Earlier I posted a version of the Old Time tune, Bonaparte’s March, but just before that I had been having a little facebook message exchange with a guitar-picker friend of mine and he mentioned Bonaparte’s Retreat but he was really thinking of Bonaparte’s March, which is a tune he and I have played together. I realized that Bonaparte references in old time tunes can get confusing because there is a third one as well, Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.
Here’s Bonaparte’s Retreat. I believe this is a Kentucky tune, but it was appropriated by Aaron Copeland in his Hoedown from Rodeo. Here’s a lovely version of the tune performed by the Scottish fiddler, Aly Bain, with Jerry Douglas on dobro and Danny Thompson on bass.
Just to confuse things further, Bonaparte’s Retreat is also the name of a minor hit tune by Glen Campbell. I’m going to spare you that, but it’s on the YouTube if you’re feeling like a little Glen Campbell. I will tell you this – it has bagpipe.
Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine is also an excellent Old Time tune. I’ve been messing with that one on clawhammer banjo and one of these days I’ll actually manage to learn it. Here are Jonathan Cooper, Brittany Haas, Jesse Brock, Lincoln Meyers, Ron and Wendy Cody doing very sweet work on this one indeed.
I know Bonaparte’s March pretty well and play it on clawhammer. I learned it from the same players these folks learned it from, Cathy Barton and Dave Para. I learned it when I attended the 2014 Midwest Banjo Camp. It’s a really lovely tune. I think we have this tune because Garry Harrison learned it from Harvey “Pappy” Taylor and his group the Indian Creek Delta Boys popularized it – Old Time music from the Midwest.
Finding a pocket between daffodils, peonies and the early signs of Queen Anne’s Lace, Milo aka Bruce aka Wonder Cat pulls in the last few rays of sunshine in Long Branch on May 26th.
Here’s the Michael Burton tune, Night Rider’s Lament, performed by Nanci Griffith with help from the great cowboy singer Don Edwards. My first exposure to this tune was on an Ian Tyson Record, but hearing Mr. Edwards do his lonesome cowboy yodel sends chills up my spine.
I confess I’ve always loved cowboy songs. Let’s listen to another… Here’s Tex Ritter performing The Old Chisholm Trail. Plenty of hokum in this video, but still….
I’d like to finish off this post with Mr. Ian Tyson, performing his own tune, M.C. Horses. A number of years ago I was driving across Nevada heading for a button accordion camp in the Sierras, and I stopped overnight at a little town out in the “sagebrush sea” called Elko, and I remembered the start of this tune…we were having a drink at Stockman’s and there it was, Stockman’s right in town, so I went in and had a beer at the bar. Here’s M.C. Horses.
I just wanted to let everyone know that Memphis continues to do really well after the surgery she had on her leg. She’s now doing a walk every day, for 10 – 15 minutes, she’s putting more weight on her leg, and she’s in great spirits now that she’s getting out and about.
Today I set up a tripod out on the deck so I could get some steady video of the robins in their nest. A party breaks out when one of the adult robins returns to the nest with some grub.
The tall tale of Stagger Lee has been recorded countless times in many styles. The bad man Stagger Lee has been Stacker Lee, Stack-O-Lee, Stack Pole and more. We all know what happened. That bad old Stagger Lee killed Billy Lyons over a $5 Stetson hat. There are a lot of murder ballads in American song, maybe even more that songs about trains and songs about cars, but I think Stagger Lee even tops Little Sadie and Pretty Polly for murder ballad most recorded.
Stag Lee Shelton murdered Billy Lyons in St. Louis Missouri at Christmas, 1895. Wikipedia tells me that the song was first published in 1911 and recorded in 1923 or 1924 by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians.
On Christmas night in 1895, Shelton and his acquaintance William “Billy” Lyons were drinking in the Bill Curtis Saloon. Lyons was also a member of St. Louis’ underworld, and may have been a political and business rival to Shelton. Eventually, the two men got into a dispute, during which Lyons took Shelton’s Stetson hat.[4] Subsequently, Shelton shot Lyons, recovered his hat, and left.[5] Lyons died of his injuries, and Shelton was charged, tried and convicted of the murder in 1897. He was pardoned in 1909, but returned to prison in 1911 for assault and robbery, and died in incarceration in 1912.
The first Stagger Lee I recall hearing was the R&B version by Lloyd Price. What a great recording that was. “I was standing on the corner, when I heard my bulldog bark – he was barkin’ at the two men who were gamblin’ in the dark…”. And those driving background vocals, “Go Stagger Lee, Go Stagger Lee”, and then the killer sax break. “Stagger Lee, cried Billy, oh please don’t take my life, I’ve got 3 little children and a very sickly wife.” But you all know what happened. That bad man, that pimp, that gambler, that bad old Stacker Lee pulled his 44 and it was all over.
The second version I recall hearing was Woody’s. “It was in a hustlin’ B joint where the Mississippi run, Stacker Lee killed Billy de Lyons with a smokin’ 41. He was a bad man, that mean old Stacker Lee”. Why hasn’t he been caught….”double up my fee, and I’ll bring back that bad man, name of Stacker Lee.”
Frank Hutchison’s performance gained some fame during the great folk music scare after it appeared on the Harry Smith anthology. Bob Dylan basically covered this version when he recorded Stagger Lee on World Gone Wrong. Here’s Frank Hutchison…
Let’s listen to one more. This is a wonderful old time version by Spencer Branch. That’s Martha Spencer on banjo, Kelley Breiding on guitar and Kilby Spencer on fiddle.
27th Street 