According to a story told by Jim Nelson (Fiddle-L 4.1.10) a cousin of Smith’s, a fiddler by the name of Clay Smith (Fairview Heights, Ill., although originally from middle Tennessee), learned the tune from the playing of Wade Ray, a popular radio fiddler on KMOX in St. Louis in the 1930s and 40s. Clay told Nelson that he played the tune for Arthur Smith at a family get-together back in Tennessee, and that soon after that Smith recorded it for Bluebird Records. Originally “Peacock Rag” may have been a turn of the century ragtime composition which made its way into the old-time repertoire (Dr. Charles Wolfe/B. Poss). East Kentucky fiddler Ed Hayley's "Parkersburg Landing" and Mississippi musicians Narmour and Smith's "Limber Neck Blues" both have similar first strains. Some fiddlers make a point of incorporating imitations of peacock sounds into the B part of the tune
Additional notes Source for notated version : - Chubby Wise [Brody]: Gus Vandergriff (Pulaski County, Missouri) [Christeson]; Glenn Rickman (1901-1982, Hurley, Missouri) [Beisswenger & McCann].
Printed sources : - Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 112. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; p. 215. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; p. 152. Lowinger (Bluegrass Fiddle), 1974; p. 24. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2), 1995; p. 97. Silberberg (93 Tunes I Didn’t Learn at the Tractor Tavern), 2004; p. 34. Susan Songer with Clyde Curley (Portland Collection vol. 3), 2015; p. 159.
Recorded sources : - American Heritage 1, Herman Johnson - "Champion Fiddling." County 547, Arthur Smith - "Fiddlin' Arthur Smith and His Dixie-Liners, vol. 2" (1978). Folkways Records FW31007, The McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith - "Milk 'Em in the Evening Blues" (1968). Gusto 104, Chubby Wise - "30 Fiddler's Greatest Hits." Montgomery Ward 8892 (78 RPM), Arthur Smith & His Dixieliners (1940). New World NW 226, Arthur Smith - "That’s My Rabbit, My Dog Caught It: Traditional Southern Instrumental Styles" (1978).
See also listing at : Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear Arthur Smith & the Dixieliners' recording on youtube.com [3]
Hear Sammie Dyer's 1972 field recording at Berea Sound Archives [4]
