John McCutcheon
Barefoot Boy with Boots On

Liner Notes:

Introduction to 1998 Release

I don’t know about other musicians but I never listen to my own recordings. By the time I send the final master tapes off to the record company I’ve listened to them so many times in the studio that I figure I’ve had my fill. Now it’s everyone else’s turn. So when I got a call from Andy Spence, of Front Hall Records, telling me that Barefoot Boy with Boots On was available for re-issue on to my current record company I had some listening to do. I hadn’t listened to the album even once in over eighteen years.

What struck me most in that re-listening was not the usual, “Oh, I play much better now!” or “I’ve improved as a singer over the years!” or even “I’ve forgotten all about that song!” No, it was a rush of memories. Not into the sessions. But into the homes and lives of the people who graced me with the music on that album. It was a time in my life...a young man in my mid-twenties...during which I roamed the blue highways of Appalachia learning “where music comes from.” And I don’t mean geographically, but, rather, that place in the core of a community that fosters, nurtures, and revitalizes music. Like a wellspring that’s always there and yet always new.

Many of the people who taught me these songs...very much alive in 1979-80...are gone now.  Roscoe, ID, Tommy, Asa, Kate, Florence, Jimmy, Uncle Charlie, Lummy, Nimrod, Sara and Maybelle Carter. But their music, like that wellspring, still bubbles up fresh and pure like it did back then.

So thanks, Andy and Bill Spence, for capturing that time. Thanks to Rounder for making me listen back again. Thanks to all these musicians for the gifts they continue to give me throughout the years. And thanks to you. I’ve drunk my fill. Now it’s your turn. 

John McCutcheon
Charlottesville, VA
June 1998

Introduction to the 1980 Release:

Today folks learn their music in so many different ways. I know I did. Mother’s music soothing a dark (surely haunted!) bedroom...on those long restless rides through the seemingly endless state of North Dakota when I was eight...on the radio...on television...in playgrounds...from neighbors...from records. And those songs, dredged out of dusty, cluttered memories, yield memories in themselves: a faintly remembered grandfather...a childhood game...a first kiss...the pain of lasting good-byes...hard times...a newborn son or daughter. There seem to be songs that relive what is constant about being human, without the bounds of class, sex, race, age, or geography. They make you feel that you are not alone at all. And that’s why they last.

While re-reading the song notes early this morning, I was struck by the recurrence of the word “favorite.” Six times. I counted. I mused at how many favorites I have. Each one has its own story. Each one relives a moment (or years of moments) with musical friends and mentors: some gone now, some very much alive.

Paul Van Arsdale is very much alive and, at long last, makes his recording debut on this album. Paul was born in northwestern Pennsylvania nearly sixty years ago, but moved near Jamestown, NY as a boy. In 1931 his mother’s father, Jesse Martin, a professional hammer dulcimer player in this retirement, moved in with Paul’s family and taught young Paul to play.

Paul began to play for dances when he was about 13 and from that day to this has had an insatiable appetite for good dance music and new tunes. He plays his grandfather’s dulcimer with long, flexible hammers he fashions from hacksaw blades. Together with his dulcimer-playing brothers Phil and Sterl, Paul has been providing wonderful music yearly at Van Arsdale family reunions since 1932.

I first met Paul in 1977 and we quickly struck a musical partnership that you get a taste of inside here. It’s a pleasure to not only introduce Paul, but some of this fine, original music as well. He’s my favorite (that’s seven) dulcimer player.

Thanks,
John McCutcheon
June 1980

Personnel

John McCutcheon, hammered dulcimer, fiddle, banjo, guitar, fretless banjo, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, vocals / Paul Van Arsdale, hammered dulcimer / Ruth Rappaport, piano / George Wilson, guitar, bass / Bob McQuillen, piano

Formats

Compact Disk: Rounder CD: 0419

Produced by John McCutcheon and Bill Spence
Year Released: 1980; Re-released 1998

Lyrics

Loggerman’s Breakdown/Dulcimer Reel
Traditional/Paul Van Arsdale

John & Paul: hammer dulcimers
Ruth: piano

“Loggerman’s Breakdown” is a tune Paul learned from a radio broadcast of a Canadian Fiddler during the 1950’s. The second tune in this medley is one of Paul’s originals, “Dulcimer Reel”. It is one of the first tunes Paul wrote, some 15 to 20 years ago. (Paul is on the right channel, John is on the left).

