Annotation:Old Granny Rattle-Trap (1)

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OLD GRANNY RATTLE-TRAP [1]. AKA and see "Granny Will Your Dog Bite? (1)" Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Tennessee, Arkansas. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountian fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Z"Old Granny Rattle-Trap" was recorded by Vocalion in 1924 by Ambrose Gaines "Uncle Am" Stuart [1] (1853–1926, Morristown, Tenn.).

Uncle Am Stuart, helping to sell war bonds during World War I.

Stuart was aged 73 at the time he recorded (traveling to New York to do so), and was the district manager for a local burglarproof lock company. He had learned his music in the Civil War era and was well-known as a dance fiddler who occasionally played with Charlie Bowman and the Hill Billies. His job apparently left him well off; enough so, remarked Hill Billies member Tony Alderman, that he would occasionally "come out on stage at the end of a show and ask the audience if they knew of someone who loved their kind of music but was too sick or poor to attend the show. If anyone identified such a person, Uncle Am would hand over all the money he earned that night to give to that person..." [Bob L. Cox, Fiddlin' Charlie Bowman: An East Tennessee Old-time Music Pioneer, 2007). Uncle Am's brother was a renowned Nashville evangelist minister, Rev. George R. Stuart.

"Old Granny Rattle-Trap" was also recorded for the Library of Congress (9494A2) in 1949 from the playing of Bascon Lamar Lunsford, who sang:

Old Granny Rattletrap, what's you doin' there?
Runnin' through the cotton patch hard as I can tear.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Vocalion 5048/Brunswick 1005 (78 RPM), Uncle Am Stuart (1924).

See also listing at:
Hear Am Stuart's 1924 recording at Honking Duck [2] (note plectrum banjo accompaniment).

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