DUNBAR. American, Reel. USA, Kentucky. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Titon): AABB (Songer). Mark Wilson and Guthrie Meade (1976) remark that this tune is related to "Billy in the Lowground (1)", although it appears to have been a regional tune, perhaps, as its name suggests, from the area around Dunbar, West Virginia, near Charleston. "Dunbar" is one of several tunes regionally influential fiddler Ed Haley named for places he played, perhaps (as his son Lawrence suggested) because people there liked that particular tune[1]. Jeff Titon (2001) remarks that he knows of no other source musician who played the melody besides the regionally influential fiddler Ed Haley [1] (1885-1951), of Ashland, Ky. Ed Haley Originally, the name Dunbar was a Gaelic term meaning 'the fort on the hilltop'.
Additional notes Source for notated version : - Ed Haley (1883-1951, Ashland, Boyd County, Ky., 1946) [Milliner & Koken, Titon]; Bruce Schwarz (Ketchikan, Alaska) [Songer].
Printed sources : - Milliner & Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes), 2011; p. 178. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 68. Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 36, p. 69.
Recorded sources : - Rounder 1010, Ed Haley - "Parkersburg Landing" (1976).
See also listing at : Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: [2]
Hear Ed Haley playing the tune at Slippery Hill [3]
