Annotation:Bunch of Keys (2)

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BUNCH OF KEYS [2]. AKA - "Old Bunch of Keys." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA. A Mixolydian (A). AEae, ADae, or Standard tunings (fiddle). AB (O.T.H.): AABB (Brody). Learned by Mt. Airy, N.C., fiddler Tommy Jarrell (who was partly responsible for popularizing the tune) "Up on the mountain (near Fancy Gap, Va.) from my daddy-in-law (Charlie Barnett Lowe), an' John Rector, an' Fred Hawkes, an' some of 'em...Well, we'd go on the high part twice, y'know, but we played the low part a long time 'fore we'd go to the high part. We'd just keep playin' the (low part) til one of us wanted to change an' them we'd punch a knee. We'd sit (facing each other) with our knees together. An then if I took a notion to go on the high part, all I had to do is (bump knees), an' if he did, why, he'd do the same thing to me. An' we knowed exactly what the other one was gonna do thataway. In place of raising the fiddle up, that's what we'd do, y'know. Course when Lawrence (Lowe) got to playing with us, we couldn't do that, we had to raise my fiddle up when we'd go to go on the high part. Uncle Charlie and Daddy both (signaled by raising the fiddle) all the time. That's when I knowed when they was a-gonna change, y'know. They played like that, played the low part of it maybe over half a dozen or a dozen times 'fore they'd play the high part, an' just go over the high part twice" (Old Time Herald, vol. 3, No. 2, Winter 91-92, p. 46). "Brushy Fork of John's Creek (2)" is a related melody.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 59. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; p. 9.

Recorded sources: Chubby Dragon CD1008, Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky et al - "Mountairy.usa" (2001). County 713, Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins- "Down to the Cider Mill" (1968). Heritage XXIV, Tommy Jarrell - "Music of North Carolina" (Brandywine, 1978). Rounder 0040, "Pickin' Around the Cookstove." See also Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index [1].