Jaybird
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Jaybird", also known as "Jaybird Settin' on a Limb", "The Pennsylvania Fifers" (Pa.),<br> "Daddy Shot a Bear" (Pa.), "The Lady's/Ladies Breast Knot" or "The Bonny Breast Knot" is an<br> American old-time breakdown, march or reel and an English or Scottish country, Morris or sword<br> dance tune in D Major. It is played in Standard or ADae fiddle tunings. The parts are played<br> AABB (most versions) or AABBAAC'C' (Phillips/1994).<br> This was at one time an "old-time revival" favorite re-popularized in the late 1960's/early 70's<br> by Art Rosenbaum, John Burke and other young banjo players and fiddlers.<br> Samual Bayard collected numerous versions (most called "Jaybird") from southwestern Pennsylvania<br> fifers and fiddlers in the mid-20th century, where it was played as a march and a reel. He<br> identified "Jaybird" as a derivative of the British air "The Lady's Breast Knot". The second<br> strain of the tune is used for the music to the songs "Skip to My Lou" and "Bobby Shaftoe".<br> This version is from Fennigs All Stars and appears in Brody and Lamancusa. The parts are reversed<br> from Bayard's 9 similar versions.<br> Bayard relates that one of his informants added a rhyming couplet to his tune similar to some<br> sung to "Old Molly Hare":<br> Daddy went a-huntin', Daddy shot a bear,<br> Shot him in the ass and never touched a hair.<br> The tune was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981),<br> Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983),<br> Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940),<br> Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021),<br> Milliner & Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011),<br> Phillips' Fiddle Case Tunebook: Old Time Southern (1989),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994) and<br> Sweet's Fifer's Delight (1964/1981).<br> It was recorded by Ace Weems & the Fat Meat Boys on Ace Weems & the Fat Meat Boys,<br> The Renegades on The Renegades (1993),<br> Fennigs All Stars on Saturday Night in the Provinces and<br> Country Cooking on Fourteen Bluegrass Instrumentals.<br>
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