Hell on The Wabash
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Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Banjo Tablature
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
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American
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Hell on the Wabash" is an American breakdown in G Major. Some versions are in<br> A Minor or A Major. Some versions are played AABB and some AA’BB’CC’.<br> A "hell" is a dense thicket where cattle or other livestock can get lost.<br> It is listed as a 'jig' in Ryan’s Mammoth/Cole’s 1000, referring not to the<br> Irish 6/8 jig but to a type of old-time syncopated banjo tune known as a<br> “straight” or “sand” jig. The minstrel origins for this syncopated version are quite<br> evident and the genre was popular on the early variety stage in the 1870’s and<br> 1880’s.<br> This setting is more even.<br> It is on Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden's list of '100 essential Missouri fiddle tunes'.<br> Missouri fiddler Pete McMahan incorporates the high strain of<br> "Rocky Mountain Goat"<br> in his version of "Hell on the Wabash".<br> The banjo tablature is by John Letscher.<br> It was printed in American Veteran Fifer (1902), Bruce & Emmett's The Drummer’s<br> and Fifer’s Guide (1862), Cole's 1000 fiddle Tunes (1940), Kerr's Merry<br> Melodies, vol. 2. Mattson & Walz's Old Fort Snelling: Instruction<br> Book for the Fife (1974), Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), Sweet's Fifer's<br> Delight (1964/1981),<br> Art Rosenbaum's Art of the Mountain Banjo (1981) and<br> Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940).<br> It was recorded by Pete McMahan on Ozark Mountain Waltz (1987) and<br> More Fiddle Jam Sessions (1971),<br> Lynn `Chirps' Smith on Midwestern Harvest (1994) and<br> Art Rosenbaum on The Art of the Mountain Banjo (1975).<br>
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