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Reuben's Train/ Train Forty-Five/ Old Reuben Old Ruben/Nine Hundred Miles/Five Hundred Miles
Old-Time and Bluegrass Song and Breakdown. USA widely known
ARTIST: "Reuben" by George Pegram; Rounder 0001, LP (1970), cut# 8 (Reuben)
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1961 Earliest printed date 1909 (JAFL); 1924 release by Fiddlin' John Carson and 1927 recording, Grayson & Whitter, as "Train 45"
RECORDING INFO as “Reuben/Old Reuben”: Emry Arthur, "Reuben Oh Reuben" (Paramount 3295, c. 1931; on BefBlues2) Dock Boggs, "Ruben's Train" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1) Carolina Ramblers String Band, "Ruben's Train" (Banner 33085/Romeo 5345, 1934; Melotone M-13947, c. 1935) Bill Cornett ,"Old Reuben" (on MMOKCD) Elizabeth Cotten, "Ruben" (on Cotten02) Poplin Family, "Reuben" (on Poplin01) Wade Ward, "Old Reuben" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1) Doc Watson, "Old Ruben" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01) 1. Arthur, Emry. Paramount Old Time Tunes, JEMF 103, LP (197?), cut#B.02 (Reuben Oh Reuben) 2. Blue Mountain Boys. 37th Old-Annual Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Folkways FA 2434, LP (1962), cut# 13 3. Boone, Woodrow; and Roger Howell. Music in the Air, BearWallow 210, Cas (1993), cut#A.09 (Lost John) 4. Brickman, Weissberg & Company. New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass, Elektra EKS-7238, LP (197?), cut# 10 (Reuben's Train) 5. Burke, John. Fancy Pickin' and Plain Singing, Kicking Mule KM 202, LP (1977), cut#B.07a (Old Reuben) 6. Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins. Down to the Cider Mill, County 713, LP (1968), cut# 8 7. Cooney, Michael. Still Cooney After All These Years, Front Hall FRH 016, LP (1979), cut#B.03 (Old Reuben) 8. Cornett, Bill (Banjo Bill). Mountain Music of Kentucky, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40077, CD (1996), cut#1.05 (Old Reuben) 9. Cotten, Elizabeth. Shake Sugaree, Volume 2, Folkways FTS 31001, LP, cut# 12 10. Dillards. Backporch Bluegrass, Elektra EKS-7232, LP (197?), cut# 14 (Reuben's Train) 11. Flatt & Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys. Foggy Mountain Banjo, Columbia LE 10043, LP (196?), cut# 5 (Reuben) 12. Flatt & Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys. Flatt And Scruggs. Country and Western Classics, Time-Life Records TLCW-04, LP (1982), cut#F.04 (Lonesome Ruben) 13. Flatt & Scruggs with Doc Watson. Strictly Instrumental, Columbia CS 9443, LP, cut# 8 (Lonesome Ruben) 14. Gellert, Dan; and Brad Leftwich. Moment in Time, Marimac 9038, Cas (1993), cut#A.06 15. Graves, John. I Kind of Believe It's A Gift, Meriweather Meri 1001-2, LP (198?), cut# 11 (Dargai) 16. Graves, Josh. Josh Graves, Vetco LP 3025, LP (1976), cut#B.01 17. Helton, Ernest and Osey. Library of Congress Banjo Collection, Rounder 0237, LP (1988), cut# 19 (Reuban) 18. Holy Modal Rounders. Holy Modal Rounders, Prestige PR 7720, LP (1964), cut# 8 19. Holy Modal Rounders. Holy Modal Rounders, Fantasy 24711, LP (1972), cut#4.01 20. Ill-Mo Boys. Fine As Frog's Hair, Marimac 9054, Cas (1992), cut# 9 21. Jarrell, Tommy; and Kyle Creed. June Apple, Mountain 302, LP (1972), cut# 6 22. Jarrell, Tommy. Come and Go With Me, County 748, LP (1974), cut# 12 (Reuben) 23. Jones, Vester. Traditional Music From Grayson and Carroll Counties, Folkways FS 3811, LP (1962), cut# 8 (Old Ruben) 24. Letterly, Bob. National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest & Folk Music Festival. 1966, Century, LP (1966), cut# 18 25. Mainer, Wade; and the Sons of the Mountaineers. Wade Mainer, County 404, LP (1973), cut#A.01 (Old Ruben) 26. May, William. Folksongs and Ballads, Vol 4, Augusta Heritage AHR 010, Cas (1992), cut#A.01 (Rueben's Train) 27. Miller, Kenny. American Banjo, Folkways FA 2314, LP (1966), cut# 25 28. Parmley, Don; and Billy Strange. Don Parmley and Billy Strange, GNP Crescendo GNP-98, LP (196?), cut# 6 29. Pegram, George. George Pegram, Rounder 0001, LP (1970), cut# 8 (Reuben) 30. Poplin Family. Poplin Family of Sumter, South Carolina, Folkways FA 2306, LP (1963), cut#B.10 (Old Reuben) 31. Powell, Dirk. If I Go Ten Thousand Miles, Rounder 0384, CD (1996), cut# 6 32. Proffitt, Frank. Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina, Folk Legacy FSA-001, Cas (1962), cut#A.07 (Reuben's Train) 33. Reed, Ola Belle. 1st Annual Brandywine Mountain Music Convention, Heritage (Galax) 006, LP (1975), cut# 3 34. Rice, Tony. Guitar, King Bluegrass KB-529, LP (197?), cut# 8 (Lonesome Ruben) 35. Rosenbaum, Art (Arthur). Five String Banjo, Kicking Mule KM 108, LP (1974), cut# 6 36. Rose, Buddy. Down Home Pickin', Dominion NR 3319, LP (197?), cut#B.03 37. Sidesaddle. Daylight Train, Turquoise TR 5080, Cas (1991), cut# 14 38. Ward, Wade. Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward, Folkways FA 2363, LP (1962), cut#B.13 (Old Reuben) 39. Ward, Wade. Uncle Wade. A Memorial to Wade Ward, Old Time Virginia Banjo ..., Folkways FA 2380, LP (1973), cut# 12 (Old Ruben) 40. Watson, Doc; and Gaither Carlton. Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. Part 1, Folkways FA 2355, LP (1961), cut# 2 (Old Ruben) 41. Watson, Doc. Watson Family Tradition, Rounder 0129, LP (1977), cut#A.05 (Reuben's Train) 42. Watson, Doc; and Family. Treasures Untold, Vanguard CV 77001, Cas (1991), cut# 6 (Reuben's Train) 43. Watson, Doc; Clint Howard and Fred Price. Old Timey Concert, Vanguard 107/8, Cas (1987), cut#B.05 44. Winston, Winnie; and Gundy, Walter. Old-Time Banjo Project, Elektra EKL-7276, LP, cut# 12 (Reuben's Train)
RECORDING INFO as “Train 45”: Troxell Brothers Train 45 [key of G: fiddle - GDgd; banjo - gDGBD) This warhorse came to us in this form from the Troxell Brothers and also can be heard on their tape Troxsong. They learned it from one of their local favorites, Dick Burnett, who played it (but never recorded it) with his long-ago partner Leonard Rutherford. It is a version of the older tune/song, "Reuben." Influential versions that were recorded in The Golden Age include those by Grayson and Whitter (Gennett 6320 and Victor 21189) and J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers (Bluebird 7298).
Grayson & Whitter, "Train Forty-Five" (Victor 21189, 1928, rec. 1927); "Train No. 45" (Champion 15447, 1928) J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Riding on Train Forty-Five" (Bluebird B-7298, 1937; Victor 27493, 1941) Wade Mainer & the Sons of the Mountaineers, "Old Reuben" (Bluebird B-8990, 1941) New Lost City Ramblers, "Riding on That Train 45" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2) Cockerham, Fred. Southern Clawhammer, Kicking Mule KM 213, Cas (1978), trk# A.02 Crowe, J.D.; & the Kentucky Mountain Boys. Bluegrass Holiday, King Bluegrass KB-524, LP (197?), trk# A.05 Dillard, Douglas. Banjo Album, Together STT 1003, LP (197?), trk# A.01 Flippen, Benton. Old Times, New Times, Rounder 0326, Cas (198?), trk# 4 Grayson and Whitter. Going Down Lee Highway, Davis Unlimited DU 33033, LP (1977), trk# 1 [192710/10] (Train No. 45) Grayson and Whitter. Southern Dance Music, Vol. 1, Old-Timey LP 100, LP (196?), trk# 11 [1927/10/18] Hart and Blech. Build Me a Boat, Voyager VRCD 354, CD (2001), trk# 27 Hill City Cut-Ups. New River Jam: One, Mountain 308, LP (197?), trk# 9 Hobbs, Smiley. American Banjo - Tunes and Songs in Scruggs Style, Folkways FA 2314, LP (1966), trk# B.02 Holland, Thomas; & his Crossroad Boys. Old Time Fiddling at Union Grove. The 38th Annual Old-Time Fi..., Prestige 14039, LP (1964), trk# A.02 Homefolks. Last Chance, June Appal JA 0033, LP (1980), trk# A.08 Jackson, Stan. Washington Traditional Fiddlers Project. Vol. 2. "Generations", NW Folklife, Cas (1996), trk# A.06 Kentucky Colonels. Livin' in the Past, Briar BT 7202, LP (1975), trk# B.01 [1965/03/27] Knopf, Bill. Bill Knopf on Banjo, American Heritage AH-401-524, LP (197?), trk# A.01 Limited Edition. Limited Edition Presents the Limited Edition, Limited Edition, LP (1975), trk# B.05 New Lost City Ramblers. Country Music and Bluegrass at Newport, Vanguard VSD-79146, LP (1968/1963), trk# B.06 [1963] (Train Forty-Five) Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Music of Tennessee. Recorded Live at the 1981 Brandywine Musi..., Heritage (Galax) 042, LP (1982), trk# A.04 Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Down Home, Roan Mountain, CD (2000), trk# 18 [1982/02] Stanley Brothers. Legendary Stanley Brothers, Vol. 2, Rebel SLP 1495, LP (197?/196?), trk# B.01 Stanley, Ralph. Man and his Music, Rebel SLP 1530, LP (1974), trk# 5 Trischka, Tony. Trischka, Tony / Banjo Songbook, Oak, Sof (1978), p108a Train 45 1/2 - Auldridge, Mike
