the early setting of Rachel Rae, such as found in Lowe’s collection and also in an earlier New England manuscript collection of Scots tunes dated about 1822. If you decide to do a web-search, you will find many alternate titles for Rachel Rae and Jimmy Holmes’, many of which have been recorded.
This brings us, finally, to the subject at hand. While most fiddlers have been content to render Forked Deer as a two-part tune, many of the “brag fiddlers” of yore in many communities decided to push the envelope. In essence, what they did was develop variations, straying from the basic melody in varying degrees. Eventually, some of these fiddlers set some of these variations as separate and discrete parts. Hence, we have Kentuckian J.W. Day’s (ca. 1861-1942) classic 5-part rendition from 1928 (Victor 21407). His, however, was not the earliest issued recording. That honor went to Tennessee’s Uncle Am Stuart (1853-1926), whose Forki Deer was recorded in 1924 and issued several times on the Vocalion and Brunswick labels. Perhaps West Virginia’s Clark and Luches Kessinger’s (Clark, 1896-1975) torrid rendition of Forked Deer Hornpipe (Brunswick 247, 1928) was more influential? Then there is the exciting execution by Kentucky’s Jim Booker (1872-1941) and Marion Underwood (Gennett 6130, 1927). Most of these were two-parters, but Tennessee’s Charlie Bowman (b. 1889) issued another 5-parter (Columbia 15387) in 1929 that many people still talk about.
Another “brag fiddler” of that era never recorded commercially, but was a major figure nonetheless, the legendary (until relatively recently, when we finally got to hear his 1946 home recordings, and we discovered everything people had been saying about him was true, even moreso!) Ed Haley (1883–1951), born in West Virginia, but who lived much of his life in Kentucky. I won’t go into a biographical sketch here. Instead, I suggest you check out the John Hartford website and also actually purchase the two 2-cd sets of Haley on the Rounder label (Rounder 1131/32 & 1133/34), in which Hartford’s notes extol this genius of a fiddler. Haley made his living from his music, unlike most of the others mentioned above. Most of his money was made playing on the streets and for private affairs, so he polished his work. He played a 5-part Forked Deer, or at the least, we have a home recording of him doing so. Who knows what other inventiveness he may have infused this tune with on other occasions. I think upon close inspection you will find him doing elaborate variations within each of the ‘set parts,’ as well, which is what we’ve come to expect from him. We also sometimes are able to hear him ‘quote’ other fiddlers. One of my old friends, Rector Hicks, knew Haley in the 1920s and ‘30s and said that what came out on the Rounder issues of the Haley home recordings were quite different from how Haley had played earlier, which is to be expected. I tried to get Rector to describe how he remembered Haley’s earlier playing. Once, I brought over a tape of J.W. Day, not mentioning to Rector who it was. He immediately sat up and said, “That’s what Ed Haley sounded like when I was a youngster.” If you are familiar with Day’s phrasing and ornamentation, you will clearly hear Haley quote in him in some of his home recordings. I do firmly believe that Haley’s showpiece of Forked Deer was wrought from what Day had earlier manifested. I hear quotes from other fiddlers, too, that we can identify with some more intense scrutiny, but a lot of it is his own invention, and much may be influenced by fiddlers we have not yet heard in this day and time…
Bruce states in his booklet notes that what he has recorded here is “loosely based around” how Haley played it. We’d expect nothing else, as that is truly in the spirit of Ed Haley’s fiddling style.
