Annotation:Puncheon on the Floor

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PUNCHEON ON THE FLOOR. AKA – "Puncheon Floor [5]." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, western North Carolina. G Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (Phillips, Spadaro): AABB’ (Johnson). Said to resemble "Richmond Cotillion," perhaps because of the key change between strains. The title refers to the old practice of building cabin floors out of trees split down the middle and set in the ground flat side up. The reel is sourced to Dobson, North Carolina, fiddler Esker Hutchins, who learned it from an influential local fiddler, Crawley Hamlin. Hutchins was a neighbor to Frank and Oscar Jenkins and was a fiddle mentor to Benton Flippen of nearby Round Peak.

Source' for notated version': Crawley Hamlin via Esker Hutchins (North Carolina) [Phillips]; Laurie Andres [Silberberg].

Printed sources: Johnson (Kitchen Musician No. 2: Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes), 1982 (revised 1988, 2003); p. 6. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 191. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 122. Spadaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; p. 10.

Recorded sources: Alcazar Dance Series ALC-202, Sandy Bradley - "Potluck and Dance Tonite!" (1979). Field Recorder Collective FRC 107, "Elker Hutchins; Fiddle and Banjo" (1975). Heritage Records XXXIII, Esker Hutchins (Dobson, North Carolina) - "Visits" (1981. Recorded by Ray Alden in 1972; Hutchins learned from "the grand old fiddler of the Dobson area, Crawley Hamlin").

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear Lisa Ornstein play the tune and see her standard notation version [2]
Hear Esker Hutchin's recording at Slippery Hill [3]

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