Annotation:Snowbird on the Ashbank (1)

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X:1 T:Snowbird on the Ashbank [1] S:Oscar Wright (1894-1978?, Princeton, Mercer County, extreme southern W.Va.) M:C| L:1/8 D:Rounder 0089, Oscar and Eugene Wright - "Old-Time D:Fiddle And Guitar Music From West Virginia" (1978) F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/snowbird-ashbank-1 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G d2|+slide+g2 ga ged2|g2 ga ged(e|=f)efg fede|=fefg fed2| g2g2- gga_b|ag=f2 g3a|[M:5/4]gedc Bcdc A-B|[M:C|] [G,6G6]|| [DB]c|d2g2gagg|d2g2 gagg|de-=fe- fg^fe|de-=fe- fg^fe| d2g2 g2-g(a|a)_bag =f2g2-|gage dcBc A-B|[G,6G6]|| |:GE|DEGA BAGA|BBdd edBB|AF-F2 [A,3F3][A,F]-| [A,F]GAB c2 dc| A2G2G2G2|AGAB c2c2|[M:3/2]cde=f gfee dcA=F|[M:C|] [G,6G6:|

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SNOWBIRD ON THE ASHBANK [1]. AKA and see "Snowbird (2)," "Georgia Snowbird." American, Reel (cut time). G Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Brody, Phillips). A 'snowbird' is another name for a junco. The title ("Snowbird" or "Snowbird on the Ashbank") must have been evocative for it has been applied to several, often unrelated tunes in the upland South, Piedmont and Midwest. To give an idea of its distribution, the name "Snowbird on the Ashbank" appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954, and it was listed as one of the standard tunes in a square dance fiddler's repertoire by A.B. Moore in his History of Alabama, (1934)Joyce H. Cauthen, With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow, 1990). A 'Snowbird' tune was also in the repertoire of fiddler Osey Helton, western North Carolina, and a version was played by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner who remarked: "A jumping bow in the second change is popular as it emulates a misguided snowbird flitting in an ash bank, thinking it's snow".
"Snowbird on the Ashbank [1]" is sourced to fiddler Oscar Wright (1894-1978?) of Princeton, Mercer County, West Virginia, in the extreme southern part of the state, not far from the border with southwest Virginia, in the western foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Folklorist Alan Jabbour heard about him through fiddler Henry Reed (Glen Lyn, southwester Virginia), who had been a mentor to Wright and knew him well. In turn, Wright introduced Jabbour to fiddler and bagpiper Franklin George. All three musicians lived between ten and twenty miles from each other. Wright's "Snowbird on the Ashbank" is reminiscent of "Paddy on the Turnpike" with its overall modal tonality and double-tonic styling. Wright had many of Henry Reed's tunes, but this one he learned from "One Eyed Jim Bell, from over in Virginia, over on John's Creek."