Annotation:Up the River

Back to Up the River

UP THE RIVER. AKA and see “Rolling off a Log (1)," "Set canadien de Québec 1ère partie.” American, Jig. USA, Maine. G Major (‘A’ part) & D Major (‘B’ part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Perhaps the title was miss-remembered, for the melody is “Rolling off a Log,” found in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883), albeit in a different key. This version, "Up the River", is sourced to Otto Soper of Orland, Maine, "a fine old time player of the piano, fiddle and C-melody saxophone," whose own father was a fiddler and dance caller. The Maine dance band Old Grey Goose (Bob Childs, Doug Protsik, Sutart McConnell, Jeff McKeen) learned the tune from Soper and recorded it on their 1980 Folkways album. The piece was recorded in Montreal in 1928 by fiddler A.J. Boulay (1883-1948) with square dance calls (in English) under the title "Set canadien de Québec 1ère partie."

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - Creighton Lindsay (Portland, Oregon), who told Susan Songer (Portland Collection) she learned the tune while living in Maine [Songer].

Printed sources : - Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 205.

Recorded sources: -Folkways FD 6530, Old Grey Goose - "Maine Country Dance Music and Song" (1980).

Back to Up the River