Big Mule (The)

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BIG MULE, THE. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BCC'. Jeff Titon (2001) identifies this melody as in the same family of tunes as "Old Dubuque" (that also includes the tunes "Duck River," "Fiddling Phil," "Five Miles From Town (2)," "General Lee," "Phiddlin' Phil" and "Sally in the Green Corn.") Tom Verdot believes this family may have been derived from an 1840's minstrel tune called "Coonie in the Holler" Titon says a less closely related tune is Milo Bigger's (Glasgow, Kentucky) "Scott's Return." "Big Mule" was also in the repertoire of Kentucky fiddler Street Butler, who said his source was a man named Charley Latham. The melody features a 'crooked' or irregularly measured 'B' part.

Source for notated version: a field recording by Bruce Greene of the playing of W. L. "Jake" Phelps (Elkton, Todd County, Ky., 1973) [Titon].

Printed source: Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 6, p. 37.

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