Annotation:Polecat Blues
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POLECAT BLUES. Old-Time, Country Rag/Blues. USA; western North Carolina. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune is usually credited to fiddler Tommy Magness (1916-1972), who played with Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff, and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. Magness was born in Mineral Bluff, north Georgia, near the southeastern Tennessee border. He first recorded the melody as a member of Roy Hall's Blue Ridge Entertainers, who together recorded the tune in October, 1941, in Atlanta, Georgia. Surry County, western North Carolina fiddler Benton Flippen (1920-2011) reworked it into one of his signature tunes, and reinvigorated it among younger fiddlers in the latter 20th century.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources:
Recorded sources: Bluebird 8863 (78 RPM), Roy Hall and His Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers (1941). Heritage 054, Smokey Valley Boys - "Brandywine '83: Music of French America" (1984). Heritage XXXIII, Benton Flippen (The Smokey Valley Boys) - "Visits" (recorded at Tommy Jarrell's New Years Eve party, 1972). Rounder 0213, The Chicken Chokers - "Chokers and Flies" (1985). Rounder 0433, The Freight Hoppers - "Waiting on the Gravy Train." Voyager VRCD355, Eat n' Run (Howie & Lori Meltzer) - "Driving Me Crazy" (2001). Yodel-ay-hee Records 014, The New Dixie Entertainers - "Maybelle Rag."
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear Roy Hall & His Blue Ridge Entertainer's 1941 recording on youtube.com [2]
Hear Benton Flippen's version on youtube.com [3]