Cabin Creek - Notes

"Cabin Creek" is an American reel in cut time and G Major. The parts are played ABCCD.
Some claim that it is an upland country version of "Barlow Knife" known in West Virginia, southwestern Virginia and East Kentucky. This melody is very different from most versions of that tune.
It was in the repertoire of Ashland, northeast Kentucky, fiddler Ed Haley (1885-1951) who played it in four parts.
It was also played (in three parts) by Glen Lyn, Giles County, Virginia, fiddler Henry Reed, who was recorded by folklorist Alan Jabbour for the Library of Congress in 1966. According to Jabbour's notes, Reed said he learned it from Mr. Underwood, who had moved from Franklin County, Va., to Monroe County, and described it as an old Franklin County piece.
Cabin Creek flows into the Kanawha River above Charleston, West Virginia, and was the site of a famous coal mining strike, but Jabbour thinks the title probably was meant to evoke the creek itself rather than to commemorate a labor struggle.
The banjo tablature is by John Letscher. His comment:

An Interesting combination of familiar phrases that feels like variations on a theme.

It was printed in Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021).
It was recorded by Ed Haley on Ed Haley vol 2 - Grey Eagle (1997) (From home recordings made in the 1940's) and Mac Benford on Half Past Four: Clawhammer Tribute to Ed Haley (2004).