Template:Pagina principale/Vetrina: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:17, 4 October 2024

Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).

According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.

He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.

He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left. Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.

"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."

...more at: Elk River Blues - full Score(s) and Annotations

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{SheetMusic
-|f_track=The Kings Head.mp3
+|f_track=Elk River Blues.mp3
-|f_pdf=The Kings Head.pdf
+|f_pdf=Elk River Blues.pdf
-|f_artwork=Armstrong.jpg
+|f_artwork=Ernie Carpenter.jpg
-|f_tune_name=The King's Head
+|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
-|f_track_title=King's_Head_(1)_(The)
+|f_track_title=Elk River Blues
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://www.slippery-hill.com/source/tom-owens-wls-barn-dance-trio Tom Owens WLS Barn Dance Trio]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar Jatek Zenekar]
-|f_notes=Mrs. Sarah Armstrong
+|f_notes=Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997)
-|f_caption=Despite the story of the condemned man, the title probably has more to do with its association to the alternate titles Soldier's Joy (1) and Payday in the Army.
+|f_caption=According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life.
-|f_source=[https://www.slippery-hill.com/content/kings-head Slippery Hill]
+|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar/elk-river-blues Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[King's_Head_(1)_(The) | '''The King's Head''']]
+|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
-The King's Head was the name of many taverns in England, referred to from the 16th century on. One famous King's Head was in Southwark, an area that featured a competing establishment called The Queen's Head. Another King's Head inn at the corner of Chancery Lane, dating from the time of Edward VI, was the residence of Izaak Walton and appears in all his illustrated editions of his book The Compleat Anger, which he advertised to be "sold at his shopp in Fleet Street; under the King's Head tavern." Perhaps the oddest story connected to a King's Head establishment was regarding the tavern adjacent to Stationers Hall Court, accessed through a doorway that passersby would scarcely glance at. Through the door was "a long passage, at the end of which was a roomy tavern with quaint corners, and originally known by the sign of  the 'King's Head', at which time it was a fashionable coffee and chop-house. At the beginning of the 19th century the famous fat man, Daniel Lambert, took up his lodgings at this house, and here he held public receptions, at which visitors, for a modest fee, might look upon his fifty-two stone (728 lbs.) of human flesh. For years after Lambert had departed this life his portrait in oils hung upon the tavern walls, and his walking-stick was also preserved as a curiosity" (Hackwood, 1909). Charles Dickens (in '''Household Words''', vol. 12, 1855) writes that pleasure gardens and music halls had to be licensed in London in the last half of the 18th century, a license which had to be renewed annually at the Middlesex quarter sessions (although theatres such as Drury Lane, Covent Garden and the Opera House were exempt, as they had special crown-licenses). Not surprisingly, this limited the number of venues. Ones that were licensed were "''Saddler's Wells, which has since grown into a temple of Shakespeare; another was Bagnigge Wells; a third was Rannelagh; while others were Marybone Gardens, the Bell and the Angel at Edmonton, the King's Head at Enfield, the Long Rooms at Hampsted, White Conduit House, Islington Spa, the Adam and Eve tea-garden, the Shepherd and Shepherdess, &c. Some of these had much celebrity in their day''."
+Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
+According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.
+He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.
+Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.
+He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left.  Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.
+"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."
 }}