George Gibson performs "Little Gold Fiddle"

George R. Gibson of Knott County, Kentucky performs the exceedingly rare cante-fable "Little Gold Fiddle" which he learned from his father Mal Gibson. The only other reference to this piece that we can find comes to us from Herbert Halpert's article "The Cante Fable in New Jersey" in the Journal of American Folklore (Vol. 55, No. 217; July-Sept. 1942). Halpert called it "The Irresistible Captain" and provided sheet music. Below is my transcription of the Gibson version:

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Way back yonder there was a man that waited late to get married. I think his mother might've given him a silver dollar every year to stay single. He was a fiddler. Now he finally found a good woman. He was up in age a little bit and he had money so he said, "Where would you like to honeymoon?" She said, "I'd like to be on the water; I've never been on the water before." So this fiddler had made a lot of money, he'd won a lot of fiddle contests. He had a little gold fiddle. So they went and they booked passage on a ship and the fiddler took his little gold fiddle with him and his little woman was with him. He got on this ship and the first night out the fiddler sat down with the captain and had some drinks with him after dinner. And they got to talking about women. The captain said, "I'm not married," said, "I know you're on your honeymoon." But he said, "I don't have to be married, I can have any woman I want." And the little gold fiddler got upset about that. He said, "No, you can't! You can't have MY woman!" And the captain said, "I'll bet my ship and cargo against your little gold fiddle I can have that woman of yours. Just give me one hour alone with her in a room." And they had a few drinks and the man with the little gold fiddle said, "I'll do that." So he got his wife and he took her to the captain's room and he said, "Now I want you to stay in here one hour." Se he closed the door and the man with the little gold fiddle got worried, so he got outside the door and he started playing that little gold fiddle and singing a little song:

Be true be true my own true love 

Be true for one short hour,

If you be true my own true love

This ship and cargo's ours!

So he kept playing then he stopped and he listened and he couldn't hear anything. So he played again:

Be true be true my own true love

Be true for two short hours.

So he stopped and he listened--couldn't hear a thing--and finally the little woman started singing and this is what she sung:

Too late too late too late too late

Too late my own true love,

He's been all round my middle twice--

"And you've lost your damned little gold fiddle!"

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In 2004 Gibson wrote of this song:

"My father played a song in this tuning [gCGCD] that is somewhat risqué. The title of the song is 'Little Gold Fiddle' and it is the only song of this type I heard in Knott County. The song involves alternately talking and singing. A song of this type is called a Cante-Fable, or song-story in French, and is from a European tradition dating back to the middle ages. 'Little Gold Fiddle' was a favorite song of a sister who has been deceased for several years. I have played the song only once since she died. The one time I played the song was for the writer James Still. He requested I play the song because he said my father had played it for him. I put the song on a cassette tape and mailed it to James. I imagine it might be at the University of Kentucky since they now have most of Still's materials."