Annotation:Chinky Pin (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
CHINKY PIN. AKA and see "Big Muddy," "Big Town Fling," "Buffalo Nickel [1]," "Chinquapin/Chinquipin," "Darling Child," "Farmer Had a Dog," "Fourth of July," "Hair in the Butter," "I am My Mamma's Darling (Child)," "Lead Out," "Love Somebody [2]," "Midnight Serenade [1]," "Missouri Mule," "My Love is/She's But a Lassie Yet [1]," "Old Kingdom," "Richmond Blues," "Sweet Sixteen," "Ten Nights in a Bar Room," "Too Young to Marry [1]" "Yellow Eyed Cat." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was directly derived from a traditional fiddle and bagpipe piece in the British Isles, "My Love She's But a Lassie Yet," having myriad titles and variants. Chinquapins are a type of mountain chestnut, but the name also refers to its edible nuts. Clark Kessinger was the first to record the melody under the "Chinquapin" title, and played it at break-neck speed. Charles Wolfe {1997} states that the name "Chinky Pin" on the record label represents some Brunswick clerks mangling of the name of the type of chestnut called the chinquapin. Bob Palesek, however, suggests another meaning. He was informed by a friend named Art Deems, a West Virginia native, that chinky pin is a term for the company script sometimes given to miners as part of their wages. He still had some samples and lent Palesek some coins to scan, saying: "These came from Davis, West Virginia. Back in the 1920's. This is 1920 to 1938. Well really 19--, when Roosevelt came in-is when they startet to-the first year Roosevelt was in was in '32, and then in 1940 they outlawed all jinky-pin, what we called jinky-pin money. We could go to the store and change that for 80 cents cash and go the next town and spend it. But at home, when you used that in a company store, it was face value..." [Fiddle-L].
Sources for notated versions: Clark Kessinger (W.Va.) [Phillips]; Dean Johnston (1919-2007, Lamar, Barton County, Mo.), learned from his father (who called it "Love Somebody") [Beisswenger & McCann].
Printed sources: Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 74. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; p. 50.
Recorded sources: Recorded by Kanawha County, W.Va., fiddler Clark Kessinger in 1929 for Brunswick Records. County 733, "The Legend of Clark Kessinger." Rounder 0436, Dean Johnston - "Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, vol. 2: On the Springfield Plain" (2000). Voyager 340, Jim Herd - "Old Time Ozark Fiddling." See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1].