RECORDING INFO as “Seventy Four”: 1. Staggers, J. C. "Jake". Folk Visions & Voices. Traditional Music & Song in North Georgia, University of Georgia, Bk (1983), p 79
RECORDING INFO as “Graveyard - Cousin Emmy”: 4. Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver). New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy, Folkways FTS 31015, LP (1968), trk# 13 5. Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver). Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald, Ser, 2/3, p16(1990) 6. Schwarz, Tracy. Look Out, Here It Comes, Folkways FA 2419, LP (1975), trk# 3
RECORDING INFO as “Five Hundred Miles”: 1. Axton, Hoyt. Greenback Dollar, Vee-Jay VJS-1126, LP (1964), cut#A.04 2. Childers, George. Folk Visions & Voices. Traditional Music & Song in North Georgia, University of Georgia, Bk (1983), p173 3. Peter, Paul & Mary. Peter, Paul and Mary, Warner Bros 1449, LP (1962), cut# 2 (500 Miles) 4. West, Hedy. Hedy West, Vanguard VRS 9124, LP (1963), cut# 7 (500 Miles)
RECORDING INFO as “Nine Hundred Miles”: Volo Bogtrotters. Tough Luck, Marimac 9042, Cas (1991), trk# 14 1. Baez, Joan. Very Early Joan, Vanguard VSD 79446/7, LP (1982), cut#D.01b (900 Miles) 2. Carson, Fiddlin' John. Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Gonna Crow, Rounder 1003, LP (1987), cut# 13 (I'm Nine Hundred Miles from My Home) 3. Cheatwood, Billy. Anthology of the Banjo, Tradition TR 2077, LP (196?), cut# 9 (Hundreds of Miles) 4. Dane, Barbara. Anthology of American Folk Songs, Tradition TR 2072, LP (196?), cut#A.03 5. Fahey, John. John Fahey Guitar, Vol. 4, Takoma C-1008, LP (196?), cut# 5 (900 Miles) 6. Guthrie, Woody. Woody Guthrie, Folkways FA 2483CS, Cas (1962), cut# 4 7. Hinton, Sam. Singing Across the Land, Decca DL 8108, LP (196?), B.01a 8. Houston, Cisco. Cisco Special, Vanguard VSD-2042, LP (196?), cut#A.03 9. Keller, Shirley; and Charlie Wright. Paul Cadwell, Shirley Keller, Charlie Wright, Twilight PSC 165, LP (1983), cut#B.03 (900 Miles) 10. New Christy Minstrels. New Christy Minstrels, Columbia CS 8672, LP (1962), cut#B.07 11. Poston, Mutt; and the Farm Hands. Hoe Down! Vol. 6. Country Blues Instrumentals, Rural Rhythm RR 156, LP (197?), cut# 5 (900 Miles) 12. Rosmini, Dick. Folksong '65, Elektra S-8, LP (1965), cut# 5 (900 Miles) 13. Schnaufer, David. Delcimore, Collecting Dust CD 0699001, CD (1999), cut#11b (Blackberry Winter) 14. Seeger, Pete. Third Annual Farewell Reunion, Rounder 0313, CD (1994), cut#17 (900 Miles) 15. Stamper, I.D.. Red Wing, June Appal JA 0010, LP (1977), cut# 13 (900 Miles) 16. Stevens, George. Blue Dog Cellar Project No. 1, Kimberly RINC 1245, LP (196?), cut#B.06 (900 Miles) 17. Stone, Pete. Chicago Mob Scene. A Folk Song Jam Session, Riverside RLP 12-641, LP (196?), cut# 6 (900 Miles) 18. Weavers. Weavers at Carnegie Hall, Vanguard VRS 9010, LP (195?), cut#B.03b (900 Miles) 19. Weissberg, Eric. Folk Banjo Styles, Elektra EKL-217, LP (195?), cut# 4
RELATED TO: “Ruby (Are You Mad at Your Man?);” “Cold Rain and Snow” “Longest Train I Ever Saw;” “Long Steel Rail;” "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy,"
OTHER NAMES: "Reuben Oh Reuben;" "Train 45;" "Reuben/Reuban;" "Old Reuben;" "Nine Hundred Miles""A Hundred Miles;" "Five Hundred Miles;" “I'm Nine Hundred Miles from My Home;” “Vestapol;” “Train Is Off the Track” “Ridin' Home;” “Wanderer” "Seventy Four;" "Count the Days I'm Gone" “Lonesome Ruben” “Graveyard”