Forked Deer- Henry Reed
Alternate Titles:
Hounds in the Thorn Bush
Gas Light Jig
Forkedair Jig
Come and Kiss Me
Old Pork Bosom
Author/Creator Collector: Jabbour, Alan/ Performer: Reed, Henry; fiddle
Created/Published August 27, 1966 Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Virginia (Giles County)
Notes: "Forked Deer" is a quintessential fiddle tune of the old frontier. It is old and widely distributed, yet it cannot be traced to the Old World or the northern United States. "Forked Deer" begins with and gives greatest emphasis to the high strain of the tune. And it is fiddled with a fluid bowing style using slurs to create complicated rhythmic patterns, in the manner of the old Upper South. Its title both evokes the forest and (though few fiddlers in the Appalachians realize this) names a river in West Tennessee. An 1839 printed set from Southside Virginia (Knauff, "Virginia Reels", vol. 1, #4 "Forked Deer") establishes the tune's longevity under that title in Virginia. It found its way onto the nineteenth-century stage and into tune collections as a "jig": see "Brother Jonathan's Collection of Violin Tunes" (1862), p. 26 "Gas Light Jig"; Coes, "George H. Coes' Album of Music", p. 6 "Forkedair Jig," pp. 34-35 "Come and Kiss Me." But that did not give it circulation beyond its home region in the Upper South, where it turned up in many twentieth-century sets; see Thomas, "Devil's Ditties", pp. 131-133 (compare Victor 21407B, played by Jilson Setters (James Day)); Ford, "Traditional Music of America", p. 45 "Old Pork Bosom"; Morris, "Old Time Violin Melodies", #31 "Forkadair"; Thede, "The Fiddle Book", p. 135 (Oklahoma). Henry Reed plays a third strain, as do some other fiddlers, composed of the low strain recast an octave higher. He once mentioned that another old title for "Forked Deer" was "Hounds in the Thorn Bush," but he considered "Forked Deer" its proper name. He also mentioned it as one of the tunes in Quince Dillion's repertory.
Key: D; Meter: 4/4; Strains: 3 (high-low-high octave, 4-4); Rendition: 1r-2r-1r-3-1-2
Phrase Structure: ABA'C QRQ'S Q"R"Q"S" (abac ab'de qrqs qtue--Q"R"Q"S": octave higher); Compass: 17
Stylistic features: Low strain repeated in upper octave, requiring third position on E-string. Recording chronology: 061; Duration: 1 minute, 27 seconds
Kuntz: FORKED DEER, (THE). AKA ‑ "Forked Buck," "Forky Deer," "Forked‑Horn Deer," "Forked Deer Hornpipe," “Hounds in the Horn,” "Long-Horned Deer." AKA and see "Deer Walk [1]," "Bragg's Retreat," "Van Buren." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, Widely known. D Major. Standard or ADae (Edden Hammons/Bruce Molsky) tunings. AB (Silberberg): AABB (most versions): AA'BB (Phillips). Many older versions have several more parts than the two that are commonly played in modern times, and Jeff Titon (2001) suggests that the influence of the recording industry had much to do with shortening and standardizing the parts of the melody. Clay County, W.Va., fiddler Wilson Douglas, heir to an older tradition, plays the tune in three parts, as did his mentor French Carpenter. Roscoe Parish of Coal Creek, Va., also had a third part. Blind northeastern Kentucky fiddler Ed Haley (1883-1951) played a five-part version, as did Charlie Bowman and Kentuckian J.W. Day. Kerry Blech says that Bowman’s version includes the familiar ‘A’ and ‘B’ parts, a high ‘C’ part that is also shared with some other sources, and two last parts that seem to be Bowman originals. John Johnson, an itinerant man originally from West Virginia who had artistic talent in several areas, had a version that had six parts, played ABACCDEFDEF (son of a jailer, he was said to have “fiddled his way in and out of most jails from West Virginia to Abiline”). Johnson (1916-1996) visited Kanawha County, West Virginia, fiddler Clark Kessinger (1896-1975) just a week before he died, an encounter from which he remembered:
***
I went and played the fiddle for him, played The Forked Deer.Clark said, “That’s not The Forked Deer.” “Well,” I said, “I don’t know whether it’s The Forked Deer or not, but I learnedit from a record Arthur Smith made when I was a kid, and I know the tune’s way older than I am.” And Clark said, “That ain’t The Forked Deer.” But you see, I play six parts of The Forked Deer and he just played two. So I suppose that’s thereason why he said that wasn’t The Forked Deer. I learned thatwhole tune just like Arthur Smith played it. I’ve heard lots ofother fiddlers put just two parts to it. (Michael Kline, Mountains of Music, John Lilly ed. 1999).
