Gilderoy- Version 1

Gilderoy (Red-Haired Boy)

Gilderoy (Red-Haired Boy)

Traditional Irish Old-Time, Breakdown- Ky., Va., Ohio, Pa., Mass.

ARTIST: Lyrics From Bayard (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).

CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1726

RECORDING INFO: (Little Beggarman) Doherty, Mick;, Steve Einhorn and Dan Compton. Simple Gifts, Doherty, Compton, Einh.., Cas (198?), cut# 4b; Donovan Family. Traveling People of Ireland, Lyrichord LLST 7178, LP (1967), cut#B.02; Farina, Richard and Mimi. Celebrations for a Grey Day, Vanguard VSD 79174, LP (196?), cut# 3 (Tommy Makem Fantasy); Farina, Richard and Mimi. Richard Farina Dulcimer Book, Warner Bros, Sof (1977), p.18; Hall, Kenny; and the Sweets Mill String Band. Kenny Hall and the Sweets Mill String Band, Bay TPH-727, LP (1973), cut#B.05; Ian and Sylvia (Ian & Sylvia). Northern Journey, Vanguard VSD 79154, LP (196?), cut# 8; Makem, Sarah & Tommy. Lark in the Morning. Songs & Dances from the Irish Countryside, Tradition TLP 1004, LP (195?), cut# 12; Makem, Tommy. Songs of Tommy Makem, Tradition TLP 1044, LP (1961), cut#A.01; Yohey, Bill. 20 Country Strings, American Heritage ST 106, LP (196?), cut# 12; Austen, Seth. Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Finger Style Guitar, Kicking Mule KM 174, LP (1982), cut# 2; Bowers, Bryan. View from Home, Flying Fish FF-037, LP (1977), cut# 7; Bromberg, David; Band. Midnight on the Water, Columbia PC 33397, LP (1975), cut#A.02b; Brown, Sullivan & Company. Magnum Banjos, Sequatchie --, LP (197?), cut# 8; Carawan, Guy. Telling Takes Me Home, Curnon CNL-722, LP (197?), cut# 5b (Little Beggarman); Carawan, Guy. Green Rocky Road, June Appal JA 0021, LP, cut# 7c (Little Beggarman); Carol, Bonnie. Fingerdances for Dulcimer, Carol, CD (1980/2000), cut# 6; Common Ground. Traveller's Choice, Kicking Mule KM 229, LP (1984), cut# 6 (Little Red-Haired Boy); Cooney, Michael. Songs & Sounds of the Sea, National Geographic Soc. 705, LP (1973), cut# 10 (Little Beggarman) Fraley, J. P. and Annadeene. Wild Rose of the Mountain, Rounder 0037, CD/ (2000/1974), cut# 4 (Red Headed Irishman); Grossman, Stefan. Thunder on the Run, Kicking Mule KM 171, LP (1980), cut#A.04b (Redhaired Boy); Maxson, Charles; and Karen Skidmore. From the Heartland of West Virginia. The Hammered & Plucked Dul, Peaceable 4, LP (1975), cut# 18 (Little Beggarman); McGhee, Mike. Potpourri, Dancing Doll DLP 612, LP (1985), cut#A.08; McLain Family Band. Troublesome Creek, Country Life CLR 15, LP (1985), cut#A.06b (Guilderoy); McNeeley, Larry. Rhapsody for Banjo, Flying Fish FF-025, LP (1976), cut# 4; Morgan, Melissa. Erin's Harp; Traditional Irish Music on the Irish, Pedal and ..., Kicking Mule KM 315, LP (1982), cut# 1 (Little Beggarman); O'Neill, Sean; Trio. Spirit of Ireland, Inis Fail IFRL-102, LP (1978), cut# 3b; Old Scratch Band. Old Scratch Band, California Condor CCLP-2, LP (197?), cut# 7; Phipps, Bonnie. Autoharpin', Kicking Mule KM 228, LP (1982), cut# 5; Skylark. Favorites, Little Bird LB 1001, Cas (1990), cut#A.04; Smith, Ralph Lee. Dulcimer; More Old-Time and Traditional Music, Skyline DD-106, LP (1975), cut# 3; Stinnett, Cyril. Salty River Reel, MSOTFA 104, Cas (1992), cut# 27 (Gilroy); Stinnett, Cyril. Plain Old Time Fiddling, Stinnett SLP 1013, LP (197?), cut#B.06 (Gilroy); Thomason, Ron. Mandolin and Other Stuff, Kanawha RT-3, LP (198?), cut#A.01a; Watson, Doc. Doc Watson's Favorites, Liberty LN-10201, LP (1983), cut#A.05a (Little Beggarman) ; Watson, Doc and Merle. Two Days in November, Poppy PP-LA210-G, LP (1974), cut# 6 (Little Beggarman); Williamson Robin. Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, Flying Fish FF-358, LP (1984), cut# 4a (Gilderoy); Yaugher, Irvin; Jr.. Hill Country Tunes: Instrumental Folk Music of Southwestern Penn, Amer. Folklore Society, fol (1944), 85 (Guilderoy)

