Annotation:My Old Dog's Trailing up a Squirrel

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MY OLD DOG'S TRAILING UP A SQUIRREL. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Mississippi. A Modal/Major. AEae tuning (fiddle). ABACDCDCDC. The tune appears to be unique and has not been found in other printed or recorded versions. It was recorded in May, 1939, by Herbert Halpert and Abbott Ferriss, as part of a joint project of the WPA and the Library of Congress, from the playing of Clarke County, Mississippi, fiddler Charles Long (b. 1869). Long was originally from Choctaw County, Alabama, but moved to Mississippi in the early 1900's, where he farmed in the hill country of that state. He played at home, and for dances: "When they got lined up for the dancing," he recalled, "is when I started playing. I guess we've played many a night and never played the same piece twice...There's two things a fiddler would get at a frolic--whiskey and a chair. Wasn't much trouble for a fiddler to get a partner, neither. [People were] scared he'd quit" [quoted in liner notes to the 1985 recording "Great Big Yam Potatoes"]. The high part is in mixolyidan, while the coarse (low part) of the tune is in major tonality.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Charles Long - "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" (1985).

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