Annotation:Squirrel Hunters (The)
SQUIRREL HUNTERS, THE. AKA ‑ "Squirrel Hunting." AKA and see "Bell Cow (2) (The)]" (Pa.), "Dilly's Favorite" (Pa.), "Jenny Put the Kettle On (We'll All Take Tea) [3]" (Pa.), "N....r in/on the Woodpile [1]" (Pa.), "Old Common Time" (Pa.), "Pennsylvania Quickstep (2) (The)]" (Pa.). American, March (2/4 time). USA, southwestern Pa. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. This tune was known in Pennsylvania primarily as a fife "stop‑beat" piece, though Bayard has identified it as a member of "one of the most widespread and ramifying of our British Isles melodic families." This very old tune family has innumberable variants and forms in most of the commonly used folk modes, in quick and slow tempi, and in 2/4, 4/4, 6/8, and 3/4 time, and all resembling each other to the extent that family traits are confirmed yet seemingly not enough to differentiate clear classes and subgroups. Bayard, arbitrarily he admits, has assigned the nomen "Welcome Home" to this family from one of its member Irish airs. He lists a few of the recurrent old‑country titles of members of this melodic complex: "Oyster Wives' Rant (The)," "Haughs of Cromdale (The)," "Wate You How the Play Began," "Hillside (2) (The)," "Welcome Home (3)," and "(Fare Thee Well) Sweet Killaloe," and in his note to this tune he cites numerous other references. See also the related “Dan Friend's Piece” and West Virginia fiddler Melvin Wine’s “Rainy Day (2).”
