Annotation:Peeler Creek

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PEELER CREEK WALTZ. Old-Time, Waltz; Ireland, Mazurka. G Major ('A' part) & E Minor ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Matthiesen): AABB (Johnson, Phillips). Blind mandolinist and singer Kenny Hall learned the tune when young (c. 1930's) in Texas from a woman named Clara Desmond. An alternate title, “Feed Your Babies Onions,” is sometimes employed for the tune derived from Hall’s sung verse. The melody resembles in some parts “Temperance Reel.” The tune is occasionally played in Ireland as a Mazurka, learned from American sources. Kenny Hall sang these words to the first strain:

Put bells upon the sheep so the blind boys find them in the garden after dark,
Bells upon the sheep so the blind boys find them in the night.


Oh, feed your babies onions so you can find them in the garden after dark,
Feed your babies onions, so you can find them in the dark.

Hall explained the words were made up during the Second World War, after the Red Light district nearby was shut down. Sheep had replaced the interred Japanese gardeners to keep lawns groomed, said Hall, leading one old German factory worker to suggest the bells might be useful to those 'visually challenged' who were in need of relief.

Source for notated version: Jim Ringer via Jay Ungar (West Hurley, New York) [Matthiesen]; Ron Kane and Skip Gorman [Phillips].

Printed sources: Hall (Kenny Hall's Music Book), 1999; p. 125. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician's Occasional: Waltz, Air and Misc.), No. 1, 1991; p. 4. Matthiesen (Waltz Book II), 1995; p. 43. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2), 1995; p. 295.

Recorded sources: North Star Music, The Kells - "The Celtic Voyage" (2000). Philo 1008, "Kenny Hall" (1978). Joe Ryan - "An Buachaill Dreoite"

See also listing at:
Hear/see the tune played on youtube.com [1]

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