Rye Whiskey (Devil's Waltz) | Performance 2
Added 2018-09-05 15:38:44 +0000 UTCI decided to upload a current performance as I've probably changed considerably since those older videos were taken. Discussion and Close-Up to follow!
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This tune is played by traditional folk musicians from Georgia to Arizona and as far north as the famous Métis fiddlers of Canada. I first learned it from a recording of east Kentucky banjoist Lee Sexton and went on to play it alongside fiddlers Matt Kinman, Steve Kruger and Dave Wood in North Carolina.
In the southern Appalachians it is mostly known by the titles "Rye Whiskey," "Drunken Hiccups" or "Jack of Diamonds." I recently discovered that in Canada the same tune (often played without singing) is known as the "Devil's Waltz." It is typical of southeastern fiddlers to sing with this piece and many also include actual "hiccups" as North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell often did.
Comments
While originating in Austrian and Swizz folk dances, the waltz was introduced by a great wave of commercial performers and publishers as an international social dance largely in the middle 19th century much like minstrelsy was with the most famous writers and band leaders like the Strauss's touring their bands on both sides fo the Atlantic. Methinks many would have felt a waltz was a bit immoral with the amount of physical contact possible!
Tony Thomas
2018-09-13 18:43:58 +0000 UTCYes, I used to play the song occasionally for people who wanted to square dance, flatfoot or two-step with a partner so for that type of audience I would often break into the faster up-picking version after playing it through as a waltz a few times. During all of my five years living in Watauga County, NC I played for more than a handful of dances but I hardly ever saw anyone dance to any waltz music--although we often played waltzes. I noticed that people outside of town limits rarely waltzed (they buck danced and two-stepped) but when we played waltzes for students and professors in Boone there would be couples who knew how to waltz.
Clifton Hicks
2018-09-05 18:07:52 +0000 UTCClifton, can you comment on one of your older videos where you transition from 2-finger to overhand (and upstroke)....you seem to break the 3/4 count (waltz timing), however the overall rhythm of the song sort -of stays intact.... It's a nice effect.
Justin Hoffmann
2018-09-05 17:57:17 +0000 UTC
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