Great Blue Heron Music Festival 1994- OldTimeJam-Louder Audio

[TS98ful]

This is wonderful. I get to see my friend from High School Jeff Goehring whom I miss all the time, and his wonderful then wife Susie. Jeff played saxophone in my first band, prior to his picking up the fiddle! Miss him all the time, thanks for posting this. Tom Smith Bexley Ohio

[vasdenfoot]

Soo much fun! Look at Jeff go around 0:56. Where was this at?

[dbadagna]

@vasdenfoot

The Great Blue Heron Music Festival is an annual festival held the first or second weekend of July in Sherman, a small town in western upstate New York.

[fiddler26]

That's quite a cast of characters...thanks for the post.

[1ejg]

Arlin 

[heydiddledan]

WHEW!!!!! So DAMN HONEST !!! Thanks Emory ...Thanks !!! The simplicity the - pulse how it grew from you.. AND the fact the center of the session was everywhere !

[mlbc71]

emery is the correct spelling. i am the daughter of his youngest son.

[dbadagna]

@mlbc71

Thank you! I just heard from a lady in the Cleveland area named Evelyn, who found me online and told me that there are lots of Emery Bailey's family members living in the Cleveland/Youngstown area. Did you know that? They plan to come to our old-time jam session in Kent, Ohio on May 1 so we will do our best to play this tune for them. What, by the way, is the name of Emery Bailey's son who I hear is still an active fiddle player?

[1ejg]

THIS IS TOO MUCH . EMORY IS MY GRANDFATHER!

[dbadagna]

@1ejg

Cool--you can thank Joe Thrift for keeping his tune alive. If you could find any recordings of Bailey in the family vault, would you please let me or Joe know? I think Joe is in touch with someone who knows Bailey's son, who is apparently still active as a fiddler. There are interesting mentions of Bailey as well in the books "Play of a Fiddle" and "Music in the Air Somewhere" (you can find them on Google Books); both books spell Bailey's first name "Emery"--is that incorrect?

[TBCSS]

That's a powerful session. Damn.

[rneithammer]

I think this tune is called "Silver Lake". Although it is unique, I think it is similar enough to the tune of the same name played by Mose Coffman for me to conclude that this is Silver Lake.  The tuning is indeed "Old Sledge" tuning (AEAD) lowered one step to GDGC.

[dbadagna]

I've never heard of "Silver Lake" and it's not in the Phillips Collection. Is it widely played or only by Mose Coffman? And who is Mose Coffman? Is a recording of this tune available?

[dbadagna]

OK, I found "Silver Lake" at t1E29rG_C6k. It's similar, but the melody of both the A and B sections is different.

[dbadagna]

@rneithammer

I just got hold (thanks to Emery Bailey's granddaughter, who I found out lives right near me in the Cleveland, Ohio area) of a recording of Bailey from the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center, and this tune is indeed called "Silver Lake." It must be Bailey's version of the tune, because the one at YouTube video t1E29rG_C6k is a bit different. In the recording, Bailey plays 4 tunes in this tuning (GDGC), and "Old Sledge," which Bailey says makes them sound more "natural."

[dbadagna]

Joe Thrift just told me that he got this tune from a set of old recordings of Emory Bailey that probably came from the famous record collector Joe Bussard of Frederick, Maryland.

[DNicolas1916]

Awesome, you'll have to teach this one to me. You told me about it before but, what is the conclusion? Is it standard tuning? What's the name? Reminds me a little of the 8th of January.

[dbadagna]

Are you someone I know in real life? The tuning is GDGC ("Old Sledge" tuning but a step lower) and the tune is usually called "The Emory Bailey Tune," named for the WV fiddler Joe Thrift got it from. Will you be coming to tonight's Shindig in Kent?

[DNicolas1916]

Sorry, it's Bruce, I shot you an email. Thanks, Bruce

[dbadagna]

It didn't ring a bell for Joe Bussard and now Joe Thrift thinks he didn't get it from Joe Bussard, but instead maybe from Rich Hartness. Rich thinks he has the tape somewhere and Joe Thrift also has the tape but it's broken and in a box somewhere, needing to be found and repaired. He just told me, however, that someone he knows plays with Emory Bailey's son, and they call it "The Emory Bailey Tune," which is the same thing Joe called it for lack of a better name.

[dbadagna]

I just realized this tune is in C. Any tips on how to play it? I'm trying to figure it out on banjo now, and I notice that at least one of the banjo players (unless it's the mandolinist) seems to be playing the melody way up on the neck the whole way through.

[dbadagna]

Do you have any idea of the title of this tune?

[tamberco]

It's by Emory Bailey, but no one seems to know its name-

[dbadagna]

Thanks, I see this tune is on the "Two Traditions" CD by the Horse Flies of Ithaca, New York, where they simply call it "Emory Bailey." Susie Goehring says it's a really trance-like tune and I agree. It's cool that this West Virginia tune seems to have been reintroduced via upstate New York (and YouTube)--and now to Kent, Ohio (home of the Kent State Folk Festival)! We're going to give it a try at our next Shindig (monthly old-time jam). One question: are the fiddles all in ADAD for this tune?

[tamberco]

Didn't know the Flies had recorded it - they'll be at out festy this year- As for tuning, Joe Thrift's the man on that one -

[dbadagna]

Judy Hyman just emailed me to say that she'd checked and the fiddle tuning is (low to high): GDGC.

[dbadagna]

Gerry Milnes writes in his book "Play of a Fiddle" that Emory Bailey was kicked out of at least one old-time fiddle contest for "diddling his bow" too much (whatever that means)! You can find this reference via Google Books, though I think he spells Bailey's first name "Emery" instead of "Emory."