Annotation:California Blues
Tune properties and standard notation
CALIFORNIA BLUES. Old-Time, Country Blues. USA, Alabama. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Composed by Alabama fiddler Charles Stripling and recorded in New Orleans for Decca in 1936. The name California was given to the land on the Pacific coast of North America, supposedly by Cortez, who officially called it Santa Cruz. Cortez mistakenly thought the rather parched bit of real estate was an island (i.e. Baja California) and he and his men began to refer to it as California after a Spanish romance book about an island populated by women. When Charlie's son Robert asked him why he had named the tune "California Blues," seeing as how his father had never been to California, the fiddler replied "Son, you gotta call it something" (courtesy Kerry Blech).
Source for notated version: Charlie Stripling (Ala.) [Phillips].
Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 27.
Recorded sources: Chubby Dragon CD1008, Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky et al - "Mountairy.usa" (2001). Document DOCD-8008, "The Stripling Brothers vol 2 1934- 1936." Decca 5246 (78 RPM), The Stripling Brothers (1936).