Annotation:Ivy Leaf Reel (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
IVY LEAF REEL [1]. AKA and see "Johnson's Reel (3)," "Smoky Chimney (The)." American, Reel or Clog. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The composition is among the several credited to Zeke Backus in Ryan's/Cole's 1000-he was perhaps a New England bandleader. There was a Charles Backus who was a blackface minstrel performer in the mid-1800's, who performed for some time in San Francisco. Zeke is sometimes identified with him, but whether they are the same man, or related, is unknown. George C. Coe's Album of Jigs and Reels contained the tune under the title "Johnson's Reel (3)", and was published in the United States in the 1880's at about the same time Boston publisher Elias Howe issued his Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), where the tune is called "Ivy Leaf." The melody is in O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903) as the hornpipe "Smoky Chimney." See also the related "Seán sa Ceo/Cheo." Cape Breton fiddler Winston Fitzgerlad recorded a clog (hornpipe) version of the tune, a setting that has been imitated by other Cape Breton fiddlers.
Source for notated version: Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford].
Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 45. Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 32, p. 12. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 73.
Recorded sources:
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]