Annotation:Rocky Mountain Goat

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X:1 T:Rocky Mountain Goat S:Ted Gossett (1904-1990, Muhlenberg County, western Ky.) M:C| L:1/8 D:Spr 2731 (78 RPM), Buddy Young’s Kentuckians (Sept., 1930) N:Buddy Young's Kentuckians was a pseudonym for Ted Gossett's band. Z:Andrew Kuntz K:C F|:JG2e^d efed|A2 fe fgfe|G2e^d efec|dcBA GFED| C2e^d efed|A2 fe fgfd|efge dBdf|1ec>c c2z:|2 ec>c c2ED|| CDEF G2AB|c2 ec dcAG|F2F2E2E2|D2 DE DCA,B,| CDEF G2AB|c2 ec dcAG|F2F2E2E2|1A,B,CD C2ED:|2 A,B,CD C3||

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. AKA and see "Railroading through the Rocky Mountains," "Damon's Window/Damon's Winder," “Devil in Georgia (2) (The),” "Drunken Billy Goat," “Grand Hornpipe (1),” "Mud Fence,” “Ride the Goat over the Mountains,” and “Swiss Chalet." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Texas, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The first part of this piece resembles "The Jenny Lind Polka," while the second part is similar to the second of an untitled Pennsylvania-collected reel in Bayard (1981; No. 356). At least one version is well-known as a West Virginia tune, while Charles Wolfe (1983) states it was a popular Kentucky tune. It was in fact recorded by a number of Kentucky fiddlers, including Jilson Setters (AKA Blind Bill Day), Ted Gossett, Charlie Wilson. and Cliff Gross. It was recorded for Paramount in 1927 by Doc Roberts and his band the Kentucky Thoroughbreds (with "Dick" Parman and "Ted" Chestnut), and later redone by him for Gennett (1929). Roberts claimed to have learned the tune from "an 80 year old fiddler named Dude Freeman from Beattieville on the Kentucky River. 'Daddy (says his son James Roberts) claimed Dude was one of the best hornpipe players he ever heard in his life--Daddy ran into him at a fiddle contest when he was young'" (Charles Wolfe).

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - Ardell Christopher (El Paso, Texas) [Christeson]: John Ashby (Virginia) [Brody].

Printed sources : - R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; p. 66. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; p. 233.

Recorded sources: - County 745, John Ashby - "Down on Ashby's Farm." County 412, Doc Roberts - "Fiddling Doc Roberts" (1983). Gennett 6942 (78 RPM), Doc Roberts. Rounder 0018, Mose Coffman - "Shaking Down the Acorns." Spr 2731 (78 RPM), Buddy Young’s Kentuckians (Sept., 1930. The group name was an alias for Ted Gossett’s band, from western Kentucky).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]