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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=Ricketts Hornpipe.mp3
+|f_track=Elk River Blues.mp3
-|f_pdf=Ricketts Hornpipe.pdf
+|f_pdf=Elk River Blues.pdf
-|f_artwork=Rickettscircus.jpg
+|f_artwork=Ernie Carpenter.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Rickett's Hornpipe
+|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
-|f_track_title=Rickett's Hornpipe
+|f_track_title=Elk River Blues
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/kevinroth-music Kevin Roth]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar Jatek Zenekar]
-|f_notes=Rickett's Circus, Philadelphia, on the corner of Market and 12th St.
+|f_notes=Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997)
-|f_caption=The particular Rickett honored in the title was a circus promoter, one John Bill Ricketts (1769-1800), a Scottish immigrant who came from England in 1792 and flourished in America through the 1790's until his Philadelphia enterprise was destroyed in a fire on Dec. 17, 1799.
+|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://soundcloud.com/kevinroth-music/ricketts-hornpipe]
+|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar/elk-river-blues Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[Rickett's Hornpipe | '''Rickett's Hornpipe''']]
+|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
-The earliest appearance of the melody is in Alexander McGlashan's Edinburgh-published '''Collection of Scots Measures''' of 1781, with the title Danced by Aldridge, a reference to the great Irish-born dancer of the late 18th century Robert Aldridge (see note for "[[annotation:Aldridge's Hornpipe (1)|Aldridge's Hornpipe]]").
+Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
-Unfortunately, McGlashan's 3rd measure in the first strain is garbled, and the fourth measure is missing altogether in the printed version (making the first strain only seven measures long).
+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.
-The tune was popular in Britain under a few titles, chiefly Manchester Hornpipe and Yarmouth Hornpipe.  Imported to America, it became a very popular melody in all regions and genres; in the Appalachians it was one of the imported hornpipe tunes that survived relatively intact, and was only slightly less common among fiddlers than [[Fisher's Hornpipe]], which is easier to play.
+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.
-In the South the tune lost all connections with the hornpipe dance, and is often played at the same pace as a breakdown. Not everywhere, however, for as Mike Yates (2002) remarks, “the tune was actually more popular in the northern cities and is one of the few tunes that is played in the south as a hornpipe.”
+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.
-Collector Samuel Bayard (1981) agreed that the hornpipe was an "exceedingly well-known" piece whose title was almost invariably the same, and he found it as popular among fifers in his collecting region (southwestern Pennsylvania) it was with fiddlers.
+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.
-Rickett's Hornpipe was also popular with northeastern U.S. fiddlers, notes Bronner (1987), who writes that by the 1850's it was a common selection for fiddle-tune collections. It retained its popularity into the 20th century and was cited as having frequently been played for country dances in Orange County, New York, in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, '''New York Folklore Quarterly''').
+"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."
 }}