Annotation:Old Dad
X:1 T:Old Dad M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Reel B:Keith’s Flute Instruction Book (Boston, 1847, p. 30) N:Published by Keith’s Music Publishing House. B:Dan Emmett – “Second Series Old Dan Emmit’s Original Banjo Melodies “ (Boston, c. 1844) F:https://www.google.com/books/edition/Keith_s_Flute_Instruction_Book/owtKAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22ledder+breeches%22+%22dan+emmit%22&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcove Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:C C|Cc G/c/A/G/|Ec/A/ G/E/D/E/|Cc G/c/A/G/|EDC E|EAG~F|EAGE|EAGG|ABc E| EAG~F|EG E|EAGF|EDC z|E A2 A/c/|B/G/B/d/ c/B/c/A/|E A2 A/c/|B/G/B/d/ c E| E A2 A/c/|B/G/B/d/ cz:| E A2 A/c/|BB/d/ c E|E A2 A/G/A/c/|B/G/B/d/ c||
OLD DAD. AKA - "Ole Dad." AKA and see "Kelton's Reel," "Pigtown Fling," "Ston(e)y Point [1]", "Stony Point Reel" (Pa. title, 1866), "Warm Stuff," "Wild Horse," "Wild Horses at Stony Point," "Buck Creek Girl," "Buck Creek Girls," "Buck Creek Gal," "Rock Creek Girls." American, Reel. C Major (Keith's): G Major (most versions). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The old-time tune "Old Dad" is related to a minstrel song that employed the melody published by wikipedia:Dan_Emmett (1815-1904) in Boston in 1844 in a collection called Old Dan Emmit's Original Banjo Melodies, Second Series as "My Old Dad". Emmett did not claim the song as his own composition and, although the words may well be his, the tune is an adaptation for the blackface minstrel stage of the well-known Scotch and Irish versions of "Miss McCloud's Reel" ("Mrs. MacLeod of Raasay") and their variants.
Krassen (1983) thought that the title "Old Dad" might have been local to Grayson County, (southwestern) Va., and while the tune may have been part of the core repertory in the area, it was also known in other regions of the country with the "Old Dad" title. A variant was entered (as "Ould Dad") into the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Bellport, Long Island, fiddler and ship-builder biography:Isaac Homan. The famous Norwegian classical violinist Ole Bull, who concertized during several tours to the United States in the mid-19th century, lent his name to the Ole Bull Violin Instruction Book; A Complete School for the Violin..., published in 1845, which contains (among the "Ethiopian Melodies") a tune called "Old Dad." Bull was known to play fiddle tunes as encores to his performances, and often featured regional pieces from his concert venues, though it is not known whether he played "Old Dad" or not. Homan's manuscript contains several blackface minstrel tunes as well, and it may be that the title "Old Dad" was originally a minstrel song.