***
R.P. Christeson (1973) notes that the tune bears considerable resemblance to a Scottish tune named "Rachel Rae," which can be found in some of the older Scottish tune collections (and which in America was printed in such collections as White's Solo Banjoist, Boston, 1896). He notes that some fiddlers play the first part of this tune differently than the Missouri version he gives, and use a portion of "The Forked Deer" as published in George Willig's or George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels (Vol. 1, No. 4, Baltimore, c. 1839)--which appears to be the first time the "Forked Deer" tune appears in print. It has been suggested (by William Byrne) that the title “Forked Deer” (the first word is pronounced as if hyphenated, ‘FORK-ed’) is a corruption of ‘Fauquier Deer’, referring to the name of a county in northern Virginia. Others believe it may have derived from association with the Forked Deer River in Tennessee. Apparently, it was asserted in a fictionalized traveller’s account (published in the late 1880’s by Dr. H.W. Taylor) entitled "The Cadence and Decadence of the Hoosier Fiddler" that the title referred to a Deer river and its tributaries (i.e. ‘the forks of the Deer’). John Hartford and Pat Sky have speculated the original title may have been “Forked Air,” meaning a crooked melody. Indeed, Paul Tyler reports the "Forked Air" title was used in a 1950 notebook in which A. Hamblen noted down tunes played by his grandfather and brought to Brown County, Indiana, from Virginia in 1857. The tune, as "Forkadair,” appears in W. Morris’s Oldtime Viloin Melodies: Book No. 1, and the “Forkedair Jig” is a title Gerry Milnes (1999) says was used in a minstrel-era version.
***
Miles Krassen (1973) remarks the tune is very popular through most of the southern Appalachians, though it was not played for the most part by Galax, Va., style bands. Tommy Jarrell, quintessential Round Peak (near Mt.Airy, N.C./Galax, Va.) fiddler learned the tune in Carroll County, southwestern Virginia, where he listened to his father‑in‑law, Charlie Barnett Lowe play it on the banjo with local fiddlers Fred Hawkes and John Rector. It is one of the tunes mentioned in the humorous dialect story "The Knob Dance,” published in 1845, set in eastern Tenn. (C. Wolfe), and was also known before the Civil War in Alabama, having been recalled by Alfred Benners in Slavery and Its Results as played by slave fiddler Jim Pritchett of Marengo County. The tune was mentioned by William Byrne who described a chance encounter with West Virginia fiddler ‘Old Sol’ Nelson during a fishing trip on the Elk River. The year was around 1880, and Sol, whom Byrne said was famous for his playing “throughout the Elk Valley from Clay Courthouse to Sutton as…the Fiddler of the Wilderness,” had brought out his fiddle after supper to entertain (Milnes, 1999). Charles Wolfe (1982) remarks it was popular with Kentucky fiddlers, especially in eastern Kentucky (a remark probably based on recordings of regional fiddlers Ed Haley and J.W. Day). Jeff Titon (2001) finds the title in the 1915 Berea, Kentucky, tune lists, and notes that it was played at the 1919 and 1920 Berea fiddle contests. It was one of the few sides cut in the first recorded session of American fiddle music in June, 1922, for Victor--a duet between Texas fiddler Eck Robertson and Henry Gilliland (though unissued). The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph in the early 1940's from the playing of Ozark Mountain fiddlers. It is on Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden’s list of ‘100 essential Missouri fiddle tunes’. Alternate titles "Forked‑Horn Deer" and "Forked Deer Hornpipe" appear in a list he compiled of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes. Joel Shimberg finds that volume two of G. Legman's edition of Vance Randolph's "unprintable" Folksongs and Folklore: Blow the Candle Out (pg. 759), says: "The dance tune known as Forked Deer is regarded as vulgar in the Ozarks, because the title has a double meaning. Forked might refer to the
deer's antlers, but it is also the common Ozark term for ‘horny’, which means sexually excited. The word is always pronounced ’fork-ed’ , in two syllables. I
have seen nice young girls leave a dance when the fiddler began to play Forked Deer. Lon Jordan, veteran fiddler of Farmington, Ark., always called it Forked-Horn Deer when ladies were present. Buster Fellows once played it on a radio program, but the announcer was careful to call it Frisky Deer! (Station KWTO, Springfield, Mo., May 3, 1947.)"
