Annotation:Shippensport

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X:1 T:Shippin' Sport S:Doc Roberts (1897-1978, Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel Q:"Quick" D:Gennett 6689 (78 RPM), Fiddlin' Doc Roberts (1929) F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/shippensport-0 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G ef|"*$"g2 ef e2d2|BAGB AG[G2B2]|gfga gedg|ea2^g a2f2| gfga gedg|dBAG BGEF|GFGE DEGA|BGAF G2:| |:AB|c2c2 BAGB|AGBG AGEF|GFGE DEGA|BGBG A2G2| "**"c2c2 BAGB|AGBG AGEF|GFGE DEGA|BGAF G2:| P:Substitutions "*"g2 (f/g/f) e2d2||"or $"gfga gedg|edBG A2[G2B2]|]"**"c2 ec Bcdc|BAGB AGEF|]

SHIPPENSPORT. AKA – “Shippinport,” “Shipping Port,” “Shippingport” AKA and see “Blackbird Says (to the Crow).” American, Reel (cut or 2/4 time). USA, eastern Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Titon): AABBCC (Phillips). Shippensport or Wikipedia:Shippingport,_Kentucky was a small town in the northeast part of the state (now absorbed by the city of Louisville), located at the foot of the Louisville and Portland Canal. Falls were once present on the Ohio River at that location, requiring in former times the removal of goods from river craft that then had to portage the falls. A town grew up around the falls, Shippingport, catering to the river boat traffic between the upper and lower Ohio River, including a number of taverns, one of which was run by the Kentucky giant, wikipedia:Jim_Porter_(giant) (1811-1859). Eventually a dam was built with locks for river traffic, and that, along with the construction of the canal, obviated the strenuous and time-consuming chore of portage, although it destroyed the livelihood of the community. All that remains of Shippingport today is in the name of nearby Shippingport Island.

The tune is sometimes played as a two-part tune (see Doc Roberts and John Master’s versions). See the Irish reel "Greenfields of America (1)" which is related in the low part, as is Uncle Pen Vandiver's "Poor White Folks" and Samual Bayard's "Old Mother Flanagan (Bayard, No. 265). The melody was known to African-American fiddler Cuje Bertram as “Blackbird Says to the Crow.”

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Jimmy Johnson String Band (featuring fiddler Andy Palmer, born in 1881, Anderson County, Kentucky) and James Bryan (Alabama) [Phillips]; John Masters (1904-1986, Lexington, Fayette County, Ky., c. mid-1970’s), who said he had learned the tune from African-American fiddler biography:Jim Booker [Titon].

Printed sources : - Stephen F. Davis (The Devil's Box), vol. 29, No. 2, Summer 1995; p. 15. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 220. Titon (Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 149, p. 174.

Recorded sources : - Augusta Heritage Records AHR 017, Burl Hammons – “Old Time Music of Pocahontas County” (1995). Document DOCD-8042, Doc Roberts – “Doc Roberts: Complete Works in Chronological Order” (1999). Fretless FR 160, The Double Decker String Band "Sentimental Songs and Old Time Melodies" (1981. Learned from Doc Roberts). Gennett 6689 (78 RPM), Doc Roberts (Ky. Mistakenly spelled "Shippin' Sport" on the lable. Asa Martin played guitar on the August, 1928, recording, issued by Gennett in Jan., 1929). Rounder 0215, James Bryan "The First of May." Reed Island Rounders – “Goin’ Home” (2002).

See also listing at :
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Soures [1]
Hear John Master's c. 1975 field recording by John Harrod at Slippery Hill [2] and Berea Sound Archives [3]
Hear Burl Hammon's recording at Slippery Hill [4]
Hear Doc Roberts 1929 recording at Slippery Hill [5]
Hear north-central Ky. fiddler Kelly Gilbert's 1978 field recording at Berea Sound Archives [6]

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