Annotation:Stillhouse Branch

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X:1 T:Stillhouse Branch S:Buddy Thomas M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel N:AEae tuning (fiddle) D:Rounder 0032, Buddy Thomas - Kitty Puss (1976) F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/stillhouse-branch Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:Amix +slide+[e2e2]-|[ee]-[e3a3] [e4a4] |[ee][eg][ea][eg][e2b2][e2a2]|[e2a2][eb][ea] gf|ece2 c+slide+[e3e3]| [Ae]-[A3a3] [A4a4] |[Ae][Ag][Aa][Aa][A2b2][A2a2]|[Aa][Ab][Aa][Ag] [Af][Ag][Aa][Af]|ec[Be][Ae] [c2e2][ce]-[ee]-|| [ee][ef][ee]c BAcf|e([ce][Be])[Ae] [c2e2][c2e2]|(ef)ec BAcf|e(cB)c A2[ce]-[ee]-| [ee][ef][ee](c BA)cf|e([ce][Be])[Ae] [c2e2][c2e2]|(ef)ec BAcf|e(cB)c A2[A,2E2]-|| [A,E]FAB c2 [ce]B|AcBA +slide+[c2e2][A,2E2]-|[A,E]FAB c2 [ce]B|AcBG A2[A,2E2]-| [A,E]E[EA]B c2 cB|A(cB)A c2+slide+[de]-[ee]-|[ee][ef][ee](c BA)cf| e(cB)c A2|| P:Substitute 1st strain +slide+([e2e2]|e)a3- abag|ea3 a4|e2a2- abaf|e(cB)A c2[e2e2]-| [ee]a3- abag|egag b2a2|(ab)ag (fg)ef|e(cB)A c2||

STILLHOUSE BRANCH. AKA – “Still House Branch.” Old Time, Breakdown. USA, Ky. A Major. One of a family of tunes that includes "Brown's Dream (1),” “Brownstream,” “Herve Brown's Dream,” “Jimmy Johnson Pass that Jug around the Hill/Johnny Bring the Jug Around the Hill,” “John Brown's Dream,” “Little Rabbit” “Pretty Little Gal (1),” “Table Mountain Road” and others. The tune family is a common a popular one in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where it probably originated, but has since been disseminated. Lewis County, northeast Kentucky, fiddler Buddy Thomas (1935-1974) recorded the tune under the “Stillhouse Branch” title but also knew the piece alternately as “Brown Stream,” a 'mondegreen' for “Brown's Dream (1).” He believed the “Brown Stream” title to refer to the stream of whiskey that emerges from a moonshine still, according to Mike Yates (2002). Stillhouse Branch is the name given to a several Appalachian rivlets (there are Stillhouse Branches in southwestern Virginia near the town of Pound, in Nicholas County, West Virginia, and in Rowan County, Kentucky) but undoubtedly referred to any number of mountain streams that provided water used for distilling liquor.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : -

Recorded sources: -Rounder 0032, Buddy Thomas (Northeast Ky.) "Kitty Puss: Old Time Fiddle Music From Kentucky" (1976).

See also listing at:
Hear Buddy Thomas's 1973 recording at Slippery Hill [1], and at youtube.com [2]
[Ed.--the "Stillhouse Branch" at the Digital Library of Appalachia is actually "Short's Addition", correction not made at the time of this writing 10.23.18]. "Stillhouse Branch" is at the Digital Library of Appalachia [] under the title "Possum up a Simmon Tree," the name of another Thomas tune.
See banjo tab for "Stillhouse Branch" [3]

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