Annotation:Rat Cheese under the Hill
Back to Rat Cheese under the Hill
RAT CHEESE UNDER THE HILL. AKA and see "Pike's Peak," "Prosperity Special." Old-Time, Breakdown. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The title "Rat Cheese Under the Hill" is thought to be a corruption of "Natchez under the Hill," for which it has been occasionally used as an alternate title, however there is no melodic similarity between "Rat Cheese under the Hill" and the tune usually played as "Natchez under the Hill" (AKA "Turkey in the Straw"). West Virginia fiddler Clark Kessinger (1896-1975) recorded the reel (accompanied by his nephew Luches) in 1930 as "Rat Cheese under the hill," which reappeared as “Pike's Peak” on a 1933 78 RPM by (mandolinist Ted) Sharp, Hinman and Sharp. Kessinger’s raggy-sounding “Rat Cheese under the Hill” was recorded by Texas fiddler Bob Wills under the title “Prosperity Special,” a nod to Roosevelt's New Deal.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 127.
Recorded sources: Brunswick 458 (78 RPM), The Kessinger Brothers (1930). County 527, Sharp, Hinman and Sharp - "Old Time Fiddle Classics, vol. 2" (1973. As "Pike's Peak"). Document DOCD 8011, The Kessinger Brothers - "Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 2: 1929" (1997). Voyager VRCD 363, Gary Lee Moore - "Uncle Pig."
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
See Austin Roger's standard notation transcription of Kessinger's recording [3] [4]
Hear the Kessinger Brothers' 1930 recording on youtube.com [5]