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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

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 {{SheetMusic
-|f_track=Gilderoy.mp3
+|f_track=Elk River Blues.mp3
-|f_pdf=Guilderoy.pdf
+|f_pdf=Elk River Blues.pdf
-|f_artwork=Jacobite_broadside_-_Gilder_Roy_in_his_genuine_Highland_Garb.jpg
+|f_artwork=Ernie Carpenter.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Guilderoy
+|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
-|f_track_title=Gilderoy_(2)
+|f_track_title=Elk River Blues
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/robmackillop Rob MacKillop]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar Jatek Zenekar]
-|f_notes= Historically, Gilleruadh was the nickname of a famous Scottish highwayman named Patrick McGregor who was captured and executed in 1636.
+|f_notes=Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997)
-|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/robmackillop/21gilderoy Soundcloud]
+|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/jatek-zenekar/elk-river-blues Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[Gilderoy_(2) | '''Guilderoy''']]
+|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
-The Scots national poet, Robert Burns, set one of his early lyrics to it, called "From Thee, Eliza." Macfarlane, in his 'Studies' claimed this tune, among others, was a Gaelic melody, and postulated that an analysis of airs for alteration of musical accent and the introduction of what he termed 'slurs' could detect which tunes had been originally Gaelic but were altered to fit English lyrics.
+Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
-Bayard (1981), Cazden (et al, 1982) and others have long determined that 'Guilderoy', in both vocal and instrumental settings, stems from the protean 'Lazarus' air (see also "Bonaparte's Retreat"), and numbers among one of the half-dozen or so most extensively used melodies in the entire English-speaking folk tune repertory (see JWFSS, I, 142).
+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.
-Elaborates Bayard: "This melody is one of several which provide some index of the extent to which the local tradition is independent of commerical printed collections of fiddle tunes. Bub Yaugher's (Pennsylvania-collected) variant represents the version in which 'Guilderoy' seems always to be known in western Pennsylvania—distinctive in melodic outling, and invariable played in the mixolydian mode.
+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.
-As might be expected the tune is not always known under this name, which is, however, the one most often attached to it. The mixolydian version of 'Gilderoy' is undoubtedly Irish: the editor has repeatedly heard it performed by Irish fiddlers in Massachusetts, and they have always played this version, in variants rather close to the Pennsylvania sets.
+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.
-The printed collections, on the other hand, nearly always give the tune in dorian or aeolian tonality, which corresponds to the tonality of its well known (English and) Scottish versions.
+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."
 }}