Annotation:Up the River

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UP THE RIVER. AKA and see “Rolling off a Log (1).” American, Jig. USA, Maine. G Major (‘A’ part) & D Major (‘B’ part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Perhaps the title was miss-remembered, for the melody is “Rolling off a Log,” found in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883), albeit in a different key. The jig is sourced to Otto Soper of Orland, Maine, "a fine old time player of the piano, fiddle and C-melody saxophone," whose own father was a fiddler and dance caller. The Maine dance band Old Grey Goose (Bob Childs, Doug Protsik, Sutart McConnell, Jeff McKeen) learned the tune from Soper and recorded it on their 1980 Folkways album.

Source for notated version: Creighton Lindsay (Portland, Oregon), who told Susan Songer (Portland Collection) she learned the tune while living in Maine [Songer].

Printed sources: Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 205.

Recorded sources: Folkways FD 6530, Old Grey Goose - "Maine Country Dance Music and Song" (1980).