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"Say Old Man Can You Play the Fiddle?", also known as "Say Old Man Can You Play a Fiddle?" or
"Ladies Fancy" is an American reel in cut time in
E Minor ('A', 'B' and 'E' parts) & E Major or E Mixolydian ('C' and 'D' parts).
It is sometimes played in EDae fiddle tuning.
The parts are played ABC (Christeson), ABBCC (Brody) or AABBCCDDEE.
"Say Old Man can You Play the Fiddle?" is known in Texas, Virginia and North Carolina. Joe Burke tells the story that Slim Rutland went looking for interesting musicians in the Dallas area and was pointed to Luke Thomasson, Benny Thomasson’s father. Benny Thomasson referred to the tune as “Lady’s Fancy”. Paul Wells notes a relationship between the ‘A’ part of "Say Old Man" and one of the strains of Kentucky fiddler Luther Strong’s version of "Glory in the Meetinghouse" (recorded for the Library of Congress in 1937). Sometimes the following is sung as a verse: Say old man can you play the fiddle?It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), R.P. Christeson's Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1 (1973) and Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2 (1995). It was recorded by American Heritage on Poor Richard's Almanac (appears as "Lady's Fancy"), The Mando Mafia on Get Up in the Cool, Eck Robertson on Eck Robertson (Tx): Famous Cowboy Fiddler, Benny Thomasson on Texas Hoedown and Say Old Man, Can You Play the Fiddle?, Buddy Spicher on Me and My Heroes, Tommy Hunter on Deep in Tradition (1976), Glen Smith on Say Old Man (1990), Jay Ungar & Lyn Hardy on Songs, Ballads & Fiddle Tunes (1975), Mark O'Conner on National Junior Fiddle Champion, Dan Crary on Lady's Fancy (appears as "Lady's Fancy") and Gene Goforth on Emminence Breakdown (1997). |