SOURCES: Ceolas; Mudcat Forum; BrownIII 236, "Reuben's Train" (2 texts, with "A" being closer to "Nine Hundred Miles" than "B"); Warner 133, "Reuben's Train" (1 text, 1 tune); Lomax-FSNA 302, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune); Roud #3423; BrownIII 285, "The Midnight Dew" (1 text, with an unusual introductory verse but most of the rest goes here); Lomax-FSUSA 73, "900 Miles" (1 text, 1 tune); Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 464, "900 Miles" (1 text, 1 tune); Silber-FSWB, p. 53, "Nine Hundred Miles" (1 text); DT, MILES900; Roud #4959 Q: According to the Traditional Ballad Index, the song was first mentioned in 1909 in JAFL, which would make it public domain, but of course many later recordings are copyright, including the 1924 release by Fiddlin' John Carson. Woody Guthrie had his own take on the lyrics, which would still be copyright; he did not compose the original. Other titles include "Midnight Dew (The Train Runs a Wreck)," 1914 (music on p. 205 of Brown, vol. 5, North Carolina Folklore, which puts the tune (not Hoo chorus) in public domain. Perrow has a fragment, "Fo' Hundud Miles From Home," in part 2 of his "Songs and Rhymes from the South," Songs connected with the railroad, No. 12, collected 1909 in South Carolina, and published in 1915.
NOTES: The Reuben’s Train family of songs are old-time songs, fiddle and banjo tunes that were first discovered in the early 1900’s in the Appalachian Mountain region. Some of the most common names are Reuben/Ruben; Reuben's Train; Train Forty-Five; Old Reuben/Old Ruben; Nine Hundred Miles; and Five Hundred Miles.
Reuben's Train is a old-time song and fiddle tune about Reuben's train and travels. Versions vary widely; most contain a verse something like this: "Reuben had a train and he put it on the track, Hear the whistle blow a hundred miles." The “Nine Hundred Miles” songs have the same melody and form but use these lyrics: "I'm a walking down the track, I've got tears in my eyes, Trying to read a letter from my home. If that train runs me right I'll be home tomorrow night." The singer will pawn anything or do whatever is needed to get home to his sweetheart. The Nine Hundred Miles songs and Train Forty-Five songs seem to pre-date the Rueben’s Train songs.
“Longest Train I Ever Saw,” “Black Girl” and “In the Pines” are related but different songs usually in ¾ or waltz time. A study by Judith McCulloh of 160 texts concluded that "The Longest Train" cluster and the "In the Pines" cluster once constituted two different songs that have been yoked together. See "Long Steel Rail," Norm Cohen, p. 493.
From Ceolas: “Reuben” is a banjo tune and song which Frank Proffitt pronounced as "one of the oldest simple banjo tunes...it was the first tune generally learned...There are about fifty different verses to this, as everybody added them all along" [Warner]. It was the first tune that Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler and banjo player Tommy Jarrell learned, from a hired-hand named Cockerham on his father's farm. In 1982 he told interviewer Peter Anick that Cockerham played the tune, handed Jarrell the banjo and invited him to play it. Jarrell at first demurred saying he couldn't play the instrument, upon which the hand replied, "Well, it ain't but one string to note and I'll show you that." Jarrell, familiar with the song from the singing of other family members, worked it out in a few minutes.
From Best Loved American Folk Songs [Folk Song: U.S.A.], by John and Alan Lomax (1947): In its present form, this is a hillbilly blues. However, Woody Guthrie, the Okie balladeer and guitar-picker, learned it from a Negro shoeshine boy in his home town of Okema, Oklahoma. The tune has appeared in many disguises and has relations all over the South. In the tidewater country of Virginia, they call it the "Reuben Blues" and they sing:
When old Reuben left home, he wasn't but nine days old,
When he come back he was a full grown man.
When he come back he was a full grown man.
They got old Reuben down and they took his watch and charm,
It was everything that poor boy had.
It was everything that poor boy had.
