Whistling Rufus
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Banjo Tablature
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Tune Sheet
Kerry Mills
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Whistling Rufus", also known as "Way Down South in Dixie" is an old-time, bluegrass two-step,<br> march, reel or Polkain G Major {Beisswenger & McCann, Phillips}, G Major ('A' and 'B' parts) &<br> C Major ('C' part). The parts are played AB (Beisswenger & McCann, Phillips) or AAB (Brody).<br> The tune was composed in 1899 by Kerry Mills (1869-1948, who also composed<br> "Georgia Camp Meeting" and<br> "Red Wing"),<br> at the beginning of the ragtime era,<br> with words later supplied by Murdoch Lind. It was described at the time of its<br> publication as a "characteristic march” but with the addition that it “can be<br> used effectively as a two-step, polka or cakewalk". The first page of the original<br> sheet music also records that:<br> No cakewalk given in the Black Belt district of Alabama was considered worth<br> while attending unless "Whistling Rufus" was engaged to furnish the music.<br> Unlike other musicians, Rufus always performed alone, playing an accompaniment<br> to his whistling on an old guitar and it was with great pride that he called<br> himself the "one-man band".<br> Joyce Cauthen (1990) calls it a minstrel composition that passed into fiddling<br> tradition, perhaps referring to Mill's "coon-song" period cakewalk. Arizona<br> fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner identified it as a "good two-step from around 1900"<br> (Shumway). It was played by Rock Ridge, Alabama, fiddlers around 1920 and it<br> appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by<br> musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.<br> Early 78 RPM recordings include<br> Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett (1924), Ernest Thompson (1924), McLaughlin’s Old Time<br> Melody Makers (1928), the Kessinger Brothers (1929) and Arkie the Arkansas<br> Woodchopper (1941), and the tune was in the repertoire of West Virginia fiddler<br> Edden Hammons.<br> The banjo tab is from John Letscher.<br> It was printed sources in Beisswenger & McCann's Ozarks Fiddle Music (2008),<br> Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2 (1995) and<br> Ruth's Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948).<br> It was recorded by<br> Sam and Kirk McGee,<br> The Skillet Lickers (1934),<br> Fiddling Doc Roberts,<br> Vess Ossman (1899)<br> Clark Kessiger on Live at Union Grove,<br> The McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith on Milk 'Em in the Evening Blues (1968),<br> Vesta Johnson on Down Home Rag,<br> Edden Hammons and<br> Doc Watson (1965). <br>
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