Little Pink
Traditional

John: dulcimer & vocal

“Little Pink” is gathered from three different sources. The biggest part of the song comes from I.D. Stamper of Thorton, Ky. He built the dulcimer I’m using here and it is in his style that I’m playing. I.D. was born in 1907 in Searcy County, Ark. and moved to Letcher County, Ky. as a small boy. His mother and brothers were string musicians and Ike’s first instrument was the harp (harmonica)—an instrument he plays with great skill even today. He then picked up the banjo, playing in a band with his brothers and in the late twenties met with a distant relative of this mother’s, Uncle Ed Thomas. Uncle Ed was a legendary figure in east Kentucky music, supplying most folks with fiddles, bows and dulcimers. It was Uncle Ed who introduced I.D. to the dulcimer. Long after Ed died in 1931, I.D. fashioned his first dulcimer out of a butternut log his father hauled in for firewood. And with that he started forging a style of playing that is totally unique: full, driving, and carrying a strong blues influence. I first heard I.D. play in 1973 and we’ve continued a long friendship both performing and puttin’ our feet up together.

I.D. can be heard on a solo album, Red Wing (June Appal 010).

Additional words for “Little Pink” come from C.B. “Lummy” Thornsberry of Pippa Passes, Ky. and Nimrod Workman of Chatteroy, W.Va.

Come here, Little Pink
Let me tell you what I think
Think you’re a long time makin’ up your mind

I used to think
You’s the prettiest little pink
That ever the sun shone on

Well, you’ve caused me to weep
And you’ve caused me to mourn
And you’ve caused me to leave my happy home
And you’ve caused me to walk that long, lonesome road
That I never have walked down alone

Now I truly understand that you love another man
And how can your little heart be mine?

So come here, Little Pink
Let me tell you what I think
Think you’re a long time makin’ up your mind

Free Little Bird
Traditional

John: banjo, guitar & vocal

Roscoe Holcomb (actually Roscoe Halcomb) of Daisy, Ky., is one of the most powerful and moving musicians I’ve ever heard. A particularly soulful, usually bluesy, singer and musician, Roscoe’s music reflects a long life of hard work. I used to spend most every Christmas Eve with Rossie and his wife, Ethel. One year, between a long Christmas supper and a short night’s sleep, Rossie treated his family and me to the longest and most rousing version of “Free Little Bird” I’ve ever heard. I’ll never forget it.

I’m as free little bird as I can be
I’m as free little bird as I can be
I’m as free of my age as a bird in a cage
I’m as free little bird as I can be

Take me home, little birdie, take me home (2x)
Take me home, little birdie, ‘cause I don’t love nobody
Take me home, little birdie, take me home Chorus

I can’t stay here by myself (2x)
I can’t stay here nor no place else
I can’t stay here by myself Chorus

I’ll not build my nest on the ground (2x)
I’ll build my nest in a tall oak tree
Where the bad boys won’t ever tear it down Chorus

And I’ll not build my nest in the air (2x)
I’ll build my nest in my true love’s breast
And sleep in the locks of her hair Chorus

Laurel Branch/Ways of the World/Sugar in the Gourd
Tommy Hunter/traditional/traditional

John: fiddles, banjo, guitar & vocals
George: bass

“Laurel Branch” is a tune written by Tommy Hunter of Mars Hill, NC Tommy and I first met at a small festival near his home and continue to enjoy playing together...something that happens all-too-infrequently to suit me. You can hear Tommy playing this and many other tunes on Deep in Tradition (June Appal 007).

“Ways of the World” has been a long-time favorite of mine. I learned it from a Library of Congress recording of W.M. Stepp, of Magoffin County, Ky. Stepp’s fiddling was precise and driving, standing out, for me, from all the other music in the anthology in which it was included.

The final tune here is Uncle Charlie Osborne’s “Sugar in the Gourd.” Uncle Charlie lives just across the Russell County, Va. line up Moccasin Creek. Moccasin boasts the largest pocket of fiddlers in the area, with Charlie, Fred Johnson, Joe Good, Beachard Smith, and Charlie MacDaugherty all living along its banks. Charlie, at 86, is the dean of the bunch. His great square dance bowing must have something to do with the fact that he plays a right handed fiddle left handed.

Went down the road and I met her on the board
The wind from her shoes knockin’ sugar in the gourd
Sugar in the gourd and the gourd upon the ground
The way to get the sugar is to roll the gourd around
Sugar in the gourd and you can’t get it out
You want to get the sugar gotta roll the gourd about

Had an old hen, had a wooden leg
Best damn hen that ever laid an egg
Laid more eggs than any hen around the farm
And another drink of liquor wouldn’t do you any harm

Pay Day
traditional

John: fretless banjo & vocal

“Pay Day” is a ragtime guitar tune I’ve adapted to fretless banjo. Mississippi John Hurt introduced it to all of us and Andy Cohen (the Twangoleum King) coaxed it back into my memory.