In the backwoods, further west, the sharecroppers, white and black, dedicate the tune to a full belly, and sing:
I got my chickens in my sack and the hounds are on my track.
But I'll make it to my shanty 'fore day,
And I'll keep my skillet good and greasy all the time.
Up in Kentucky and Tennessee, they tell the story about a train that ran
around a coal mine, where convict labor was used in the old days:
The longest train that I ever seen,
Run around Joe Brown's coal mine,
The engine past (sic) at six o'clock,
And the last car passed by at nine.
Perhaps the oldest version is the Southern mountain song of the dark girl:
Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me,
Where did you stay last night?
In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines,
And I shivered where the cold wind blew.
Wherever this melody has turned up, it has been a vehicle for melancholy, for a yearning toward faraway places and toward things that are lost and irretrievable. In "Nine Hundred Miles," it has become the most haunting of railroad blues. It’s the same tune as Jack O'Diamond Blues recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson.
FINAL NOTES: The Reuben Family is related to "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy," “Ruby (Are You Mad at Your Man?),” and “Cold Rain and Snow.” It’s a white blues from the Appalachian region that has many titles and variants. It is likely that “Ruby (Are You Mad at Your Man?)” versions are based on a mis-hearing of Rueben (as Ruby).
The song became popular in the early 1960s as "Five Hundred Miles." According to Norm Cohen, Hedy West arranged the song Five Hundred Miles based on a variant that her grandmother knew around 1900. According to Wiki: "Her most famous song, '500 Miles,' was put together from fragments of a melody she had heard her uncle sing to her back in Georgia. She copyrighted the resulting patched song, and the rest is history. '500 Miles' is one of America's best loved and best known folk songs."
West's song arrangement became a huge 'hit' in the sixties sung by Bobby Bare, Peter Paul and Mary and virtually every other commercial folk group. It was first done by The Journeymen (including young Scott McKenzie) in 1961. Then followed Peter Paul & Mary, who made it a huge hit. It was also covered by Peter and Gordon. The New Christy Minstrels did their version in 1962, 900 miles, a version based on Woody Guthrie's arrangement.
Some sources show "500 Miles From Home" as being "traditional," others give only Hedy West as the writer, while still others list it as having been written by Bobby Bare, Hedy West and Charlie Williams. Hedy West, a singer and banjo-player who came from a Cartersville, Georgia folksinging family, arranged the song for publication and Bare and Williams then changed the words somewhat in order to create different versions. West's other popular folk contribution was Cotton Mill Girls again based on traditional material. Hedy West died of cancer on July 3, 2005, aged 67.
Here Are the lyrics to "Reuben" by George Pegram.
REUBEN- George Pegram
Rounder 0001, LP (1970), cut# 8
Banjo and Harmonica
Old Reuben had a wife, she been mourned all her life
Poor Reuben, poor Reuben, Oh Reuben ain’t got no home.
(Banjo and Harmonica)
Old Reuben, he got drunk, he pawned his key, watch and trunk
Poor Reuben, poor Reuben, poor Reuben ain’t got no home.
(Banjo and Harmonica)
If this train runs *tonight, I’ll be home Sunday night,
I can hear Old Rueben when she past,
Poor Reuben, poor Reuben, oh Reuben ain’t got no home.
(Banjo and Harmonica)
*Should be "right"
Source: Excerpts from liner notes by Bob Carlin, Lexington, NC, 9/15/94
George Franklin Pegram - Banjoist
The first time I saw George Pegram he was holding forth in his own inimitable, gravity-defying manner. The usual crowd had gathered at his feet. He wore a smile of unadulterated bliss. Bobbing and weaving his head, he and a guitarist, accompanied by two female singers, were tearing along in high style on that great reliable, 'Old Time Religion.' "
Anne Gilbert Banjoist and folklorist Art Rosenbaum described Pegram's playing as a "raucous, hell-for-leather, driving style." Robert Black further mentions, to achieve this effect "George Pegram uses a technique much like the well known 'double-thumbing' style. It is a three-finger movement employing single notes; the melody is picked with the thumb and the drone Is alternated between the first and second strings, using the index and the middle fingers."
George Franklin Pegram, Jr. was born August 5, 1911 and raised near Oak Ridge in Guilford County, the son of George (12/20/1881 or 1883-11/5/1955) and Phebe D. Henley Pegram (_1892-?). This farming community in North Carolina's Piedmont region was rich in stringband music. Zack Whitaker (2/9/1876-11/3/1950), who taught music at the Oak Ridge Institute, was active in organizing area events. Whitaker promoted fiddlers' conventions and dances throughout George Pegram's upbringing, and, probably, it's those conventions that George attended when growing up. One of Zack Whitaker's musical compatriots was George's uncle, fiddler Clyde Pegram. A lifelong bachelor, Clyde Pegram lived at home with his mother and worked the family farm. George claimed that Clyde helped start him in music and that the two played together once George became musically proficient. George Pegram tells several different stories of acquiring his earliest instrument. Either his first banjo, which he started playing around the age of nine, was one discarded by his grandfather, or a cigar box banjo, which George made.
