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"Jaybird", also known as "Jaybird Settin' on a Limb", "The Pennsylvania Fifers" (Pa.),
"Daddy Shot a Bear" (Pa.), "The Lady's/Ladies Breast Knot" or "The Bonny Breast Knot" is an
American old-time breakdown, march or reel and an English or Scottish country, Morris or sword
dance tune in D Major. It is played in Standard or ADae fiddle tunings. The parts are played
AABB (most versions) or AABBAAC'C' (Phillips/1994).
This was at one time an "old-time revival" favorite re-popularized in the late 1960's/early 70's by Art Rosenbaum, John Burke and other young banjo players and fiddlers. Samual Bayard collected numerous versions (most called "Jaybird") from southwestern Pennsylvania fifers and fiddlers in the mid-20th century, where it was played as a march and a reel. He identified "Jaybird" as a derivative of the British air "The Lady's Breast Knot". The second strain of the tune is used for the music to the songs "Skip to My Lou" and "Bobby Shaftoe". This version is from Fennigs All Stars and appears in Brody and Lamancusa. The parts are reversed from Bayard's 9 similar versions. Bayard relates that one of his informants added a rhyming couplet to his tune similar to some sung to "Old Molly Hare": Daddy went a-huntin', Daddy shot a bear,The tune was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981), Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940), Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021), Milliner & Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011), Phillips' Fiddle Case Tunebook: Old Time Southern (1989), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994) and Sweet's Fifer's Delight (1964/1981). It was recorded by Ace Weems & the Fat Meat Boys on Ace Weems & the Fat Meat Boys, The Renegades on The Renegades (1993), Fennigs All Stars on Saturday Night in the Provinces and Country Cooking on Fourteen Bluegrass Instrumentals. |