Well I’ve done all I could do
To try to get along with
I’m gonna send you to your mama next pay day
Pay day, pay day
Gonna send you to your mama next pay day

There’s a rabbit on a log
Ain’t got no rabbit dog
And I hate to see that rabbit get away
Get away, get away
Lord, I hate to see that rabbit get away

I’m walking down that track
Got my shoes upon my back
Gonna make it to my shanty ‘fore the day
‘Fore day, ‘fore day
Gonna make it to my shanty ‘fore the day

Barefoot Boy with Boots On
Words by Asa Martin, Music Traditional

John: fiddle & vocal
George: guitar

“The Barefoot Boy with Boots On” is one of many wild and woolly songs composed by the late Asa Martin of Irvine, Ky. Asa was, for much of his early career, a talent scout for several east Kentucky radio stations...back when live broadcasts were the rule rather than the exception. His inventive guitar style made him much in demand for recordings (he recorded extensively with Doc Roberts) and for fiddling contests. Probably Asa’s most well known songs is “Hot Corn, Cold Corn,” the very first surrealistic bluegrass song, recorded by Flatt and Scruggs. Asa died in his garden last August, ending a life of great vitality and music.

The tune I use here is not Asa’s but rather “The Death of Floyd Collins,” as inspired by Tracy Schwarz. The last verse is lifted from “The Dying Fishermsn’s Lament” or “The Raving of Sir Rupt.” Take your pick.

Oh, the night was dark and cloudy
The moon was shining bright
The stars were casting burning rays
On the storm that raged that night
Lightening struck the cowshed
And the cows all chewed their cud
Moonlight set the prairie on fire
In the middle of the woods

Oh, the barefoot boy with boots on
Come a-shuffling down the street
His pants were full of pockets
And his boots were full of feet
He was born when he was a baby
His grandma’s pride and joy
His only sister was a girl
And his brother was a boy

He never was a triplet
But he always was a twin
His legs were fastened to his knees
Just below his chin
And his feet were fastened to his ankles
Several inches from his shoulder
And when he grew up he became a man
And everyday got older

He married him a woman
Who quickly became his wife
For you see he could not marry her
And maintain a single life
Her head was full of notions
And her mouth was full of tongue
They raised a dozen children
All born when they was young

Six boys, five girls
And then another child
They never tried to raise them right
Just let them grow up wild
And late in the evening
They’d send them off to bed
Not sure if they was living
And they wished they all was dead

The youngest was a baby
But the oldest was one first
The good one was the bad one
But the bad one was the worst
They never knew their ages
No, they never seemed to care
‘Cause they knew they had a birthday
And it came ‘round once a year

They never knew their father’s age
But they always had a hunch
That he was born before their time
Was the oldest of the bunch
And when they died they could not speak
Their names they could not tell
The girls all went to heaven
And the boys all went to

The organ peeled potatoes
Lard was rendered by the choir
When the parson rang the dishrag
Someone set the church on fire
“Hole smokes!” the preacher shouted
As he madly tour his hair
Now his head resembles heaven
For there’ll be no parting there

Under the Double Eagle
BF Wagner

John: hammer dulcimer
Bob: piano

“Under the Double Eagle” is a piece of music—as this arrangement might suggest—originally written for brass band. It has seeped into string music—a classic instrumental for guitar players, most notably Doc Watson of Deep Gap, NC

This version comes almost entirely from the person who has remained my most constant inspiration for hammer dulcimer music, the late Jimmy Cooper of Coatbridge, Scotland. I learned the tune on a visit with Jimmy in January 1977. Jimmy passed away in June 1978, but, luckily, his versatile and exciting music is preserved in several sources, his lone solo album, Jimmy Cooper, Dulcimer Player (Spoot Records FTS 3009), Good Friends, Good Music (Philo 1051) with the Boys of the Lough, and Kicking Up the Sawdust with Ashely Hutchins.

West Virginia Mining Disaster/Which Side Are You On?
Jean Ritchie/Florence Reece

John: banjo & vocal

Coal mining is the largest industry in the southwest Virginia area. Most of the songs popularized about coal mining deal with the many dangers inherent to working underground in the often unsafe conditions of the mines. But there’s another danger involved—that of staying above ground and waiting for the husbands, fathers, and lovers who risk their lives each day. Here are two songs written from a woman’s perspective.