Pegram continues: "My grandma drew a pension from the Civil War. I stayed with her, and she gave me a patch for tobacco. I said the first thing I was going to do when I sold my crop of tobacco, I'm going to buy me a banjo. I went down to Winston-Salem to a music store and paid $15 for a banjo a Silvertone. "I got to watching other banjo pickers. I'd pick it up. I'd go to school commencements, where there would be playing, and to fiddling conventions. I'd pick it up listening to others. "The first money I ever made in my life was for pickin' a banjo all night. I was just a barefoot kid and they gave me 15 cents. I tied it up in the end of a handkerchief and took it and gave it to my Momma." George evidently had fond memories of Oak Ridge. He would return there each year to perform at the horse show/fiddlers' convention that began in 1946. At the age of twenty-six, George Pegram married Dorothy Louise Dick (b. 1920) of Guilford County and moved to Statesville. The couple eventually had four children. Pegram professed to having served in the Navy during World War II, and to losing an eye in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. To support his family, George worked in the tobacco fields, sawmills and furniture factories of North Carolina and Virginia. " never paid enough to live on, and Pegram moved his family from job to job, from one small town to another, wherever he could find work and 'play a little music,' " reported the Winston-Salem Journal/Sentinel.
The man who would change Pegram's life was musician, folk song collector and festival promoter Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Lunsford had founded the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in June of 1928 as a part of Asheville's Rhododendron Festival. "In 1948," says Bascom Lunsford's biographer Loyal Jones, "Lunsford was invited by Dr. Ralph Steele Boggs of the English Department to start a folk festival at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which was held in June. In the same year Lunsford also established a festival for the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh, in the month of August. Both of these festivals became popular events and made it necessary for Lunsford to locate new performers from places in North Carolina other than his native mountains. He traveled the hot and dusty roads of the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of the Old North State, seeking talent for his new festivals."
Pegram, possibly living in Denton at the time, recalled his first meeting with Lunsford: "The old man discovered me. Oh, it was 1949, I believe it was. He came down there and he had car trouble. He wanted to spend the night. I said yes I'd be glad for him to. He didn't know that I was a banjo picker a musician. He had one of these recording things to make records. We eat supper and all. I asked him what his business was. He said folk music. I told him that I played the banjo a little bit once in a while. He said, 'Go get your banjo then.' I got my banjo and played 'Cumberland Gap' and different ones. He said, 'Why, that sounds just fine. Just fine. Let me record that.' He did, and I was invited to the festival." This account seems likely, although some of its details aren't correct. Since Pegram appeared at the first Festival, Lunsford must have visited George in 1948. Hoyle Bruton, publicity director for the 1948 festival, described talent scouting trips with Lunsford in the spring, and thinks that Lunsford had heard about Pegram before he went to see him. Arthur Palmer Hudson, reviewing the 1948 Carolina Folk Festival in the Southern Folklore Quarterly, mentions Pegram, "a broadaxe-finished mountaineer under a ten-gallon hat" as vying "with Clegg Garner of Randolph for honors as banjo soloist. George's 'Good Ol' Mountain Dew' a 'special request' number on every program after the first. A natural clown, with an excellent repertory of banjo songs and solo dance numbers, and with an inexhaustible fund of showmanship, George was the individual star of the Festival." Pegram also played "John Henry."
The Asheboro Courier-Tribune reported that "One member of Garner's band, tall and lanky George Pegram, brought down the house with his rip-roaring rendition of 'Good Ol' Mountain Dew,' a number written by Lunsford in the style of the authentic folk songs. The large crowd, stacked up in the north side of Kenan stadium to the back wall, city folk and all, got the swing of folk music as George sang and whole assembly was soon clapping and swaying in rhythm." This event seems to be, outside of local community events, one of Pegram's first appearances as a professional musician. Although George Pegram would continue to work at a variety of manual labor jobs, from this point on, he would attempt to make a part of his living at music. Subsequent newspaper photos and recollections of area residents show Pegram still playing with Clegg Garner's band for dances at Denton (Davidson County) and Farmer (Randolph County) in the 1950s. And, a recording of the Okie Mountain Boys made at the 1948 event sounds like Pegram was also a member of that aggregation. In the late 1940s, George Pegram additionally performed with Corbett Bennett and His Mountain Dudes, both in public appearances and over radio station WTNC-Thomasville. Throughout his musical career, no matter what Pegram's band affiliation, George was always straining to take the spotlight. Pegram was such a singular performer, with his own style, that it was hard to play and share the stage with him.
