Annotation:Six Months
SIX MONTHS. American, Reel (cut time). G Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The title "Six Months" may refer to a jail sentence. The tune was recorded in 1976 by collector Jim Renner from the playing of Oklahoma fiddler Mack Cummings. Cummings learned the tune from his father, who had learned it from a Cherokee Indian fiddler by the name of Willie Dreadfulwater. The story Cummings told Renner was: "when Mack was learning the tune,Willie came over to play the night before his death. Before leaving, Willie stood outside by the gate for a long time and said, 'I could play all night, I feel so lonesome.' A falling tree limb killed him the next day."
It is possible the tune was part of an older Native American music motif that was transformed into an American old-time fiddle piece (see also Dreadfulwater's "Kiowa").
