Birdie
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Birdie", also known as "Put Me in My Little Bed" is an old-time breakdown known in<br> Kentucky and West Virginia in C Major. The parts are played ABB.<br> "Birdie" has been called "the state anthem" of West Virginia.<br> Charles Wolfe in Mountains of Music (1999) lists this as one of the West<br> Virginia-Kentucky fiddle tunes learned by Kanawha County, West Virginia, fiddler<br> Clark Kessinger (1986-1975) while growing up in the Kanawha Valley.<br> John Hartford (1996) traces this tune to a song composed in 1870 by C.A. White and<br> Dexter Smith called "Put Me in My Little Bed"; Alan Jabbour gives the composers names as<br> White, Smith and Perry of the same date. There is some disagreement as to whether the<br> "Little Bed" tune is ancestral. Ira Ford prints the following verse: <br> <br> Oh Birdie I am tired now,<br> I do not care to hear you sing;<br> You've sung your happy songs all day,<br> Now put your head beneath your wing. <br> <br> In addition to the Kessinger 78 RPM made for Brunswick in 1930, other early recordings<br> were made by the West Virginia band The Tweedy Brothers and by Jess Johnson and<br> Roy Harvey (calling themselves the West Virginia Ramblers and backing the tune with<br> "O Dem Golden Slippers"). The Bing Brothers learned their version of the tune from the<br> late Portsmouth, Ohio, fiddler Jimmie Wheeler leading to it being called "Wheeler's Birdie"<br> in some circles (Wheeler himself simply called it "Birdie"). Brody's and Ford's versions<br> are quite distanced from each other. Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley shifts into the 3rd<br> position to play some of the unison 'e' notes and stays in that position for some<br> succeeding notes. <br> It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) and Ford's Traditional Music in America<br> (1940) (Appears as "Put Me in My Little Bed"). <br> It was recorded by Roy Harvey (1925 and 1928),<br> Tweedy Brothers (Charles, George, and Harry, W.Va. brothers who played twin fiddles and<br> piano.),<br> J.P. and Annadeene Fraley on Wild Rose of the Mountain (learned by Fraley from the<br> playing of his father) and<br> John Hartford on Wild Hog in the Red Brush (and a Bunch of Others You Might Not Have Heard)<br> (1996). <br>
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