***
Ira Ford's (1940) rather preposterous story of the origins of the title is as follows: "The old dance tune, 'Forked Deer', is easily traceable to the days of powder horns, bullet molds and coonskin caps. Like many other very old tunes of American fiddle lore, it had its origin on the isolated frontier and this one has been traced to the first settlers along the Big Sandy River, the border line of Virginia and Kentucky. In the family which preserved this tune, the story, handed down through several generations, credits the authorship to a relative, a noted fiddler of pioneer days. This kinsman was also a famous hunter. There was a spirit of friendly rivalry in the hunt, much the same as there were championships in other lines of activities, and he had established a reputation as a champion deer hunter by always bringing in a forked deer. The forked deer, or two‑point buck, was considered prime venison. As a token of admiration for the hunter as well as the fiddler, his friends set the following words to this popular dance tune which comes down to us as 'Forked Deer'.
***
There's the doe tracks and fawn tracks up and down the creek
The signs all tell us that the roamers are near,
With the old flint‑lock rifle Pappy's gone to watch the lick,
With powder in the pan for to shoot the forked deer.
***
Sources for notated versions: J.P. Fraley (Rush, Ky.) and The Highwoods String Band (Ithaca, N.Y.) [Brody]: Will Hinds (Haskell County, Oklahoma) [Thede]: George Helton (Dixon, Missouri) [Christeson]; Frank George and John Rector (W.Va., Va.) [Krassen]; Charlie Bowman (Ga.?) [Phillips/1989]; a 1941 home recording of Salyersville, Magoffin County, Ky., fiddler John M. Salyer (1882-1952) [Titon]. Bay (Mel Bay’s Complete Fiddling Book), 1990; pg. 145. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 110. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; pg. 64. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 45 (the first part is similar to some versions of "Grey Eagle"). Frets Magazine, vol. 3, No. 7, July 1981. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old‑Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), No. 2, 1982 (revised 1988, 2003); pg. 5. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 43 (includes one 'B' part variation). Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook: Old Time), 1989; pg. 20. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 91. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 46. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 135. Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 45, pg. 76. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 80. Berea College Appalachian Center AC003, “John M. Salyer: Home Recordings 1941-1942” (1993). Cartunes 105, Bruce Molsky & Bob Carlin – “Take Me As I Am” (2004. Sourced to Jilson Setters). Cassette C-7625, Wilson Douglas - "Back Porch Symphony." Columbia 15387 (78 RPM), Charlie Bowman (1929). Condor 977‑1489, "Graham & Eleanor Townsend Live At Barre, Vermont." County 202, "Eck Robertson: Famous Cowboy Fiddler." County 527, Charlie Bowman (East Tennessee) and His Brothers‑ "Old‑Time Fiddle Classics, Vol. 2" (originally recorded 1929). County 707, Major Franklin‑ "Texas Fiddle Favorites." County 756, Tommy Jarrell‑ "Sail Away Ladies" (1976. Learned from Fred Hawks, though Tommy’s father Ben Jarrell also played it). Flying Fish FF‑009, Red Clay Ramblers ‑ "Stolen Love" (1975). Flying Fish FF‑055, Red Clay Ramblers ‑ "Merchant's Lunch" (1977). Front Hall FHR‑021, John McCutcheon ‑ "Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (1981. "Inspired by" J.P. Fraley and Tommy Hunter). June Appal 007, Tommy Hunter‑ "Deep in Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, James W. Hunter of Madison County, N.C.). Kanawha 301, French Carpenter – “Elzic’s Farewell: Old Time Songs and Tunes from Clay County, West Virginia” (1976). Library of Congress (2742-A-3), 1939, by H.L. Maxey (Franklin County, Va.) {as "Forky Deer"}. Marimac 9000, Dan Gellert & Shoofly ‑ "Forked Deer" (1986. Ed Haley's version, "without the 5th part"). Marimac 9060, Jim Bowles – “Railroading Through the Rocky Mountains” (1994). Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Cyrill Stinnett (1912-1986) - "Plain Old Time Fiddling." Morning Star 45003, Taylor's Kentucky Boys ‑ "Wink the Other Eye: Old Time Fiddle Band Music from Kentucky, Vol. 1" (1980. Originally recorded in 1927 for Gennett). Ok 45496 (78 RPM), The Fox Chasers. Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley‑ "Wild Rose of the Mountain” (1974). Rounder 0045, Highwoods String Band‑ "Dance All Night." Rounder 1010, Ed Haley‑ "Parkersburg Landing" (1976). Rounder 0047, Wilson Douglas‑ "The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek" (1975. Learned from French Carpenter, the tune appears as "Forked Buck"). Rounder 0058, John Rector (western Va.) ‑ "Old Originals, vol. II" (1978). Rounder 0194, John W. Summers ‑ "Indiana Fiddler” (1984). Vetco 506, Fiddlin' Van Kidwell‑ "Midnight Ride." Rounder 1131, Ed Haley – “Forked Deer” (1997). Vetco 102 (reissue), James W. Day “Jilson Setters” (under the name Blind Bill Day) – “The Wonderful World of Old Time Fiddlers, vol. 1.” Victor 21407 (78 RPM), Jilson Setters (Blind Bill Day, b. 1860 Rowan Cty., Ky.), 1928. Voyager 340, Jim Herd - "Old Time Ozark Fiddling." Also recorded by Frank George and John Summers, French Carpenter and Uncle Am Stuart (b. 1856, Morristown, Tenn.){for Vocalion in 1924 under the title "Forki Deer"}. Edden Hammons Collection I.
