Annotation:Number Nine

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NUMBER NINE. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB (Titon): AABB (Thede). The title refers to an engine of that number on the Rock Island Railroad in use in the 1870's, speculates Marion Thede. A tune by this title was remembered by Alva Greene (1894-1976) of Elliot County, Kentucky, as being one of regionally influential, blind, northeast Kentucky fiddler Ed Haley's big numbers. "Number Nine" was also recorded by Earl Collins, originally from Oklahoma.

Sources for notated versions: Earl Perkins (Tulsa County, Oklahoma; who said the tune originated between 1870 and 1880 in Missouri) [Thede]; Alva Greene (1894-1976, Sandy Hook, Elliot County, Ky., 1973), who said he learned it from his father [Titon].

Printed sources: Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; p. 47. Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 110, p. 139.

Recorded sources: Briar 4204, Earl Collins - "That's Earl: Collins Family Fiddling" (1975). County 2714, Brad Leftwich - "Say Old Man" (1996).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear Alva Greene playing the tune in a 1973 field recording by Kevin Delaney at the Digital Library of Appalachia [2] and at Berea Digital Content [3]