Help finding crooked tunes

**lgc** · Nov-02-2011, 9:41am

Hi all,
So I'm starting a project based in crooked fiddle tunes. I was hoping folks could recommend some. By crooked I mean tunes that extra or missing beats in them. Telling me where I can find said tunes would be great too. Any help would be appreciated.

Silas

**Fred Keller** · Nov-02-2011, 9:51am

Start with Ed Haley! Salyer and Clyde Davenport have some too. Those Kentucky fiddlers just seem averse to playing 8 bars at a time

**Perry** · Nov-02-2011, 11:33am

This book which has a gazillion tunes designates the crooked ones with an asterisk near the title.

Check out how Thile/Daves turned Billy in the Lowground into a crooked tune...

**Matt Witler** · Nov-02-2011, 11:46am

Chinquapin Hunting (the old time version in A, completely different from the tune by the same name in D)
Ways of the World
Tennessee Mountain Foxchase
Five Miles From Town
Tim O'Brien's "The Crossing"

Just a few good ones I could think of off the top of my head...

**Janos** · Nov-02-2011, 12:42pm

Bill Monroe wrote a lot of tunes with extra beats like 'Wheel Hoss'. I like the old time tune 'Boys, them buzzards are flying'.

**Jim Garber** · Nov-02-2011, 3:40pm

Mississippi was also a hotbed of some seriously crooked tunes. Here are a few.

Check out this disc.

Another completely different genre that loves crooked tunes are the Quebecois (French Canadian).

**Paul Kotapish** · Nov-03-2011, 11:54am

Here's a great book of Airs Tordu (Crooked Tunes) from Quebec: http://www.trentesouszero.com/100.html

And here's a fabulous (and influential) recording of all crooked tunes from the wonderful Les Têtes de violon: http://www.trentesouszero.com/001.html

**Jim Nollman** · Nov-03-2011, 12:06pm

My favorite is Wild Rose of the Mountain by JP Fraley. Not to be confused with one or perhaps two very "uncrooked" Scottish tunes of the same name.

http://youtu.be/-Mo63u5b3z4

**Jim Nollman** · Nov-03-2011, 3:43pm

Here's the JP Fraley wobbly and crooked tune.

**Jim Garber** · Nov-03-2011, 3:48pm

[QUOTE=Jim Nollman;982596]Here's the JP Fraley wobbly and crooked tune.
One of my very favorite tunes from way back from one of my favorite fiddlers. Actually Aly Bain is no slouch either. Thanks, Jim, for the post.

There is another crooked tune, also from Kentucky called Rose of the Mountain (not Wild) -- different tune but also nice and crooked as well. Here are a couple of versions.

**Gary S** · Nov-03-2011, 8:51pm

How bout "Bath House Blues"?

**allenhopkins** · Nov-04-2011, 12:22pm

Jenny On the Railroad, Carter Brothers & Son:

Listen to anything you can find by Carter Brothers & Son; one of the wildest, weirdest bands of the hillbilly era.

**Jim Garber** · Nov-04-2011, 12:50pm

Hey, Allen (fellow mando accumulator) great minds run in the same gutter. Love those Carter Brothers and their little liver pills.

**Jim Nollman** · Nov-04-2011, 1:07pm

Hey guys, this is starting to get interesting. Imagine a 5 CD compilation entitled The Crooked Greatest Hits. Makes me wonder what's the world's MOST CROOKED TUNE.

And a question: do slip jigs count as crooked tunes?

When i first heard this tune, Waverly, it fooled me as being the usual quick and easy modal tune. When I sat down to learn it one evening with an iPod headphone stuck in one ear, I quickly realized that the B part has a camouflaged measure that's missing from the A.

**Jim Garber** · Nov-04-2011, 1:48pm

Nice tune that Waverly. That one has beats missing from the B part for sure but it snakes around so nicely. A serpentime tune -- not raggedly crooked.

Originally Posted by Jim Nollman

And a question: do slip jigs count as crooked tunes?

Not normally: if they are uniformly 9/8 then they are not crooked. I think the definition of crooked is that they are either missing beats or have extra ones that make the parts non uniform in length.

**Charles E.** · Nov-14-2011, 7:33pm

A lot of nice tunes here. I think fiddle players made up crooked tunes to irritate the guitar and bass players.

**Jim Yates** · Feb-18-2012, 1:20am

How about Clinch Mountain Backstep?

**AKmusic** · Feb-19-2012, 12:27pm

Jenny Git Around

**journeybear** · Feb-19-2012, 3:50pm

Heck, even "Uncle Pen" has a little hitch in its giddy-up. Ain't no part of nothin' less'n you're playin' with fellers what ain't with you. Sometimes it's best to play instrumentals regular (even), as somehow the singing gives you cues where the crooked bits are; without 'em it's easy to get lost.

Cajun music is full of crookedness. My band is heading into a very busy week with Mardi Gras, and all sorts of stuff is bound to come up. I'll try to take note of them. One song in particular is a gem - drops a beat in one line, adds one in the next (maybe t'other way 'round), so it ends up being regular - sort of.