Annotation:Cello

Find traditional instrumental music

Back to Cello


CELLO. American, March (?. 4/4 time). USA; Ohio, Michigan. A Minor ('A' part) & C Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The title is pronounced with a soft 'C', as in "celebrity." Al Smitley collected the tune from an elderly fiddler by the name of Ray Shepard whom (in May, 2000) was still playing in his 80th decade. Smitley says: "Shepard grew up in southern Ohio and it was there that he learned the tune. He moved to Michigan (south of Saline) when he was a young man." Origins are obscure, but it may have been a minstrel tune or a part of a quadrille.

Source for notated version: fiddler Al Smitley of Michigan's Ruffwater Stringband [Johnson].

Printed sources: Johnson (The Kitchen Musician's No. 7: Michigan Tunes), vol. 7, 1986-87; p. 12.

Recorded sources:




Back to Cello