Annotation:Whiskers (1)
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WHISKERS [1]. AKA and see “Devil's Ball (The),” "Steve's Rag,” “Taney County Special.” Old Time, Country Rag. USA; Missouri, Alabama. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Beisswenger & McCann): AA'BB' (Phillips). Related to "Stone's Rag." Ragtime composer Percy Wenrich (born Joplin, Mo.) is said to have based his hit “Peaches and Cream Rag” in part on this tune. Beisswenger (2008) could find no published work by this name, and speculates that it may have been a precursor tune to the mature ragtime genre of the 1890’s, in oral circulation in the latter part of the century. Mark Wilson sees similarities to “Salty Dog Blues,” while Guthrie Meade links it to “Stone's Rag” and “Alabama Jubilee.”
Sources for notated versions: Art Galbraith (Springfield, Mo.) [Phillips]; Lacey Hartje (b. 1926, Joplin, Mo.) [Beisswenger & McCann].
Printed sources: Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 52. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2), 1995; p. 165.
Recorded sources: Decca 5049 (78 RPM), Stripling Brothers (Alabama) {1934}. Rounder 0157, Art Galbraith - "Simple Pleasures." Rounder 0436, Lacey Hartje – “Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, Vol. 2: On the Springfield Plain” (2000). Train on the Island Records TI 12, Bob Bovee and Gail Heil "For Old Time's Sake" {learned from Bob Holt (Ava, Mo.)}.
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]