Annotation:Flannery's Dream
X:1 T:Flannery's Dream N:From the playing of Spaw's Creek, near West Liberty Morgan County, east N:Kentucky, fiddler and banjo player Santford Kelly (1898-1973), N:recorded in the field by John Harrod. M:C| L:1/8 Q:"Quick" R:Reel D:https://soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/3817 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:Ador V:1 clef=treble name="1." [V:1] +slide+[A2A2][A2A2]||SAGED CEDC|A,G,A,C A,2[A,E][A,E]|([EA]G)E-D CEDC|A,G,[A,E][A,E] [A,2E2][A,E][A,E]| ([EA]G)E-D CEDC|A,G,[A,E]-[CE] [A,2E2][A,E][A,E]|([EA]G)E-D CEDG|E+slide+[A2A2][AA] [A2A2][AA]A| AGED CEDC|A,G,A,C [A,3E3][A,E] [A,2E2]||[A2A2]-|[AA]A[A=c]-[A^c][A2A2][A2^c2]|[M:5/4]A([A2^c2]d) [d2e2]-[e4e4]| +slide+[e4e4] +slide+[e4e4] ([de][^ce]) A2 GB|[M:3/2]A-^c2-d[e2e2]([ee]d) =c-AG-A|[M:C|] [A2A2][AA][AA] [A2A2][GA]-| [A3A3][A=c]-[A2d2]+slide+[e2e2]-|[M:5/4][ee]d e2 a3a- ab |[M:C|]a2g2e2d2|=cAGc A2 ABS||
FLANNERY'S DREAM. AKA - "Son of Hober." American, Reel (cut time). A Minor/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). There are several variants of "Flannery's Dream, variously more or less distanced from one another, played by east Kentucky fiddlers, sometimes under the title "Flander's Dream" (although there are also different tunes by that name, one in the key of 'C') or "Flandery's Dream." Warner Walton tells the (rather apocryphal) story that Flannery was a Revolutionary War fiddler who was under a sentence of death. The commanding officer, knowing he could play, agreed to set him free if Flannery could play him a tune he hadn't heard. Flannery dreamt this tune the night before his scheduled execution. John Hartford pointed out that Flannery may have been a Civil War figure rather than a Revolutionary War soldier, and, in any case, the story is quite similar to one told about West Virginia's Solly Carpenter (see note for "annotation:Camp Chase (2)"). Hartford notes the Flannery family is a large and old one from Elliott County, Kentucky. Another common story attached to the tune (and told by Alva Greene, for one) is that a man named Flannery dreamed this tune and won a contest with it (Hartford, 1996). Bluegrass multi-instumentalist Ricky Skaggs recorded a version called "Son of Hober," however, the tune has currency among bluegrass musicians as "Flannery's Dream," apparently popularized by Skaggs. Alva Greene's version is recognizable as a precursor to the bluegrass version.
Spaw Creek, Morgan County, east Kentucky, fiddler Santford Kelly (1898-1973) was recorded by Peter Hoover playing the tune when the fiddler was in his 60's, but still playing strongly. His version, albeit rather 'crooked' (irregularly metered), has become the most influential of the many versions of the tune.
