Camp Meeting on the Fourth of July

July 4, 2017 9:39 PM

A seasonally-appropriate fiddle tune, with solo fiddle triple-tracked but otherwise unprocessed. The fiddle is in DDAD tuning, which I like a lot.

It's still the 4th of July here, so I went out to the shed and recorded this just now. I can't hear on the recording any of the fireworks that I could hear while playing, which is kind of a shame. Maybe I should have recorded outside.

The Traditional Tune Archive has this to say about the tune: "James Bryan has said that the tune was originally played as a processional for evening services at camp meetings in Arkansas in the 19th century. Bryan's source was Tom Jackson, who learned it from Coleman Barwick, an old-time fiddler from Blountsville, Alabama."

I learned this version from the playing of the Canote Brothers.

posted by hades (5 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite

I love the kind of drone that underpins a bunch of this piece. This is just a lovely performance; thanks for sharing it.
posted by Sokka shot first at 9:48 AM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Thanks! Yeah, that low drone is one of the fun things about retuning to DDAD.
posted by hades at 3:54 PM on July 7, 2017


I enjoyed this very much. Admittedly I don't know much about paying the fiddle (and as a kid I briefly, unsuccessfully tried learning violin) but the three tracks of your recording sound excellent and got me tapping my feet. Thanks also for the blurb about the song history.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 1:57 AM on July 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Used this in this month's podcast!
posted by cortex at 3:11 PM on August 4, 2017


Oh, yay!
posted by hades at 2:16 PM on August 8, 2017


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