Annotation:Flannery's Dream

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 FLANNERY'S DREAM. AKA - "Son of Hober." Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown. A Minor/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). There are several tunes played by Kentucky fiddlers called "Flannery's Dream," sometimes under the title "Flander's Dream" (although there are also different tunes by that name, one in the key of 'C') or "Flandery's Dream." Warner Waton tells the story that Flannery was supposedly a Revolutionary War fiddler who was under a sentence of death. The commanding officer, knowing he could play, agreed to set him free if Flannery could play him a tune he hadn't heard. Flannery dreamt this tune the night before his scheduled execution. John Hartford thinks Flannery may have been a Civil War figure rather than a Revolutionary War soldier, and the story is similar to one told about Solly Carpenter (see note for "Camp Chase"). Hartford notes the Flannery family is a large and old one from Elliott County, Kentucky. Another common story attached to the tune (and told by Alva Greene, for one) is that a man named Flannery dreamed this tune and won a contest with it (Hartford, 1996). Bluegrass multi-instumentalist Ricky Skaggs recorded a version called "Son of Hober," however, the tune has currency among bluegrass musicians as "Flannery's Dream," apparently popularized by Scaggs. Alva Greene's version is recognizable as a precursor to the bluegrass version.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources:  Recorded sources: Berea AC007, Roger Cooper (Garrison, Ky.) - "Snakewinder." County CD 2714, Brad Leftwich - "Say Old Man." Rounder 0151, Ricky Skaggs (appears as "Son of Hober," a title which honors Skaggs' father). Rounder 0392, John Hartford - "Wild Hog in the Red Brush (and a Bunch of Others You Might Not Have Heard)" {1996. Learned from Ricky Skaggs who learned it from Sanford Kelly}. Rounder Records 036, Alva Greene (et al) - "Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, Vol. 1: Up the Ohio and Licking Rivers." CO 2714, Brad Leftwich & Linda Higginbotham - "Say Old Man." Rounder Records 0215, James Bryan - "The First of May." Shanachie Records 6040, Gerry Milnes & Lorriane Lee Hammond - "Hell Up Coal Holler" (1999. Learned from an old Kentucky fiddler, Santford Kelly). Yodel-Ay-Hee YOD 011, Bruce Molsky - "Warring Cats." Gerry Milnes - "Old Time Music." Robin Kessinger - "Road Kessinger." The Kessingers - "Roots and Branches." Blue Road - "Its Been a Long Road."  See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources

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