Annotation:Wagon Tire Tightener

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X:1 T:Wagon Tire Tightener N:From the playing of fiddler Glen Smith (1923-2001), from a 1973 field recording by N:Kevin Delaney. Smith was originally from Woodlawn, Virginia, but moved as an adult N:to the Elizabeth, W.Va., area in middle age to work in the timber industry. M:C| L:1/8 D:Marimac AHS 3, Glen Smith - "Say Old May" (1989) D:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/wagon-tire-tightener Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G DEGG [GA]-[G2B2]B |BAGG BGAG |EFGG [GA]-[G2B2]d| BGAF G2G2| DEG2 [GA]-[G2B2]B |BAGG BGAG |EFGG [GA]-[G2B2]d| BGAF G2|| |:ef|gfef gfef|gfe^c d2ef|gfef gfed|BdAF G2 ef| gfef gfef|gfe^c d2ef|ggba gfed|BdAF G2:||

WAGON TIRE TIGHTENER.American, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB. The tune was recorded by fiddler Burton Stoneman in 1941 by Alan Lomax (1915-2002), Joseph Liss and Jerome Wiesner in Galax, Virginia. Burton was a member of the extended musical Stoneman family, born February 25, 1881 (his father was Drake Stoneman). Interviewed by the Lomaxes, he is recorded as remembering:

The New Lost City Rambers Songbook, 1964. The cover picture (Patsy Stoneman Murphy Collection) was taken by Eck Dunford around 1910, according to Ivan Tribe. The Galax area musicians are (standing, from left--Burton Stoneman, J. William Frost, seated, from left--Sopinnia Leonard, Myrtle Stoneman Hawks, and Betty Leonard).

An 1872 patent for a wagon tire tightener.

We'd go to places, gatherin's, have a good time, all play music, people'd all go home,

everybody'd be satisfied, friendly....I recollect you'd go to a party, and they'd bring it (whiskey) in a bucket with a dipper in it, set it on a table. People'd come in with their music--banjo and fiddle--that was mostly all they ad in that day and time. I never seen a guitar till I was up about twelve years old, I reckon. Just a fiddle and banjo was all we had and you could take a drink of whiskey. A man could go and tend business and you never did see nobody drunk. Nobody was drunk at all. And when te thing was all over with, they'd dance, everybody'd go peaceable...go home; never have no disturbance at all in them days wenn I was a small boy.

See Ivan M. Tribe's book The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music that Shaped Their Lives ().

There are several patents issued for differnt schemes for tightening the rims of wagon wheels ('wagon tire tightener'), dating to the second half of the 19th century.

Additional notes

Recorded sources : - Library of Congress AFS 04936 A02, Burton Stoneman (1941). Marimac AHS #3, Glen Smith – “Say Old Man” (1990. Learned from Richard Farmer). Southern Mountain Melodies Records, Mac Traynham & Shay Garriock - "Turkey in the Mountain" (2009).

See also listing at :
Hear Glen Smith's 1989 recording at Slippery Hill [1]

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