The Darkies' Dream
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Darkies' Dream", also known as "Darky's Dream", "Acorn Stomp",<br> "Darkey Dan", "Offally Favorite", "The Wind That Blows You Away" is an<br> American reel or schottische in D Major (Bayard, Beisswenger & McCann/Goforth,<br> Roche), F Major (Phillips) or G Major (Beisswenger & McCann/Robertson).<br> The parts are played AAB (Roche), AA'B (Bayard, Phillips), AA'BB'CC<br> (Beisswenger & McCann/Robertson), AABBCD (Beisswenger & McCann/Goforth).<br> I have repeated the A part at the end.<br> The first strain appears to be fairly uniform among fiddlers' versions of<br> this tune, although the second strain sometimes varies quite a bit.<br> "Darkie's Dream" was identified by John Hartford as a Missouri tune similar to<br> "Essence of Sugar Cane" which is known to have inspired the three-part<br> "Darkie's Dream" composed by George L. Lansing (1860-1923) in 1887. Lansing's<br> composition was recorded by the leading banjo soloists of the early 20th century,<br> Fred Van Eps and Ruby Brooks. Lansing himself was a white classical banjo player<br> in Boston in the 1880's, who also composed "Darkie's Awakening" and "Drowsy Dempsy".<br> This was Lansing's most popular composition and was widely disseminated,<br> even enjoying popularity overseas. Over the years it has been set as a<br> schottische, barn dance and reel, the latter particularly in American<br> "old-time" vernacular.<br> Bayard (1981) noted that Pennsylvania fiddlers played this tune with<br> a variety of tempos and styles and he too mentions that the schottische<br> style was common. Other melodies that bear a general or part similarity<br> are "Always Welcome," "The Butcher's Row", "Essence of Sugar Cane"<br> and "Old Yaller Hound." "Darky's Dream" was the repertoire of Pocahontas<br> County, West Virginia, fiddler Burl Hammons (1908-1993), who learned it<br> from African-American musician Grafton Lacey. An early version of the<br> Missouri variant appears in W.H. Morris' Old Time Violin Melodies, printed<br> in St. Joseph in 1927, and it was played by several later Missouri fiddlers<br> such as Gene Goforth.<br> The original tune was picked up, relatively intact, by musicians in Ireland<br> and appears in Frank and John Roche's early 20th century (1927) collection<br> (although in a section headed "Old Dances, not Irish by origin").<br> "Darkey's Dream" was recorded by fiddler Michael Gorman as "Jamesy Gannon's<br> Favorite" and by James Morrison's student, Timmy Cronin, as "Offally<br> Favorite" in 1957. <br> It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981),<br> Beisswenger & McCann's Ozarks Fiddle Music (2008),<br> Stephen F. Davis in The Devil's Box, vol. 26, No. 4, Winter 1992,<br> Stephen F. Davis in The Devil's Box, vol. 30, No. 4, Winter 1996,<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2 (1995),<br> Roche's Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 3 (1927).<br> It was recorded by Lonnie Robertson on Lonnie's Breakdown (1996, originally recorded 1966),<br> Gene Goforth on Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks<br> vol. 1: Along the Eastern Cresent (1999),<br> Clarke Buehling and the Skirt Lifters on A Ragtime Episode (2004) (listed as "The<br> Old Man's Dream" but subtitled "The Darkies' Dream" and attributed to George Lansing) and<br> Grant Lamb on Manitoba Fiddler (1974).<br>
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