The first is a powerful reflection on the possibilities of that dread moment. Jean Ritchie, originally from the coal community of Viper, in Perry County, Ky., is one of my very favorite songwriters. Her more well known songs of the coal mining industry include “Black Waters” and “The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore.”

When the National Miner’s Union first started organizing in east Kentucky in the early part of this century, Florence and Sam Reece were two of the early organizers. Part of the idea behind the NMU was that the wives and children of the miners were part of the union as well as the men, for mining touched every member of the family. Florence wrote these new words to the tune “Lay the Lilies Low” following a raid on the Reece home by the hired gun thugs of John Henry Blair, high sheriff of Harlan County, Ky. Additional words are from picket lines of the Brookside strike (subject of the film Harlan County, USA) and Sterns, Ky.

Say, did you see him walking
It was early this morning
He passed by your houses
On his way to the coal

He was tall, he was slender
And his young eyes so tender
His occupation was mining
West Virginia his home

It was just before twelve
I was feeding the children
Ben Mosley come running
For to bring us the news

“Number 8 is all flooded
“Many men are in danger
“And we don’t know their number
“But we fear they’re all doomed.”

So I picked up the baby
And I left all the others
For to comfort each other
And to care for their own

There’s Timmy fourteen
And there’s John not much younger
Soon their own time will be coming
To go down the black hole

Oh, if I had the money
To do more than just feed them
I’d give them good learnin’
The best could be found

So that when they grew up
They’d be checkers and weighers
And not spend their life a-drillin’
In the dark underground

What will I tell to my
Three little babies?
And it’s what will I tell
His dear mother at home?

And it’s what will I tell
My heart that’s sure dying?
My heart that’s sure dying
Since my darling is gone?

***

Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I’ll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell

Which side are you on?
Which side are on?
Which side are you on?
Tell me, which side are on?

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You’ll be either a union man
Or a thug for JH Blair Chorus

My daddy was a miner
And I’m a miner’s son
And I’ll stick with the union
Until every battle’s won Chorus

My daddy was a miner
And I’m a miner’s daughter
And I’ll stick with the union
Through hell and high water Chorus

We’re fighting for a contract
We’re fighting to be free
I’ll see you at the picket line
There’s room for you and me Chorus

If you don’t want to lose your life
Down in the old coal mine
I’ll see you in the morning
Down at the picket line Chorus

Don’t scab for the bosses
Don’t listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven’t got a chance
Unless we organize Chorus

Forked Deer
Traditional

John: fiddle & banjo
George: guitar & bass

“Forked Deer” continues to be my favorite old dance tune, this version inspired by Tommy Hunter, of Mars Hill, NC and J.P. Fraley of Rush, Ky. I had the opportunity to spend time with both Tommy and J.P. early in my first painful days of fiddle playing. their music sometimes finds it’s ways out my fingertips. Many thanks to both.

Little Moses
words & music by AP Carter

John: autoharp & vocal
George: guitar

“Little Moses” is one of the earliest religious-type ballads recorded the original Carter family. A.P., Sara, and Maybelle were all born and raised here in my adopted home of Scott County, Va. Back in early August of 1927, the trio traveled to Bristol, Va. where they auditioned—along with many other local groups, and Tenneva Ramblers and Jimmy Rodgers to name a few—for Ralph Peer of the Victor Recording Company. Their music was a driving force in early country music—both vocally and instrumentally—and is still some of the most widely loved and recorded of all traditional and early commercial music.

“Little Moses” came to me thanks to Janette Carter, daughter of A.P. and Sara, and a longtime friend. She learned the song, of course, from the singing of her parents. A.P., who actually collected more music than he purportedly wrote, learned the song from his aunt, Myrtle Bays, who learned it from her mother. A long chain to me...for one of my all-time favorite Carter family songs.

Away by the waters so clear
The ladies were winding their way
When Pharaoh’s little daughter stepped down to the water
To bathe in the cool of the day

Before it was dark she opened the ark
And found the sweet infant was there
And away by the waters so clear
The infant was lonely and sad

She took him in pity and taught him so pretty
Which made Little Moses so glad
She called him her own, her beautiful son
And send for a nurse that was near

And away by the Sea was Red
Little Moses, the servant of God
While in him confided the sea was divided
As upward he lifted his rod

The Jews safely crossed while the Pharaoh’s host
Was drowned in the waters and lost
And away on the mountain so high
The very first ever would see

That vision most glorious, his mission victorious
They’d soon o’er the Jordan be free
When his labors did cease he departed in peace
And rested in the heavens above

Unst Wedding March/Fanny Poer/Planxty Irwin
traditional/Turlough O’Carolan

John: hammer dulcimer
Ruth: piano

My friend, Aly Bain (Fiddler with the Boys of the Lough), is responsible for the “Unst Wedding March.” Unst is one of the Shetland Islands and the tune leads the wedding party from the church to the bride’s home.

