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Red Wing
Old-Time Fiddle Tune and Song: American (originally), English, Canadian, Australian; Air and Two-Step. USA; Wisconsin, Missouri, western Massachusetts, western New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona. England, East Anglia. Canada, Prince Edward Island.
ARTIST: from Thurland Chattaway and Kerry Mills 1907.
Richard Matteson's solo fingerstyle version on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1GEqPTwqNo
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1907;
RECORDING INFO: Source for notated version: Johnny Morrissey (1913-1994, Newtown Cross, Queens County, Prince Edward Island; late of Vernon River) [Perlman]. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 155. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 111. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; No. or pg. 26. June Appal JA 014, John McCutcheon - "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (1977). Kicking Mule KN-327, "Scartaglen" (1984). MCA Records MCAD 4037, "The Very Best of Don Messer" (1994). Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association 001, Pete McMahan - "Ozark Mountian Waltz." Ok 45477 (78 RPM), The Fox Chasers. Old Hat Records OH-1, Old Hat Band - "The Old Hat Concert Party."
OTHER NAMES: "There Once Was a Union Maid (Woody Guthrie)"
SOURCES: Thede; Ceolas; Folk Index;
NOTES: G Major. Standard. AB (Perlman): ABB (): AA'B (Phillips). "Red Wing" was composed by Kerry Mills in the early years of Tin Pan Alley and published in 1907. Jim Kimball explains it was subtitled "An Indian Fable" or "An Indian Intermezzo" and was part of a fad for things Native-American that sweept the country in the first decade of the 20th century. Kimball believes it was commonly recorded on early 78's as a Two Step. In addition to "Red Wing," Mills also composed "Barn Dance," "Georgia Camp Meeting" and "Whistlin' Rufus" which have entered American fiddling tradtion. It begins, "There Once was an Indian maid..." which Woody Guthrie turned into his song "There Once Was a Union Maid." The melody was a very popular staple at northern Wisconsin old time dances (Leavy) and was also recorded as having been in the repertoire of Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner, and Buffalo Valley, Pa., region dance fiddler Harry Daddario. In East Anglia, England, the melody was a common dance tune, while in America various singing calls for western squares were set to the tune.
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Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
The breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying
For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,
While Red Wing's weeping her heart away.
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These words, which refer to World War I, appeared in England, where "Redwing" was played by country musicians as a polka:
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Oh the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
His shoes are cracking, from want of blacking,
And his little baggy trousers they want mending,
Before they send him, to the Dardanelles. (Courtesy of Ed Caines)
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Folklorist Jim Kimball posted on the internet the delightful tidbit that he once knew an elderly Seneca Indian named Avery Jimerson, who was a fine traditional singer from the
Allegany reservation. It seems that Avery had a particular fondness for "Red Wing" (Kimaball speculates because of both musical content and racial pride) and remembered an older chief who had played it on fiddle for community square dances. Kimball himself remebers the tune being used for singing calls around western New York, though in recent times it seems to have gone out of favor with callers, "but the old-timers still like to sing along with the chorus." Australian Graham McDonald added that "Redwing's" popularity traversed the Pacific to that continent and was played by "just about every old-time dance musician in Australia, and used for just about every possible dance, even the waltz." Tom Paley informs that a Swedish tune, "Wanderer's Tune from Boda" is nearly identical with "Red Wing" and won a prize for its composer on Swedish radio sometime in the 1930's.
"Red Wing" from Kerry Mills:
Red Wing by Thurland Chattaway and Kerry Mills Original copyright: 1907.
Last known copyright: 1939, Shawnee Press, Inc.
Verse: There once lived an Indian maid,
A shy little prairie maid,
Who sang alay, a love song gay,
As on the plain she'd while away the day;
She loved a warrior bold,
This shy little maid of old,
But brave and gay, he rode one day to battle far away.
CHORUS: Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
The breeze is sighing, the night bird’s crying,
For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping
While Red Wing's weeping her heart away.
Verse: She watched for him day and night,
She kept all the campfires bright,
And under the sky, each night she would lie,
And dream about his coming by and by;
But when all the braves returned,
The heart of Red Wing yearned,
Far, far, far away, her warrior gay fell bravely in the fray.
Chorus:
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