Brushy Fork of John's Creek
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Brushy Fork of John's Creek", also known as "Brushy Fork of Buckthorn" or<br> "The Long Fork of Buckthorn" is an old-time American breakdown from eastern Kentucky<br> in A Mixolydian, usually played in AEae tuning on the fiddle. The parts are played AB<br> (Titon/Stamper), AAB (Titon/Salyer) or ABB'CC (Phillips).<br> It is in the repertoires of Kentucky fiddlers Hiram Stamper and John Sayler.<br> It is closely related to "Long Fork of Buckhorn" and "Old Christmas Morning".<br> Versions of the tune were in the repertoires of West Virginia fiddlers Burl Hammons<br> and Ed Haley. Kentucky fiddler Hiram Stamper learned the tune from Shade Sloan,<br> a Civil War veteran and said that Alton Sizemore played it and called it "Brushy Fork<br> of Buckhorn". Hiram's son, the late Art Stamper, recorded a version in standard tuning<br> he called "The Long Fork of Buckhorn". Gerry Milnes suggests the title may relate to<br> John's Creek in West Virginia's Big Sandy Valley, where one branch of<br> the Hammonds family settled in 1791 (members of the family spell their last name<br> differently). John Hartford (Fiddler) says older informants have told him the title<br> commemorates a Civil War battle either on Brushy Fork of John's Creek in Pike County,<br> Kentucky, or near Old Bedstead Mountain in southern Floyd County, Kentucky. The battle<br> was supposedly one of the last of the war, according to the veteran Sloan.<br> The standard notation/mandolin tab version is based on Hiram Stamper's playing.<br> John Letscher did the banjo tab and his version is based on John Salyer's playing.<br> It was printed in Fiddler Magazine, Winter 2005/06, vol. 12, No. 4 (two versions),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994) and<br> Titon's Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (2001).<br> <br>
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