Annotation:Boogerman

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BOOGERMAN (WILL GET YOU). AKA and see "Chase/Chasing the Devil Around a Stump," "Whip the Devil around the Stump." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, "Most common in North Carolina," but known throughout the Appalachians (Krassen, 1973). G Major ('A' part) & E Minor or E Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. In repertoire of Samantha Bumgarner (Asheville, N.C.), J. Dedrick Harris (Eastern Tenn.), and Osey Helton (Western N.C.) {who knew it as "Whip the Devil Around the Stump"}. Helton may have learned the tune from influential fiddler J.D. Harris, who moved to Western N.C. from Eastern Tenn. in the 1920's, and who recorded the tune on Broadway A1964 (78 RPM) in 1925. Harris called the tune "Whip the Devil Around the Stump," and it was a variant of the "Boogerman" tune. Harris, who once played regularly with Bob Taylor when he was running for Governor of Tenn. in the late 1800's, also influenced other N.C. fiddlers of Helton's generation such as Manco Sneed, Bill Hensley, and Marcus Martin. Indeed, Manco Sneed played it as "Boogerman" although Fiddling' Bill Hensley called it "Old Boogerman" (Kerry Blech says that he was recorded about 1940 on instantaneous disk saying the title emphatically. The tune was also in the repertoire of fiddler Tommy Magness (1911-1972), born in north Georgia near the southeastern Tennessee border.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; p. 30.

Recorded sources: Marimac 9033, Dirk Powell - "Wandering Ramblers."

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