The following two tunes are from one of my favorite sources of dulcimer music, the great Irish harp composer, Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738). Carolan’s music and life are legend in Ireland where a multitude of tales and superstitions surround his memory. Andy Dowling, a wonderful old dulcimer player from Clonmeen, near Rathdowney, County Liex, Ireland first introduced me to Carolan’s music on the dulcimer.

“Fanny Poer” is my favorite Carolan tune, written in the Italian baroque style (of which Carolan was a great fan), and was very popular in its day. Fanny was a woman from County Galway and a benefactor of Carolan’s. The tune is sometimes known as “Mrs. Trench of Barbally,” as Fanny married a Richard Trench.

“Planxty Irwin,” another tune in the Italian baroque style, is one of Carolan’s tunes that is currently very well known and recorded. A planxty is a tune written in honor of a particular friend or benefactor.

Deep Settled Peace
words & music by Kate Peters Sturgill

John: guitar & vocal

Kate Sturgill was living in the little town of Josephine (near Norton), Va. when I first met her in 1973. She was born and raised in the Norton area, her father (the son of Irish immigrants) a foreman on the L&N railroad and her mother from a long line of singers native to the Wise County area. Her early years included playing in a string band with her brothers in 1914 and 1915 and from 1927-29 played with the Lonesome Pine Trailers, a popular local group that played intermittently on WOPI in Bristol and WEHC out of Emory and Henry College in Abingdon. Later years found Kate working in a WPA project organizing music programs and teaching guitar. From 1947 to 1954 Kate and Mrs. Meadie Moles broadcast on WNVA (Norton) as the Cumberland Valley Girls. The fifteen-minute program was aired twice weekly and included religious and sentimental songs, many of which Kate had written herself. Kate also teamed with “Windy” Wampler in the early fifties for a Sunday morning gospel program, also on WNVA.

Kate’s songs, through her radio career, her frequent appearances and her generous sharing among friends and fellow musicians, are well known in many parts of southwest Virginia. Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Va. produced a limited edition album of Kate’s music—thanks to the efforts of George and Sherrod Reynolds and Roddy Moore. Since Kate’s death in 1975, the album, along with a small songbook, are cherished remembrances of this strong, sensitive woman.

I found no rest for my soul
Till I heard that story told
Now I am in the shepherd’s fold
And there’s a deep settled peace in my soul

There’s a deep settled peace in my soul
I’ve been redeemed and made whole
I’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb
And I know I understand
That deep settled peace in my soul

Let not your heart be troubled so
If to Jesus you will go
And in Him you’ll learn to know
About the deep settled peace in your soul Chorus

And when death around you lies
And you must cross that great divide
If you have Jesus on your side
There’ll be a deep settled peace in your soul Chorus

Peekaboo Waltz/Niskayuna Ramble
traditional/Paul Van Arsdale

John: fiddle
Paul: hammer dulcimer
Ruth: piano

The “Peekaboo Waltz” was a popular tune in the early part of this century, recorded by Uncle Dave Macon among others. Jesse Martin, Paul’s grandfather, is the source for this version. We follow this tune with another original tune of Paul’s. Both of us were invited to a wonderful festival at the Niskayuna, NY high school, produced and pulled-off by the students. It was one of the first festivals Paul was invited to, and he presented the students with this tune at the evening concert.

Ninety Years Old
words & music by Frankie Taylor and Jack Wright

John: fiddle & vocal

“Ninety Years Old” is a product of one of the most prolific, yet obscure, songwriting teams in the Southeast, my friends and neighbors, Frankie Taylor and Jackie Wright. The song, they claim, was inspired by a pair of elderly lovers they surprised one day out at the Hanging Rock, above Dungannon, Va.

Well I’m ninety years old and I’m courtin’ today
I’m ninety years and I’m on my way
I can’t play the fiddle like I used to could
But I can roll in the hay like anyone should

Well, Ma’s in the grave and the kids are grown
Sometimes I feel one half alone
But the other half’s here and it’s rarin’ to go
I know a pretty little widow with hair like snow Chorus

The boys up the holler all giggle at me
I guess they’ll laugh till eternity
But I ain’t just born and I ain’t quite dead
I got a clean white shirt and my blood’s still red Chorus

You want to go with me, my friend?
We’ll settle on down to some old time sin
Won’t be no flowers when I’m through
Just send a dozen to Parthy and six to Sue Chorus