Annotation:Hobb Dye

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 HOBB DYE. Old Time, Country Rag. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. A "slightly crooked" tune from the playing of California mandolin player Kenny Hall, who said he had the tune from a Texas piano player by the name of Clara Desmond, who had learned it from sheet music (although she may have had it from a Texas fiddler). Desmond had moved to Oakland sometime in the 1930's, a city where Hall worked in a broom factory while playing music and collecting 78 RPM records in his spare time. Hobs and dies are terms from the machine trade (i.e. 'gear hobber'), although the lore attached to the tune has it that the tune was composed after one Hobb Dye, who was a bootlegger from Texas. Source for notated version:  Source for notated version: Tony Marcus [Phillips]. Hank Bradley [Silberberg].  Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 64. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 63.  Recorded sources:  See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources

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