Annotation:Hoe the Corn Moses

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HOE THE CORN MOSES. AKA and see "Razors in the Air," "Moses Hoe Your Corn." Old-Time, Breakdown. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AA'AA' BB (Phillips). The title comes from the chorus of the minstrel-style song "Razors in the Air," originally a three-part melody by singer-banjoist Harry C. Browne and His Peerless Quartet, who recorded it for Columbia prior to 1930. Vernon Dalhart also recorded an early version of the song. As a tune it was paired to two parts, modified and played by Marion Slaughter, the Otis Brothers (fingering in the key of 'G' but tuned down to E), Major Contay and others. However, the fiddle-tune version of the song is (self-)credited to fiddler Kerry Blech, who adapted New York musician Pat Conte's bluesy song version, and played it in bands in the American northwest in the 1980's, where others picked it up [c.f. Songer's Portland Collection vol. 2, p. 274].

Source for notated version: Paul Elliot [Phillips]; Greg Canote (Seattle) [Silberberg].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 113. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 103 (appears as "Moses Hoe Your Corn"). Songer (Portland Collection, vol. 2), 2005; p. 137.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]