OTHER NAMES: "Black Rock"(Pa.), "The Duck Chewed Tobacco" (Va.), "Guilderoy," "Gilder Roy," "Gilda Roy," "Gilroy," "Gilderoy's Reel," "Injun Et a Woodchuck" (Pa.), "Mairi ban Og," "Nellie On the Shore" (Pa.), "The Old Soldier," "Red-Haired Boy," "Wooden Leg." Little Beggarman; Roving Journeyman;

SOURCES: Irvin Yaugher Jr. (Mt. Independence, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1943; learned from his great-uncle) [Bayard, 1944]: seven southwestern Pa. fiddlers [Bayard, 1981]. American Veteran Fifer, No. 35. Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 85 (appears as "Guilderoy"). Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 169A-G, pgs. 119-122. "Calliope," pg. 438. Cazden, pg. 32. Edinburgh Musical Miscellany, I, 240. Ford, 1940; pg. 43 (appears as "The Old Soldier"). Hardings Original Collection, No. 51. Howe's Diamond School for the Violin, 1861; pg. 39. Jigs and Reels, pg. 8. Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum (edition of 1853), I, No. 56, II, No. 220. JFSS, II, 119. JWFSS, I, 142. Krassen, 1973; pg. 81. O'Neill, Music of Ireland, No. 1748. O'Neill Irish Music, No. 356. Reavy, No. 90. Robbins, No. 131. Roche Collection, Vol. 3; No. 188. Sannella, Balance and Swing (CDSS). Smith, The Scottish Minstrel, Vol. 2, 18. Southern Folklore Quarterly, VI, pg. 8 (appears as "The Duck Chewed Tobacco"). Edison 52022 (78 RPM), John Baltzell {Baltzell lived in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, the same home town as minstrel Dan Emmett (d. 1904). Emmett taught Baltzell to play the fiddle when he returned to the town, poor, in 1888}. In the repertoire of Magoffin County, Ky. fiddler John Salyer (as "Gilda Roy"). Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 38a (Old Soldier) Hathaway, Ira. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 21/2, p60; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Krassen, Miles. Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p81

NOTES: "A Minor/Mixolydian. Standard. AABB. The title Gilderoy is an Englished version of the Gaelic 'Gilleruadh' or 'Giolla Ruadh', meaning red-haired lad or youth. Historically, Gilleruadh was the nickname of a famous Scottish highwayman named McGregor who was captured and executed in 1636; the song describes his exploits and moralizes on his fate. Glen records that the tune was first printed in the British Isles in 1726 (where it appears in Alexander Stuart's Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collection of Scots Songs), in William Thompson's Orpheus Caledonius of 1733 and again in 1742, though Cazden (et al, 1982) dates the tune as "possibly from 1650," perhaps to coincide with the demise of the famous highwayman. It quickly became popular and appears in the later 18th century Scottish collections of Aird, Bremner, Gillespie (1768), Oswald, McGibbon, and McLean (1772) {where it is ascribed to Robert McIntosh}. The Scots national poet, Robert Burns, set one of his early lyrics to it, called "From Thee, Eliza." Macfarlane, in his 'Studies' claimed this tune, among others, was a Gaelic melody, and postulated that an analysis of airs for alteration of musical accent and the introduction of what he termed 'slurs' could detect which tunes had been originally Gaelic but were altered to fit English lyrics. Bayard (1981), Cazden (et al, 1982) and others have long determined that 'Guilderoy', in both vocal and instrumental settings, stems from the protean 'Lazarus' air (see also "Bonaparte's Retreat"), and numbers among one of the half-dozen or so most extensively used melodies in the entire English-speaking folk tune repertory (see JWFSS, I, 142). Elaborates Bayard: "This melody is one of several which provide some index of the extent to which the local tradition is independent of commerical printed collections of fiddle tunes. Bub Yaugher's (Pennsylvania-collected) variant represents the version in which 'Guilderoy' seems always to be known in western Pennsylvania--distinctive in melodic outling, and invariable played in the mixolydian mode. As might be expected the tune is not always known under this name, which is, however, the one most often attached to it. The mixolydian version of 'Gilderoy' is undoubtedly Irish: the editor has repeatedly heard it performed by Irish fiddlers in Massachusetts, and they have always played this version, in variants rather close to the Pennsylvania sets. The printed collections, on the other hand, nearly always give the tune in dorian or aeolian tonality, which corresponds to the tonality of its well known (English and) Scottish versions. Tune versions like this, therefore, present good evidence for the comparative freedom of the Pennsylvania folk fiddlers from influence of printed collections, and for the independence and authenticity of their tradition. The reason for the tenacity of the name 'Guilderoy' is that the famous song by that name was frequently sung to forms of this tune in British tradition" (Bayard, 1944). Flood (1906) claims the tune as Irish and says it was originally called "Molly MacAlpin," a lament written soon after five members of that family (also called Halpin or Halfpenny) were outlawed. Another related Irish tune, likewise in the Lazarus family, include the oft-heard "Star of the County Down" (in duple and triple versions). The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). The alternate Pennsylvania titles given above are floaters--"Injun Et a Woodchuck" comes from the ditty sung to the tune:

LYRICS: 

Injun et a woodchuck,
He et it in a minute
He et it so darned quick
He had no time for to skin it. 

Injun et a woodchuck,
I'll be darned if he didn't.
He et it so darned quick
He had no time for to skin it.