Annotation:Durham's Bull

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X: 1 T:Durham's Bull M:4/4 L:1/8 Q:100 C:American R:Reel K:A "A"A,2CE FECE|AECE FECE|"D"D2FA BAFA|dAFA BAFA| "E"E2 GB cBGB|eBGB cBGB|"D"EFGA BcBG|[1"A"A2 GF EDCB,:| [2"A"A2 cB A2 ef||"A"a2ab afef|abaf efec|"D"dedB ABA=G| FDEF D2([=F2A2]|"B"[^F2A2]) [^A2e2]-[B2e2] Bc|^dBcd B2 ef| "E"gfgb gfec|[1BAGF E2 ef:|[2BAGF [E4A4]|]

DURHAM'S BULL. AKA – "Durham's Reel (1)." AKA and see "Bull Durham." American, Reel (cut time). USA; Missouri, Arkansas. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AAB (Brody): AABAAB' (Phillips). Named for (and often attributed to) Buddy Durham (d. 2005), a radio fiddler who spent ten years on the WWVA Jamboree from 1956–66. Craig Duncan says the tune was often played by fiddler Paul Warren to open Flatt and Scruggs live performances.

The title is a play on a Southern manufacturing logo, called 'Durham's bull'. Stuart Berg Flexner in his book Listening to America (1982) explains:

Toward the end of the Civil War, General Sherman's Union troops camped near Durham, North Carolina, and liked the tobacco prepared by John Ruffin Green of nearby Durham Station. After the war, Green continued to supply some of his new customers by mail, renaming his "Best Flavored Spanish Smoking Tobacco" and adding a label showing a "Durham bull," based on the bull's head on Durham mustard from Durham, England. By 1877 his tobacco was known as Bull Durham. When the T. Blackwell Co. bought Green's firm it added the slogan "Not Genuine Without the Bull," but other Durham, North Carolina, tobacco firms capitalized on the local name, producing such tobacco as W. Duke and Sons Duke of Durham, Z.I. Lyon and Co. Pride of Durham, and R.F. Morris and Sons Eureka Durham. [p. 151]

Fayetteville, Arkansas, fiddler Donald "Cotton" Combs (1921-1984), who mangled the names of several tunes (according to Gordon McCann, he called "Westphalia Waltz" by the name "West Sedalia Waltz," and "La Golendrina" as "Golden Dreamer"), called this reel "Bull Durham." The title even appears as "Bull Druma" on his LP "My Fiddle and I."

Additional notes

Sources for notated versions: - Lymon Enloe (Brody, Phillips); Buddy Durham & Stuart Williams [Phillips].

Printed sources : - Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pp. 95–96. Duncan (Top Fiddle Solos), 1986; p. 8. Phillips (Fiddle Case Tunebook: Old Time Southern), 1989; p. 16 (appears as "Durham's Reel"). Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 77. Silberberg (Fiddle Tunes I Learned at the Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 39.

Recorded sources: -CMH 6237, Paul Warren – "America's Greatest Breakdown Fiddle Player." Caney Mountain Records CLP 228, Lonnie Robertson (Mo.) – "Fiddle Favorites." County 762, Lyman Enloe – "Fiddle Tunes I Recall" (1973). Folkways DW-90705, New Lost City Ramblers – "Rural Delivery No. 1." Rooster Records 001, Cotton Combs - "My Fiddle and I." Rounder 0002, Spark Gap Wonder Boys – "Cluck Old Hen" (1970). Rounder 0326, Benton Flippen – "Old Times, New Times." Rounder 7010, Tom Doucet – "Tommy Doucet" (1979). Vetco 506, Fiddlin' Van Kidwell – "Midnight Ride" (1975). Mag, Hubert and Ted Powers – "Two Generations of Old Time Fiddle."

See also listing at:
Hear Cotton Combs recording at Slippery Hill [1]
Hear Carlton Rawling's c. 1960's field recording at Berea Sound Archives [2]

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