Annotation:Raleigh and Spencer
X:1 T:Raleigh and Spencer S:Tommy Jarrell M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Air N:DDad tuning Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:Ddor Ac||d2d4{c}d2| +slide+c3c A2c2|d2d3c Ac| d2-dc AGFG| AG[A3A3][GA]-[A2A2]|+slide+c3c AG +slide+F2|D6 D2|D2D2-DGFG | [A2A2][A3A3]G[A2A2]|+slide+c3c AG +slide+F2|D6 D2|D2[A2A2][AA]G Ac|| d2{c}d3d dA|c3c A2 GA|d2 d3c Ac|d3c AGFG| [A2A2][A3A3]G[A2A2]|+slide+c3c AG +slide+F2|D4- DD D2|[A3A3]G FG | [AA][AA][A3A3] G[A2A2]|+slide+c3c AG +slide+F2|D6D2|D4||
RALEIGH AND SPENCER. AKA and see - Riley and Spencer, Rylan Spencer, Ryland Spencer. Old-Time, Song Air. USA; western North Carolina, southwestern Virginia. D Major. Standard or DDad tunings (fiddle). One part. This tune was learned in the early 1920's by source Tommy Jarrell from his brother-in-law, guitarist Jim Gardner, who learned it from a black guitarist named Jim Raleigh or Rawley, 1900-1982). The tune had some currency among white musicians, especially guitarists, in the Galax (Va.)/Mt. Airy (N.C.) region. There are two towns in North Carolina, Raleigh and Spencer, however, the tune may refer to a defunct rail line named Raleigh and Spencer that ran in central North Carolina, absorbed by the Southern Railway Company. In fact, the town of Spencer (incorporated 1905), North Carolina, was the location of a rail hub with extensive rail facilities (the Spencer Shops) and a large roundhouse, once the Southern Railway Company's largest steam locomotive facility. The Raleigh was also the name of one of the first steam locomotives in the region, built in 1836. The lyrics may refer to a barrel house (a make-shift bar fashioned of boards on top of barrels) or similar establishment along the line, perhaps in the town of Spencer.
So old Raleigh and Spencer's done and gone dry
Cause there ain't no more whiskey in this town
No, there ain't no whiskey in this town.
I can eat more chicken than a pretty girl can fry
And I'll tell her all them doggone lies
Yes, I'll tell her all them doggone lies.
You can tromp down them flowers all round my grave
But they'll rise and bloom again
Yes, they'll rise and bloom again. ..... (Tommy Jarrell)
Credible sources also attribute the song to Galax, Va., area musician Fields Ward who titled it "Riley and Spencer." Mike Seegera says Ward learned this piece from a black musician in West Virginia near the two small towns of Riley and Spencer in that state. Title for the tune also appear as "Rylan (or Ryland) Spencer." Tommy Jarrell corrected the spelling to "Raleigh and Spencer", towns named for two of the powerful families from Wessex, England, who settled the area), and Jarrell speculated that the name Rylan Spenser may have referred to a bootlegger. Cecilia Conway, in African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia (1995) writes that the song may have a banjo tradition, as a related variant called "Reno Factory," was learned by African-American Marvin Fodrell (Stuart, Patrick County, Virginia), who himself learned the tune from his banjo-playing father, Posey.
