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Callahan
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- Southwest Va., Eastern Tenn., Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri.
ARTIST: From Mel Bay's Frailing Banjo
Listen: Dykes Magic City Trio- Callahan's Reel
Listen: Fiddlin Powers- Callahan's Reel
Listen: McKinley Asher- (Banjo) Callahan
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes.
DATE: 1937
RECORDING INFO: Alden, Ray. Old Time Friends, Marimac 9009, Cas (1987), cut# 8. Baker, Kenny; and Joe Greene. High Country, County 714, LP (1968), cut#A.06. Chancellor, Jim "Texas Shorty". Texas Shorty and John Hartford. Old Sport, Small Dog A-Barking SD 494, Cas (1994), cut#B.01 (Old Sport). Davenport, Clyde. Clydeoscope, County 788, LP (1986), cut# 1. Hash, Albert; and the Whitetop Mountain Band. Whitetop, Heritage (Galax) 041, LP (198?), cut#A.04 (Old Sport). Hughes, Delbert. Home Recordings., Augusta Heritage AHR 015, Cas (1994), cut#A.04. Ledford, Lilly Mae. Banjo Pickin' Girl, Greenhays GR 712, LP (1983), cut# 9. McNew, Walter. Black Jack Grove, Appalachian Center Ser. AC005, Cas (1993), cut#B.07b. Northcutt, Bill. Old Time Hoedown, Stoneway STY 103, LP (196?), cut# 10 (Old Sport). Rosenbaum, Art (Arthur). Folk Banjo Styles, Elektra EKL-217, LP (195?), cut# 13. Rosenbaum, Art (Arthur). Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald OTH, Ser (1987-), 5/2, p44. Shelor Family. Eight Miles Apart, Heritage (Galax) 022, LP (1979), cut# 5. Columbia (15570, 78 RPM), Roane County Ramblers (eastern Tenn., as "Callahan Rag" {1929}). County 403, Roane County Ramblers. County 788, Clyde Davenport - "Clydescope: Rare & Beautiful Tunes from the Cumberland Plateau" (1986). Gennett 16087 (78 RPM), Fiddlin' Doc Roberts & Asa Martin (1930. An unrealeased master). Marimac 9009, Dave Spilkia - "Old Time Friends" (1987). Old Homestead OHCS191, Dykes Majic City Trio (eastern Tenn.), originally recorded for Brunswick/Vocalation 5181 (1927). Rounder CD-0376, George Lee Hawkins - "Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, Vol. 1" (1997). Victor 19450 (78 RPM) {as "Callahan's Reel"} Fiddlin Cowan Powers (1877-1952?, Russell County, S.W. Va. {1924}). (Callahan) Vertie's Dream from husband/wife duo Carol Elizabeth Jones and James Leva.
OTHER NAMES: “Death of Callahan;” “John Callahan;” "Callahan's Reel," "Callahan Rag," "Fiddler's Farewell," "Last of Callahan," "McClahan's March" “Last of Sizemore”
RELATED TO: "Old Sport"
SOURCES: Mel Bay's Frailing Banjo; Lomax- Our Singing Country; Cyril Stinnet (Mo.) [Christeson]. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 2), 1984; pg. 18. Hiram Stamper of Knott County, KY played “Callahan” for the Morehead State University Vintage Fiddlers Oral History Project; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "A Major. Standard, AEAE. The piece is known simply as "Callahan" in Patrick County, southwestern Va., where it is regarded as one of the older pieces in the fiddler's repertoire and predates the "string band" genre tunes which featured banjo/fiddle combinations (Tom Carter & Blanton Owen, 1976). Bobby Fulcher (1986) concurs regarding the age of the melody and says it belongs to a group of archaic tunes characterized by cross tunings, elaborate bowings and eccentric melody lines: "These droning exotic, richly flavored tunes were not to be danced to, or accompanied by other instruments, but just made interesting listening." Clyde Davenport (b. 1921), of Monticello, Ky., had the tune from his father, who picked it and other similar tunes up from a man named Will Phipps, an "old-timer" from Rock Creek, Tennessee (who is remembered for being buried with his fiddle in his coffin). Farther west, the title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Mark Wilson (in the liner notes to Vol 1 of "Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky") points out that the tune "radically shifts" in fiddle versions from east to west across the state of Kentucky, until it seems that the only similarities between extremes are a similar ascending and descending lines over a drone 'A' chord." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