Forked Deer Edden Hammons:
Edwin "Edden", "Eddon" or "Edn" Hammons is considered by many to have been one of the finest traditional West Virginia fiddlers of all time, and tales of his musical exploits and eccentric lifestyle flourish among the inhabitants of mountainous east central West Virginia, where he lived from about 1874 to 1955. Edden was just one of an extremely dynamic clan that migrated into West Virginia from Kentucky at the advent of the Civil War.
Edn's first attempt in music was with a fiddle made from a gourd. He progressed and he secured a store-bought fiddle and there is no disputing the fact that he can draw exquisite harmonies from this. Edden was the youngest of four brothers and three sisters, and his musical abilities were soon recognized to be superior to that of his siblings. Family tradition holds that Edden's ability was recognized and encouraged at an early age and that the boy was spared his share of the burdens of frontier living as a result.
Whether because of immaturity or musical passion, Edden refused to lay his fiddle down "like most men did" as he grew older and was faced with supporting a family. Edden's short-lived (3-week) marriage to Caroline Riddle in 1892 came to a head when Caroline demanded that Edden either quit playing fiddle and go to work or she would leave. Given the ultimatum, Edden chose the fiddle.
Five years later, Elizabeth Schaffer married Edden, despite warnings of Edden's shortcomings as a family provider. By all accounts, their marriage proved to be one of great love and devotion which endured until Betty's death in 1954. Edden and his new wife raised seven children.
Edden accomplished enough subsistence farming supplemented with hunting and fishing to provide for the family, though at least half of the food on the table came from Betty's garden. The nomadic family found shelter in vacant dwellings belonging to relatives or local farmers who eagerly offered a roof to anyone willing to feed the livestock or just "keep an eye on the place". For cash, Edden did a variety of odd jobs, including gathering Ginseng and keeping one step ahead of the game warden when illegally hunting turkeys, squirrels and fish to sell. When the logging camps came in, Edden and his son James worked those sporadically.
On occasion, a fiddler was hired to play for a dance or celebration in the camps, but more often than not Edden and son would come around in the evening, play awhile, and pass the hat. Edden's fee for playing at dances or weddings ranged from five to ten dollars, payable in cash or perhaps some other commodity - coffee or perhaps a ham. Fiddle contest winnings also contributed to Edden's substantial but sporadic income.
Another notable source of income was moonshine. Edden was a crafty moonshiner. He would work clearing fields, and pile the brush on top of his mash barrell to heat it. His brush clearing operation was the perfect cover for his moonshine production. Edden was clever enough to generally stay ahead of the revenuers, but on one occasion, he was arrested for "transporting". During his 137 days of jail time, he entertained all the prisoners with his fiddling and eventually was made a trustee. Most times, he managed to outwit the authorities. Edden hid his moonshine in small dug-out holes under flagstones which lead up to the house. Although revenuers conducted thorough searches on several occasions, they were never able to uncover the evidence. They'd tell him "Edden, we know you've got it here." Edden replied "Well, 'pon my honor, if it's here, why don't you find it?"
It was perhaps his reluctance to seek seasonal day work off the farm as others did which lies at the root of his reputation for laziness. Edden's laziness is just one of the many colorful quirks and idiosyncrasies which form the nucleus of a rich store of anecdotes traded back and forth between family and friends with great pleasure. Along with his shortcomings as a provider, Edden's backwoods naivete and "therapeutic" excuses for drinking are common themes. Altogether, such stories depict a character who fits perhaps a little too neatly into the "hillbilly" mold to be real, yet those who remember Edden insist that there is at least a kernel of truth in every one of them.
