Rye Straw
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Rye Straw", also known as "Alabama Waltz" (Mississippi title), “Big Fish”, “Black My<br> Boots and Go See the Widow”, "Dog Shit a Rye Straw", "Dog in the Rye Straw", "The Dog in<br> Difficulty", "The Joke on the Puppy", "Lady's Fancy", "Ladies Fancy", "Preacher's Favorite",<br> "The Unfortunate Pup", "The Unfortunate Dog" or "A Whoop from Arkansas" is an old-time<br> breakdown known in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky,<br> West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, Arkansas in D Major (most versions), A Major (Frank<br> Kittrell, Silberberg) or G Major (Doc Roberts). The parts are played AA’B (Titon), AABB<br> (Brody, Kittrell, Spadaro), ABC (Silberberg), AA'BBCC (Phillips), AABBCC (Ford), ABCCB'<br> (Krassen), AABCCCCDD (Reiner & Anick).<br> "Rye Straw" is a reel characterized by a shifting tonal center from D major to A mixolydian,<br> with some versions emphasizing one or another of the centers. The melody was known<br> throughout the South and Midwest under a variety of (mostly related) titles, but appears to<br> have first been published in the 1880's by George Coe Co. of Boston, Mass., as "A Whoop from<br> Arkansas" and later by Missouri physician W.H. Morris (Old Time Violin Melodies, 1927,<br> as "Acrobat"). Marion Thede published Ozarks region versions as "Preacher's Favorite" and<br> "Ladies Fancy" in The Fiddle Book (1960).<br> This was one of the tunes collected from Henry Reed (Monroe County, W. Va.) by Alan Jabbour.<br> The banjo tablature is by John Letscher who says that it is "Learned as a Round Peak standard<br> mostly from Burt Feintuch then Brad Leftwich".<br> It was printed in Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983),<br> Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes vol. 1 (1994),<br> Reiner & Anick's Old Time Fiddling Across America (1989),<br> Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002),<br> Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021),<br> Spadaro's 10 Cents a Dance (1980) and<br> Titon's Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (2001). <br> It was recorded by<br> Earl Collins on That's Earl (1975),<br> Ace Weems and The Fat Meat Boys on It's All Gone Now (1891),<br> Wilson Douglas on Fiddle Tunes From Central West Virginia (1998),<br> Doc Roberts (1930)(78 RPM),<br> Clayton McMichen & Riley Puckett (1930)(78 RPM),<br> Bill and Libby Hicks on South of Nowhere (2001) (Appears as “Dog Passed a Ryestraw”),<br> Doc Roberts on Fiddling Doc Roberts (1983) and Old Time Fiddle Classics, vol. 2,<br> Clyde Davenport (Monticello, Ky.) on Clydeoscope: Rare & Beautiful Tunes from the<br> Cumberland Plateau (1986),<br> John Summers on Fine Times at our House: Indiana Ballads, Fiddle Tunes, Songs (1964),<br> Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002,<br> Frank Kittrell (Lauderdale County, Miss.) on Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle<br> Music from Mississippi (1985).<br> The Backwoods Band on Jes' Fine (1980),<br> Bob Carlin on Fiddle Tunes for the Clawhammer Banjo (1980),<br> Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers on Hear These New Fiddle and Guitar Records,<br> Bob Douglas on Old Time Dance Tunes from Sequatchie Valley,<br> Uncle Am Stuart (Morristown, Tenn.)(1925) and<br> The Hoover Uprights on Known for their Reputation (2006). <br>
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