Annotation:White River Stomp

Back to White River Stomp

---

WHITE RIVER STOMP. Canadian, American; Country Rag (4/4 time) or Set Dance. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA’B (Perlman): AA'BCC (Phillips): AA'BCD (Messer). The tune was first recorded by Jack Cawley's Oklahoma Ridge Runners for Victor Records in 1931. Cawley was originally from Texas, but moved across the border to the Oklahoma town of Bonham around 1914. It was picked up by the highly influential Canadian radio and TV fiddler Don Messer and his band, who popularized it in that Country. See also the related "Oklahoma Rag" and "Beaumont Rag" (it shares two parts with the latter tune). In fact, "Beaumont Rag" was recorded by the Texas-based Smith's Garage Fiddle Band in 1928, predating the Ridge Runner's recording. Which tune was actually composed first is unknown, but it does indicate the meldoic and rhythmic material was in ciculation in the Texas/Oklahoma area.

Source for notated version: Howard Cawley with Jack Cawley's Oklahoma Ridge Runners (Stillwater, Oklahoma) [Phillips]; Harry Lecky (b. 1929, Milburn, West Prince County, Prince Edward Island), who learned it from the radio in the 1940’s, probably, says Perlman, from the playing of Don Messer [Perlman].

Printed sources: Messer (Way Down East), 1948; No. 97. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 179, p. 124. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 149. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2), 1995; p. 167.

Recorded sources: Apex 26286 (78 RPM), Don Messer (1945). Marimac 9111, Jack Cawley's Oklahoma Ridge Runners "Goin' Up Town: Old Time String Bands, vol. 2" (originally recorded in 1931). Rounder CD7014, Harry Lecky – “Fiddlers of Western Prince Edward Island” (1997). Victor 23521 (78 RPM), Jack Cawley's Oklahoma Ridge Runners (1931).

See also listing at:
Hear Don Messer's recording on youtube.com [1]
Hear Patty Kusturok play the tune on youtube.com [2] and Calvin Vollrath's version [3]
Hear Jack Cawley's Oklahoma Ridge Runners 1931 recording at Slippery Hill [4]
See another standard-notation transcription [5]

---