Snowbird on the Ashbank
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traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Snowbird on the Ashbank", also known as "Snowbird" or "Georgia Snowbird" is<br> an American reel in cut time in G Major/Mixolydian. The parts are played AABB.<br> A 'snowbird' is another name for a junco. The title ("Snowbird" or "Snowbird on<br> the Ashbank") must have been evocative for it has been applied to several, often<br> unrelated tunes in the upland South, Piedmont and Midwest. To give an idea of<br> its distribution, the name "Snowbird on the Ashbank" appears in a list of<br> traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist<br> Vance Randolph, published in 1954 and it was listed as one of the standard<br> tunes in a square dance fiddler's repertoire by A.B. Moore in his History of<br> Alabama (1934).<br> Some versions of "Snowbird on the Ashbank" are reminiscent of "Paddy on the<br> Turnpike" with its overall modal tonality.<br> Some versions of this tune are crooked with measures of 5/4 or 6/4 or 3/2.<br> I have evened this out to present a more straightforward reel structure.<br> It was printed in<br> Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983) and<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994).<br> It was recorded by<br> Uncle John Patterson,<br> Fuzzy Mountain String Band on Summer Oaks and Porch (1973) and<br> Oscar and Eugene Wright on Old Time Fiddle and Guitar Music from<br> West Virginia (1978).<br>
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