Annotation:Salt Creek (1)

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SALT CREEK [1]. AKA and see “Pateroller (1),” "Salt River (2). American, Reel (cut time). A Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Salt Creek" is Kentucky mandolinist Bill Monroe's bluegrass re-titling of the older American reel "Salt River," although there are reports that his record company, Decca, was responsible for the title change as Monroe’s last single had been “Big Sandy River.” The record company, the story goes, thought that confusion from the similarity in the titles might interfere with sales so they insisted on changing ‘river’ to ‘creek’. Monroe recorded the tune in the 1963, with Bill Keith on banjo.

Alan Jabbour suggests that Monroe changed the title because “Salt Creek” was the name of a stream that ran by his Bean Blossom Festival site. He believes Monroe learned the tune from banjoist Don Stover (who knew it as “Salt River”). As “Salt River” it had been recorded for Brunswick by the Kessinger Brothers in 1929. Hobart Smith called the tune “Pateroller,” although this is not the tune that usually goes by the name of “Pateroller,” “Pateroller Song (The),” or “Run Johnny Run (1)” and variants. Drew Beisswenger (2008) points out that the names “Salt River” and “Salt Creek” are fairly interchangeable in the tradition, with bluegrass musicians tending to favor “Salt Creek.”

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Henley Dykes (1920-1995, Greene County, Mo.) [Beisswenger & McCann].

Printed sources : - Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Tunes), 2008; p. 183. Lowinger (Bluegrass Fiddle), 1974; p. 15.

Recorded sources : - Musical Traditions MTCD321-2, Dent Wimmer (et al) – “Far in the Mountains, vols. 1 & 2” (2002). Rounder FHR-017, Michael & McCreesh - "Dance, Like a Wave of the Sea" (1978).

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