Several tales center around Edden's belief in superstitions and the supernatural. While not a deeply religious man, Edden faithfully observed the Sabbath in his own way: the fiddling stopped when the clock struck midnight on a Saturday evening. One night, the offer of an extra dollar coaxed Edden to turn the other cheek and play an additional after-midnight set. On the trip home, Edden and his companions saw a bright red object streak across the sky and explode in a thunderous roar. Eddon said "I told you fellers not to play for a dance on a Sunday night. Now I don't care if you give me twenty-five dollars next time, I'll never play past midnight."
Though Edden may have been the most gifted musician in his family, music had long been an important force in Hammons tradition. There was hardly a member of the family who was not musically inclined in one way or another. Edden's father Jesse probably provided Edden's first musical instruction as well as his first gourd fiddle. However, some family members believe that it was Edden's great-uncle Pete who taught him more about fiddling and fiddle tunes than anyone else, though the art is far too prevalent among the Hammonses to attribute his musical education to any one individual.
One Edden legend circulated in various yet similar versions goes something like this: when Edden was 9, he attended a Fourth of July dance and picnic at Webster Springs. A local favorite, Bernard Hamrick, was employed to play the dance. "Burn", as he was familiarly known, brought his violin to the platform a few hours before the dance, tuned up and began to play. People flocked in from everywhere. Burn played a few pieces and quit. The people cheered and cheered, but Burn wouldn't play any more. Edden's father Jesse said "Mr. Hamrick, let my son play a tune or two." After a great deal of persuasion, Burn let the nine year old Edden have the violin. Edden tuned it and started playing. He played it so well and the people began to cheer til you could scarcely hear anything else. Burn got peeved at what had happened, gave Edden his violin, and went home. So there was no dance that afternoon.
When we was older, Edden probably participated in five to ten fiddle contests each year, and rarely came away with less than first prize. Perhaps Edden's most distinguished contest adversary was Lewis "Jack" McElwain, regarded by many to be the premier fiddler in the state of West Virginia. McElwain's accomplsihments included a first-place finish at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. At a contest in Marlinton West Virginia, 1909, McElwain and Eddon tied for top honors. Later, there were disagreements about the selection of judges, and at one contest, Eddon insisted that the judging be left to the attendees. On that occasion, Eddon won.
Edden routinely toted his instsrument around in a flour sack. Edden and his nephew Currence went down to a contest in Elkins, and were met with laughter when Edden arrived with violin that had a weasel head with its tongue sticking out mounted to the head stock, poking out of the flour sack. Most of the other musicians had nicer, shop-made fiddles. When it came Eddon's turn to play, the curious onlookers watched Edden remove his old fiddle and blow the thick coating of flour off it, which sent them to the floor laughing and hollering. They stopped laughing when Edden stole the show.
Most of Edden's fiddle playing was done around the house and at dances at the homes of friends and neighbors. On weekends, the Hammons household became a gathering place of musicians and musical enthusiasts from all over. Yet his children remember Edden as a shy man who basically disdained crowds and insisted upon silence when he played. He viewed his populairty as a mixed blessing - more favorably in his younger days than in his older ones. Frequent unwelcome visitors to his home caused him to pick up and move on at least one occasion. A less drastic solution took the form of camping trips or visits to relatives.
Edden had several opportunities to share his talent with a wider audience. Edden's reluctance to leave home, coupled with a warinss of city folk, caused him to spurn such offers with little thought. Nevertheless, some relatives insist they heard Edden play over the radio on various occasions. Emma also recalls that he once appeared in a wartime newsreel playing before President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs. By and large, however, Eddon Hammons was a local phenomenon without outside influence or impact. Fortunately, folklorist Louis Watson Chappell made field recordings of Eddon in August of 1947. Unfortunately, the only commercial release of these recordings comes in the form of an long since out-of-print LP. Serious enthusiasts should contact the West Virginia University in Morgantown for information on these field recordings.
—Excerpted from the excellent and detailed liner notes of John A. Cuthbert featured in the booklet of Edden Hammons Collection, Volume 1.
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