Annotation:Raw Recruit (1)
Back to Raw Recruit (1)
RAW RECRUIT. AKA and see “Chapel Hill Serenade,” "Coleman Killed His Wife,” "Green Willis (1)(the Raw Recruit)," "New Rigged Ship (1) (The)," “Old Hickory.” American, March (6/8 time). USA; southwestern Pa., Michigan, Missouri. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Bayard, Christeson): AABB (Sweet). Samuel Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife, 1981) calls it an "extraordinarily well-known" tune, both as a fife and fiddle piece, though primarily known to fifers in southwestern Pa. Paul Gifford finds a version of the melody in northern Michigan used for the ditty “Old Lady in the Haymow,” with ribald lyrics, and he thinks that it is probably the “Two-Step Quadrille” recorded for Gennett Records (and Silvertone) by Tommy Dandurand in 1927. Missouri fiddler Art Galbraith recorded the song under the title “Charley over the Water.”
Source for notated version: eight southwestern Pa. fifers [Bayard]; Uncle William Raines (Morgan County, Mo.) [Christeson].
Printed sources: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 588A-H, pp. 517-519. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; No. 177, p. 128 (appears as an untitled quadrille). Sweet (Fifers’ Delight), 1965/1981; p. 21.
Recorded sources: Front Hall Records FHR-023, Michael, McCreesh & Campbell - "The Host of the Air" (1980).