NOTES ABOUT THE LEGEND: A fiddler named Callahan in Manchester, Clay County, Ky. had killed someone in a feud and was put in jail. His fiancee, Bessie Martin (Bessie Larkin), married him after he was in jail and lived in the jail with him. Sentenced to be hung, as a last request Callahan asked if someone would play a tune on his fiddle, he would give him the fiddle. When no one came to play his fiddle, Callahan broke the fiddle over his casket." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"The legend that the tune was written by a condemned man just before he was executed by hanging is a centuries old tale primarily attached to the Scottish outlaw Macpherson (see "Macpherson's Farewell"), hanged in Banff in the year 1700. D. W. Wilgus, in his article "The Hanged Fiddler Legend in Anglo-American Tradition," extensively explores the "Callahan" legend, first collected in 1909 by Katherine Jackson French near Louden, Kentucky, from two boys who "played and sang 'Callahan's Confession.'" A report by E.C. Perrow in the Journal of American Folklore (25) in 1912 gave that "Some years ago an outlaw named Callahan was executed in Kentucky. Just before his execution he sat on his coffin and played and sang a ballad of his own composing, and, when he had finished, broke his musical instrument over his knee." This story, in almost exactly the same words, was related by elderly Bell County, Kentucky, fiddler Estill Bingham (1899-1990) to Bob Butler and Bruce Greene, also appearing in Suzy Jones Oregon Folklore (Bingham had moved to Oregon for a time before returning to Kentucky)." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
One I never have heard played nowhere only around amongst a few old fiddlers there (i.e. Kentucky). It was called 'Callahan.' My dad played it, and they's a story goes with it. Well, they had this man Callahan up to be hung. And he had his casket made and brought there to the scaffold where they was aimin' to hang him, and they asked him if he wanted any request, any last request- and he was a fiddler so he said he'd like to play one more tune. So they give him his fiddle and he set on the end of his casket and played that tune. And he said, 'If they's anybody can play that tune any better 'n I can, I'll give 'em my fiddle.' The story goes that nobody tried, and he busted his fiddle over the end of his casket." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"Elderly sources swear the Callahan story "really happened" in Clay County, Kentucky, though other locales also claim the honor. One such elderly source, one Oscar Parks of Deuchars, Indiana, recounted the story to Alan Lomax in 1938. Parks was originally from Livingston County, Kentucky, and had the tale from an old man in nearby Jackson County. According to this version John Callahan was being hanged for killing a man in the course of a feud. This Callahan offered his fiddle to anyone who would join him on the gallows and "sit down with him and play that tune1/4" and when no one dared for fear of being involved in the feud Callahan "busted that fiddle all to pieces overt that coffin" (Prior to his death Callahan supposedly married his sweetheart, Betty Larkin, and lived with her "for several months" in the jail in Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky--an interesting union of "Callahan" with the Southern play-party song "Betsy Larkin," "Betsy Diner" or "Rosa Betsy Lina"). Wilgus found there were Callahans (and indeed one John Abe Callahan) involved in feuds in Kentucky, albeit in Breathitt County, and none were recorded as having been hung." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"Another version of the tale was supplied by a Mrs. Herman R. Staten of Paris, Kentucky, who wrote to the Archive of American Folksong soon after World War II to say that she was a Callahan descendent and that her fiddler-father and an elderly relative told her that the Callahan of the tale was an Isaac Callahan who died in the middle of the 19th century, and "knowing he was to hang, he built his coffin, and taking his fiddle he played while his sister danced upon his coffin." Similar to this is a note by A. Porter Hamblen which gives that Callahan was convicted of murdering a Jewish peddler and was hanged at Barbourville, Kentucky, on May 15, 1835--"At the hour of his execution he requested to be allowed to play a farewell on his violin. While seated on his coffin he played this tune which since has borne his name. He then handed the violin to the sherrif, was lead onto the gallows and the trap sprung, sending Callahan to his maker." Kentucky banjo player Pete Steele (living in Hamilton Ohio) told musicologist Alan Lomax in 1938 the Callahan tale with emphasis on the disposition of the fiddle. In this variant the condemed man sits on his coffin at the place of execution and declares as his last wish that he wants to play "Callahan," and further, that if anyone in the crowd can also play the tune then that individual will be given the fiddle. Someone does play "Callahan," the fiddle is transferred to a new owner and the event proceeds." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"D.W. Wilgus says that some eastern Kentucky and West Virginia sources give the title as "Calloway" (see note below), and place the event in Madison, Boone County, W.Va., dated around 1850. Marion Thede published a version of the piece played by Oklahoma and Arkansas fiddlers as "The Last of Callahan" with the particularly western variant that Callahan was a horse thief caught by a posse and about to be summarily hung. While standing in a wagon underneath a tree limb with a noose around his neck, Callahan was asked for his last words. The outlaw requested instead to play the fiddle one more time, and with the noose still around his neck he played a tune, the likeness of which is remembered as "The Last of Callahan," and handed his fiddle down to one of the bystanders at the fateful event. See also notes for "MacPherson's Lament," "Coleman's March" and "Pennington's Lament." In the repertoire of Kentucky fiddler William H. Stepp, who recorded for the Library of Congress in 1937. Eastern Kentucky fiddler Luther Strong's version was transcribed for John and Allan Lomax's book Our Singing Country (1941)." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"Despite the assertion by Wilgus that "Calloway" is a variant of the "Callahan" title, it seems that most of the "Calloway" pieces are a family of (primarily) banjo tunes unrelated to "Callahan" (which itself has a wide variation in melodic contours). There is much variation in collected versions of both tunes, and perhaps a bit of overlap, however. Morgan Sexton (1911-1992) played a "Last of Callahan" in the banjo tuning associated with "Calloway" (eCGCD) that in fact resembles some of the "Calloway" tunes. Hiram Stamper of Knott County, KY played “Callahan” for the Morehead State University Vintage Fiddlers Oral History Project. Says Stamper: “Some people call that tune “Last of Sizemore” Sizemore and Callahan were both hung.” He also talks about Callahan playing the fiddle as his last request." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Luther Strong: "I learned 'Callahan* from one of them Jackson County fellows playing the fiddle and singing it. I used to hear an old man by the name of Bob Lehr play it and sing it in Jackson County. This many Callahany he killed somebody. This old man seen him hung} this man Bob Lehr did.
I'll tell you what he did, this Callahan. He was a fiddler and when they was about to hang him, he took his fiddle and he offered anybody, any fiddler that would come up there and sit down with him and play that tuney he'd give them that fiddle. And they wouldn't do it and when his last minute was up and they was fixing to trip the gallows with himy whyy he busted that fiddle all to pieces over that coffin. They was afraid to come up there and play with himy afraid some one would shoot themy and so he busted that fiddle all to pieces over the head of his own casket.
"It had been a feud. He had killed somebody in one of them feudses and they got him in jail. Bessie Larkin was a girl he married. They was engaged to be marriedy and he got into that troubley and she married him after he got in jail and went on to jail with him. They lived together in jaily yesy siry four or five months or maybe six or eight. She lived right there in the jail-house with himy married him in jail—she liked him. That was about thirty or maybe forty years ago in Manchestery down in Clay County. Ever since that time they've called this here tune 'Callahan.' "
[Below is a transcription of Strong's playing from Lomax]
Callahan- Mel Bay's Failing Banjo
Whatcha gonna do my pretty Betty Larkin,
Jury says I’m gonna be hung.
Whatcha gonna do my pretty Betty Larkin?
Oh, fare thee well, my pretty little miss,
Oh, fare thee well, my darling.
Who’ll take care of pretty Betty Larkin,
When John Callahan’s dead and gone?
Who’ll take care of pretty Betty Larkin,
Oh, fare thee well, my pretty little miss,
Oh, fare thee well, my darling.
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