The Pegram family moved to Union Grove at Bascom Lunsford's instigation around 1951, to a small white house off NC 115 near the Wilkes County line. With some of Lunsford's relatives living close by, Bascom may have been trying to take care of George or to keep an eye on him. By that time, George Pegram had become a favorite performer of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who used him on the many events he later organized in the 1950s. Pegram played at the State Fair, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival and the Burlington Centennial Festival (in 1949). He was a regular at the Carolina Folk Festival until its demise in 1956. And Lunsford subsequently put Pegram together with harmonica player Red Parham. Walter "Red" Parham ran Bascom Lunsford's farm and played at Bascom Lunsford's many events, including the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival. Pegram and Parham had begun performing together by 1955, when they appeared at the Carolina Folk Festival.
In 1957, Red and George were recorded by Kenneth Goldstein for Riverside Records at Lunsford's home in South Turkey Creek, Leicester, NC. George Pegram and Red Parham also appeared on several Riverside Records anthologies: Banjo Songs of the Southern Mountains and Southern Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads. The act ceased active performing when booking decreased, and financial necessity caused Parham and Pegram to appear on their own. No matter how much Lunsford valued George as a performer, the latter's lack of constraint caused friction between the two men. Loyal Jones relates that, "For a while, he would not have George Pegram on the festival. Pegram became so popular that the crowd would often break into chants of 'We want George,' and Pegram, somewhat heady over this popularity, might just come forward without Lunsford's nod.
This was the sort of thing that Lunsford, creator and boss of the festival, would not tolerate. However, Pegram held an affection and respect for Lunsford." By the late 1950s, George became a fixture at both the Galax, Virginia and Union Grove, North Carolina Fiddlers' Conventions. At these events, he was often associated with Wayne Johnson's Brushy Mountain Boys of North Wilkesboro, featuring fiddler "Lost John" Ray (_1917-?). Pegram's first award at the Galax came in 1959, when he won first prize for the "Novelty" category. One of the pieces he played that year was "On Top of Old Smokey." He took second prize on banjo in 1960, and first in 1961, rendering "John Henry" for his first place win. The Brushy Mountain Boys took third prize in the band competition for 1960 and 1963, performing "Turkey in the Straw" and "Hitchhiker's Blues" during the later year's convention. In 1963, Pegram also played on the program, executing "John Henry," "Arkansas Traveler," and "Old Rattler." The Band possibly attended the 1966 event, when George won "Outstanding Individual Performer," which he won again in 1969. George's Galax performance of "John Henry" from either 1961 or 1963 was recorded for the Folkways Records' 1964 release, Galax, Virginia Old Fiddlers' Convention .
The Brushy Mountain Boys appeared at the 1961 Union Grove Fiddlers' Convention as a seven-member band. The band was included on the 1962 Folkways album The 37th Old Time Fiddlers' Convention At Union Grove North Carolina, and were mentioned as "one of the wilder bands and the winner of this year's (1961) band contest" in the album's notes. It is unclear if Pegram was with the Brushy Mountain Boys at this convention. Photos of the band, which at least sometime included Wayne Johnson's sons, show a different banjoist. However, the banjoist on the Folkways recording of "Hitchhiker's Blues" closely resembles George. George Pegram also appeared with fiddler Lost John Ray at the 1967 Union Grove Convention. Wade Walker financed the record, featuring George and Lost John, for his "Wade" label. The issued tunes were "Mississippi Sawyer" on one side of the record, backed with "Cumberland Gap" and "Arkansas Traveler." Sometime in the mid-to-late 1950s, Wade Walker had became acquainted with Pegram at the Farmer Grange dance, where George was playing. Pegram and Walker became good friends, and George was a regular at Wade Walker's music sessions from then on until George Pegram's death.
Beginning at this time, as Mark Walker, Wade's son reports, "Pegram worked for the Southern Railroad as an entertainer at their conferences and meetings, traveling all over the country and even to Hawaii. They bought him a banjo, one of the last ones that he had. But I think he pawned it off when he got hurting for money. It was one of the Earl Scruggs models. They'd buy him new clothes, you know, before they'd take him on those trips. He wouldn't even have decent clothes, you know, to take with him. And when he'd come home, he might come into work at the sawmill or somewhere with them good clothes on and they'd have to buy new ones again then." By the late 1960s, the Pegram family had migrated once again, living for several years near Galax, Virginia. The following article appeared in the Galax Gazette, July 24,1969, and aptly describes Pegram's public appearances. "A perennial favorite at the convention is George Pegram of nearby Fries, Virginia, located like Galax, near the line separating Carroll and Grayson Counties. "Pegram, grizzled and balding and with only one good eye, is a virtuoso of the bluegrass banjo style. He is a showman, too, likely to put aside his instrument and dance into a loose-joined shuffle. "As he attacks the chorus of 'Cumberland Gap,' his lean old body tilts backward from the knees until his beaten black hat stands parallel to the ground and he is face to face with the August moon. He hoists his banjo high, fingers plucking louder and louder around the melody and a guttural hum hurtles from his throat into a piercing howl guaranteed to boil the blood: "'MmmmmYeoww! Way down yonder in Cumberland Gap!'"
