Annotation:Wild Goose Chase (4)

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X:1 T:Wid Goose Chase [4] N:From the playing of fiddler Clyde Davenport (Wayne County, Ky.) N:Davenport (b. 1921) was born in Blue Hole Hollow, near Mt. Pisgah on the N:Cumberland Plateau in south-central Kentucky, not far from the border with N:Tennessee. N:From a field recording by Jim Nelson. Davenport had the tune from Dick N:Burnett, who himself had it from Tenn. Governor Bob Taylor. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel Q:"Fast." D:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/wild-goose-chase-0 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:Bb Bcdd fgga|gfdd ffg2|Bcdd fgga |gfdB cBB2:| |:B,3B c2dc|BBdB cBFD|B,3B c2dc| BGFF D(B,[B,2D2])| B,3B c2dc|BBdB cBFD|B,3B cdf2|gfdB cBB2:||



WILD GOOSE CHASE [4]. AKA - "Geese Honking." American, Reel (cut time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was in the repertoire of Cumberland Plateau, southern Ky., singer, fiddler, banjo and guitar player, blind Dick Burnett (1883-1977), who had the tune from Tennessee's fiddling Governor, Robert Love Taylor (1850-1912). Taylor won the gubernatorial race against his own brother, Alf, who was also a fiddler. Regional fiddler and banjo player biography:Clyde Davenport picked it up from Burnett[1].

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 95 (as "Geese Honking").

Recorded sources: - County CO-786, Clyde Davenport - "Traditional Music from the Cumberland Plateau vol. 1: Gettin' up the Stairs" (1988, from field recordings 1978-1982. Various artists). Davis Unlimited/Spring Fed Records DU 33014, W.L. Gregory & Clyde Davenport - "Monticello: Tough Mountain Music from Southern Kentucky" (2015. Reissue). Field Recorders Collective FRC 103, "Clyde Davenport vol. 1" (2005). Rounder 0197, Bob Carlin - "Banging & Sawing" (1985, as "Geese Honking"). Learned from Ky. fiddler Clyde Davenport, who had the tune from Dick Burnett). Spring Fed DVD, Clyde Davenport - "Shades of Clyde" (2011).

See also listing at:
Hear a field recording of Clyde Davenport playing the tune at Slippery Hill [1]


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  1. Bobby Fulcher, notes to Sandrock Recording "Gettin' up the Stairs" [2].