Annotation:Silver Lake (6)
X:1 T:Silver Lake [6] N:From the playing of Emory Bailey (Shock, Calhoun County, W.Va.), N:recorded in the field in 1953 by Malvin Artley. N:Basically AB form, each section 8 measures long--sometimes N:Bailey played the 'B' part 12 measures. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel N:AEad tuning (fiddle) Q:" Quick" D:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/silver-lake K:D A-B(AB d4)|fded Bd3|A2-B2d2de|fdec d2dB-| A2A-Bd2 de|fded BcdB|AFAB d2de|fdecd4|| +slide+[A4A4]AGFG|+slide+[A4A4][A,4D4]|(FGA)B AGFE|DFED B,D(DF| A3)B AGFG|A2BA FEFG|A2 AB AGFE|DFED FD2F| A4+slide+A2FG|A2A2 D2FG|A2AB AGFE|DFED FD3||
SILVER LAKE [6]. American, Reel (cut time). AEad tuning (fiddle). AB. "Silver Lake [6]" is from the playing of Shock, Calhoun County, W.Va., fiddler Emery Bailey (1896-1960), whose name is sometimes given as 'Emory'. Fiddler Paul Kirk notes that the spelling on his gravestone is 'Emery', however. He was one of twelve children born to Winfield Bailey and Elizabeth Hicks, and married Blanche Goodrich on April 30, 1922. They had eleven children and Blanche (1903-2000) outlived him by forty years. One of researcher Brandon Ray Kirk's informants, a man named Brooks Hardway, knew Bailey and compared him to the regional fiddle powerhouse Ed Haley: "[Emery] wasn't as good as Ed Haley by no means. Ed Haley was far ahead of everybody at that day and time. But Emery Bailey was one among the best of the fiddlers in Calhoun-Braxton-Clay-Gilmer Counties...Old Sol Carpenter's favorite was Emery Baily. He was fifty years ahed of his time"[1].
Emery Bailey was fifty years ahead of his time in what he could do with a bow on a fiddle. They had a contest at Sutton one time, old-time fiddler's contest, and Emery went...When Emery come back, I asked him, "What did you do in the contest?"
Emery said, "Upon my honor, Brooks, they didn't let me play." He said, "They wouldn't let me enter the contest."
I said, "Did you play a tune or two for 'em Emery?"
Emery sai, "Yea."
I said, "What did you play?"
He said, "Upon my honor, I fiddled 'Sally Gooden', Brooks." I said, "Whey didn't they let you play?"
He said, "They couldn't call my way old-time fiddlin'."
I said, "What was wrong?"
He said, "I think I's a-puttin' too much diddle on the bow." Now, Emery's a-layin' the leather to "Sally Goodin." I'd give anything on earth if I had a tape of that tune that he played that day."[2]
Bailey tuned his fiddle for his "Silver Lake" in AEad (low to high), sometimes called "Old Sledge tuning" after another piece played in the same tuning. His "Silver Lake" is also reminiscent of "Sally Goodin" and some of his cadence measures are quite similar.