Annotation:Sweet Bunch of Daisies (3)

SWEET BUNCH OF DAISIES [3]. American, Waltz (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "Sweet Bunch of Daisies [3]" is an 'art song' written and composed by Anita Owen and published in 1894; it proved popular and was absorbed into fiddling tradition where it was adapted and reshaped. An early 78 RPM recording was made in San Antonio, Texas, in June, 1930, for OKeh Records by the duo The Humphries Brothers, though it was not issued until early 1931. The Humphries Brothers, Cecil (guitar) and Jess (fiddle), recorded eight sides during that one session, but did not record again. According to country music researcher and writer Bill Malone, the brothers were from

...the region around Burnet, Texas, [where they] won a large local following playing for civic functions, at fiddlers’ contests, at the annual Old Settlers’ Reunion in Round Rock, and on Central Texas radio stations (such as KUT, Austin’s first radio station, which was located at the University of Texas). They made only eight recordings for the Okeh label in 1930 (presumably not enough to warrant a modern reissue) and were not widely known outside Central Texas. Their repertory was characterized by the eclecticism generally found among southwestern fiddle bands. Not surprisingly, “Listen to the Mockingbird” was their most-requested tune (it was almost mandatory for fiddlers everywhere to play it), but Jess also knew such tunes as “Beaumont Rag,” “Ragtime Annie,” “Black and White Rag,” and “St. Louis Tickle.” He was an unusual old-time fiddler indeed, since he also played trombone in an army band during World War I, was the organizer and “violinist” of one of Central Texas’s first Dixieland bands, and was a popular musician at weddings and similar social occasions with his pianist wife, Cynthia.^[1]

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Fiddler Magazine, vol. 19, No. 3, Fall 2012; pp. 25-27.

Recorded sources : - OKeh 45501 (78 RPM), The Humphries Brothers (1930)

See also listing at :
Hear the Humphries Brother's 1930 recording at Slippery Hill [1]

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↑ Bill Malone, Country Music USA, 1968, pp. 190-191.

[1] Bill Malone, Country Music USA, 1968, pp. 190-191.

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