David Holt, the well-known banjoist and host of radio and television shows (including Mountain Stage), also witnessed his first Pegram performance that summer. "I will never forget the first time I saw George Pegram play. It was 1969 at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville, North Carolina. He came out on stage grinning from ear to ear, eyes darting around the auditorium like he was getting ready to play a hugh practical joke. He was bowlegged and slightly stooped from the weight of his banjo hanging around his neck. You sensed right away this guy was the 'real thing.' "Harmonica player Red Parham blew a couple of high, piercing notes to start 'Cindy.' George grabbed at the strings of his banjo as though he were trying to catch up with Red. Then all of a sudden they hooked into each others timing and were in perfect sync. It felt like an electric current went through the audience. Spontaneously the entire crowd began hollering and hooting. The music was so raw, so real and so damn good, you couldn't help it. They played through the tune like they were trying to hold onto an out of control freight train. It was one of the most exciting musical experiences I've ever had. And to this day, every time I play 'Cindy' I think of how George Pegram made that song come alive."
The recordings heard on this compact disc were made by Charles Faurot (called "Farout" in the original album notes), well known for his tapes for County Records of Carolina/Virginia stringband music. Originally offered to Ken Davidson's Kanawha label for release, this became the first record on the fledgling Rounder label in 1971. Ken Irwin and Bill Nowlin, two of the three current partners in Rounder, had become interested in traditional music during the early 1960s through the recordings of Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio. As undergraduate roommates, they followed music in the Boston area, often attending shows at the Club 47 in Cambridge. In 1966, their senior year in college, they both began attending the southern fiddler's conventions at Union Grove and Galax. After one such Galax event, Irwin was picked up hitchhiking (those were the days!) by Ken Davidson. He spent a few days at Davidson's home in West Virginia, visiting area musicians. Davidson's Kanawha operation made a favorable impression, and, upon his return to Boston, Irwin commented to Nowlin that they, too, should start a record label. In 1969, in the company of the third Rounder, then Marian Leighton, Ken again visited Ken Davidson, now relocated to Florida.
Davidson played the tape of George Pegram heard here, and mentioned that he wasn't going to put it out. Since Irwin and Leighton were familiar with Pegram from his earlier lp with Parham and his star status at Union Grove, they jumped at the chance to acquire the tapes for their new record label (for $125!). Fred Cockerham (11/3/1905-7/8/1980), at the time living in Low Gap, North Carolina, is the best known of the musicians accompanying George Pegram on this disc. A fiddler and banjoist famous through his association with Tommy Jarrell and Kyle Creed, Fred can be heard on many County releases. Jack Bryant, nineteen years old when these recordings were made, was an auto body repairman from Galax, Virginia. Clyde Isaacs, a musical compatriot of Fred Cockerham in the Virginia-Carolina Ramblers, and a retired painter from Galax, was sixty-seven years old on the occasion of these sessions. Around the fall of 1969, the Pegrams relocated to Cedar Grove Township outside of Asheboro, North Carolina. The move took George closer to his friend and patron Wade Walker, and to a job with the State Dept of Transportation, overseeing gravel spreading crews for Randolph County.
About this time, George Pegram reunited with Red Parham, and the duo played the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, Berea College and the Union Grove Fiddlers' Convention. One of George's last appearances was with Parham at the Asheville Folk Festival, in August of 1974. A late 1973/early 1974 show by Pegram at Gardner-Webb College is described by Mark Walker: "He played before the Mission Mountain Wood Band. But George just put on a real good show and I remember after the show there, he went down one side of the bleachers there and I believe he kissed or hugged every girl on that one side down there. And the crowd really did like him."
"But just, you know, sitting in the living room playing, I mean, he was a different person, almost, the way he'd play. But he would put on the dog in front of a crowd, especially if they got to hollerin' some for him and all. That just egged him on then." George Pegram died September 12, 1974, of bone cancer. He is buried at the Back Creek Church in Randolph County. "Wade" relates his son Mark, "went to a lot of people that we would invite when was at our place a playin', and so many enjoyed hearing him play and went to all these people and asked them if they would give a little donation toward buying George's stone and some of Wade's family, they all give a donation and pretty soon, why, they had enough to buy it." "He was just, you know, one of the best entertainers, I guess. About anywhere he would go, he would just make a crowd go wild."
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