Annotation:Dill Pickle Rag
Tune properties and standard notation
DILL PICKLE RAG. AKA - "Dill Pickles." Texas Style, Old-Time; Country Rag. USA; Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri. G Major ('A' and 'B' parts) & C Major ('C' part): sometimes then goes to F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Silberberg): AABBCCAA (Brody): AA'BB'AA'CAA'BB'AA'C'AA' (Phillips). A novelty rag composed in 1907 by Kansas City native and resident Charles L. Johnson (1876-1950), an African-American publisher and composer (under his own name and aliases), especially of cakewalk and ragtime pieces. The popular melody found its way into the old-time repertoire. The title appears in a list of "traditional" Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
"Dill Pickle" was learned by itinerant West Virginia fiddler John Johnson (1916-1996), originally from Clay County, from fiddler Dorvel Hill who lived in a coal-mining town called Pigtown, not far from the town of Clay, W.Va.
I was bashful back then and wouldn't go in anybody's house hardly. I'd sit on the railroad and listen to Dorvel play the fiddle at night. And I learned most all of Dorvel's tunes. I just set down there and listened to all his tunes and then go home and play them. (Michael Kline, Mountains of Music, John Lilly ed. 1999).
Source for notated version: Lewis Franklin (Texas) [Phillips].
Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 86. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; pp. 40-41. Silberberg (93 Fiddle Tunes I Didn't Learn at the Tractor Tavern), 2004; p. 12.
Recorded sources: Brunswick 243 (78 RPM) {1928}, Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters (Nashville, Tenn.). Brunswick Records (78 RPM), Kessinger Brothers (1929). Caney Mountain Records DEP 211 (privately issued extended play LP), Lonnie Robertson (Mo.), c. 1965-66. County 548, McLaughlin's Old Time Melody Makers - "Ridin' in an Old Model 'T'". County 707, Lewis Franklin- "Texas Fiddle Favorites." Fiddler FRLP 001, Tom Doucet (Nova Scotia/eastern Mass.) - "The Down East Star." Folkways FA 2337, Clark Kessinger- "Live At Union Grove." Folkways FA 2371, Roger Sprung- "Ragtime Bluegrass 2." June Appal 028, Wry Staw - "From Earth to Heaven" (1978). RBF 18, Kessinger Brothers- "Ragtime 2." Rounder 0002, Spark Gap Wonder Boys- "Cluck Old Hen." Rounder 0099, Dan Crary- "Lady's Fancy." See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [].