Old Time Tune of the Month for September 2014: Hell Up Cole Holler

Here’s a great tune from Glen Lynn, Virginia fiddler Henry Reed (1884-1968). Alan Jabbour did a great deal of visiting with and recording of Henry Reed in the 1960s and his field recordings, notes, and transcriptions are now published on a wonderful website.  When I was seventeen, I spent a happy summer transcribing Henry Reed tunes for Alan as an intern at the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song, and have been a fan of Henry Reed’s eclectic grab bag of tunes and his inventive renditions ever since. Here is what Alan has to say about “Hell up Cole Holler”:
“Hell up Cole Holler” is a local favorite of the last generation in Monroe County and environs. Ross Miller of Monroe County played a similar tune called “Devil up a Stump,” which was recorded by the Hollow Rock String Band (Kanawha 311). The tune may have wider ramifications, but none can be shown here. It is of a type that sounds like a breakdown, but also has a touch of the country rag in it, underscored by its choice of the key of C and its alternations between (implied) tonic and dominant chords. A fragment of this tune appears again on AFS 13705b14, followed by a full performance of “Fiddler’s Drunk and the Fun’s All Over.”

Hell up Cole Holler (dance speed, mp3)[wpdm_file id=418]

Hell up Cole Holler (sheet music, pdf)[wpdm_file id=419]