Jimmy Ranvul- Currence Hammonds (WV) c. 1907
[From: Bob Dalsemer as collected circa 1978. Currence (b. 1898) Hammons' uncle was teh famous fiddler and patriarch of the Hammonds family Edden Hammons. Currence learned this from his mother when he was a boy. Currance and his wife, Mintie, were documented by Gerald Milnes in 1975. Two articles follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
Excerpt from "Edden Hammons: Portrait of a West Virginia Fiddler":
Currence Hammonds of Huttonsville, West Virginia, Edden's nephew and musical protégé while the family was living in Randolph County, recalls the consequences of one prolonged Saturday-night performance.
Currence: You know the last time I played with that feller, my uncle, at a dance, was me and him and old Ed Long, and ah, that, oh I can't think of his name. They lived down there right up from that old Ed Long. We went over to Father's Creek. There was a fellow that lived there. I forget their name. They lived there. I never was over but oncet or twicet. And we played a piece there. We went over on Saturday night, to play for a dance. But now Edden, he never would play till twelve o'clock on Saturday night. Twelve o' clock come and Edden quit. Yes sir, he wouldn't play. But they kept on to play for another set, you know, it was after twelve o' clock. And now Edden said, 'Listen,' he said, 'I don't play after twelve o'clock for dances.' He said, 'Just to sit and listen at I'll play some.' 'Oh, it won't hurt you tonight, play for another set, we'll give you an extra dollar!' 'Well,' Edden said, 'I'll play for another set.' He played for it, me and him, I was playing the banjo.
We was coming back home, and was all a-riding horses, horseback, from old Father's Creek back to Ed Long's. And we got right on top of the mountain, there's an old skidder there that they skidded logs from down in there up the top of the hill. Well, just as we got to the top of that, right on top of the mountain - I can show just right where it was at - Edden, him and Ed, was in front of me with Worthy Dicks, that's who it was, Worthy Dicks. Me and Worthy was behind them a-riding, you know. Edden all at once just stopped and said, 'Looky there! ' Ed Long he was about drunk. Oh, he was so drunk, he couldn't hardly set on the horse. 'Now a what do you see, Edmund?' He called him Edmund all the time. Edden said, 'Look back yonder.' And I'd swear that there was a red streak went right through the sky, but it went thisaway, right across like that. And it wasn't over the wide, when we saw it. And it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and just now, I'm a-telling you it widened out as wide as this house. Clear across the sky. And you could see anything in that strip that you looked for ... you could see people there, you could see anything, in that light. And we just set there. Nobody never said a word. Just set and looking at it. And just now it just started, like that and it went clear back together, and when it went together, something went 'Boom!' Just like you know, thunder, low thunder. Nobody never said a word. We just started on with the horses and going down the hill. We wasn't a-talking any. And this fellow said, 'Edmund, did you ever see anything like that?' 'No my honour,' he said, 'I told you fellers to not play for a dance on Sunday night.' Now he said, 'Now I don't care if you give me twenty-five dollars the next time, I'll never play.'
Written by Bob Dalsemer:
In 1978-79 I spent 10 months as artist-in-residence in Randolph County, West Virginia. My job was to promote and present programs of traditional music and dance for schools and community groups. In the process I met a number of wonderful local musicians. Two of the most memorable were Currence and Minnie Hammonds of Huttonsville, WV. They were both born in 1898 and married in 1915, raising a family of nine children. Both came from musical families and they had a repertoire of songs that had been passed down for many generations. Currence’s cousins (who spelled their last name Hammons) and lived in neighboring Pocahontas County were the subjects of a series of documentary recordings by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.
I spent many happy times at Currence and Minnie’s home, visiting and being treated to their singing. They mostly sang unaccompanied in the old time ballad style that included such traditional vocal embellishments as sliding a note into falsetto at the end of a phrase. Currence also played old time clawhammer style banjo and Minnie used play too but by that time she had quit due to arthritis. They associated each song with a particular relative from whom they had learned it.
Since this is Halloween week, I’ll mention one of Currence’s favorite ballads, “Jimmy Ranvul” which has both a murder and a ghost. He told me:
“Now I always did like that one. You know the reason I always like it, my mother used to sing it. She’d sit and sing that of a night for us. In the fall you know, she’d sit spinning or knitting, singing that piece for us kids. We’d sit right there listening to her sing it. We’d make her sing it, maybe two or three times.”
There are many versions of this ballad. The Dillards had a bluegrass version called Polly Vaughn and there’s an Irish version called Molly Bawn. The young man is sometimes called Johnny Randle. The story is about a young man who goes hunting, mistakes his true love for a swan and accidentally kills her. He is arrested and about to be tried for murder when the ghost of his true love appears in court and gives exculpatory evidence.
Jimmy Ranvul- as sung by Currence Hammonds; learned from his mother circa 1907
Come all you young heroes who handles a gun
Beware of your shooting after the down sun
I’ll tell you of a circumstance that happened of late
That happened young Jimmy and his lovely maid
Jimmy was a-hunting out late in the dark
He shot Molly Bender and he missed not his mark
Well, he ran up to her and found she was dead
In front of her bosom a tear Jimmy shed.
Well he run back home again with his gun in his hand
Dearest uncle, dearest uncle, Molly Bender I’ve killed
Out stepped his old father with his locks very gray
“Stay at home its young Jimmy, do not run away.”
“Stay at home its young Jimmy, til your trial will draw near
The laws of our country will set Jimmy clear.”
The day of Jimmy’s trial her ghost did appear
With her apron pinned around her, saying “Jimmy come clear.”
You can take all these pretty girls and place them in a row
Molly Bender shone amongst them like mountains of snow
Molly Bender she’s dead and almost are gone
With her apron pinned around her, she was shot for a swan.