Old-Time TOTW #70 Happy Hollow (10/27/19)

This week's tune is Happy Hollow, from the playing of Marcus Lafayette Martin (2 August 1881--20 March 1974) of Macon Co., NC. He was the son of Nathaniel Rowan Martin (1857-?) and Rachel C. Morgan (1839-1915), who was born in TN. Martin married Callie D. Holloway (1895-1956) on 24 December 1911. (source for above: Ancestry) In addition to fiddle, Marcus played banjo, harmonica, dulcimer, and was an accomplished ballad singer. He learned most of his tunes and technique from his father, who was also a fiddler. In later years Martin said that his father "could play the sweetest you ever heard." Marcus often played unaccompanied for square dances in his youth. (above information from Blue Ridge National Heritage web page) Martin was recorded by various collectors in the 1940s. He more or less stopped playing by the early 1960s. He cross tuned quite a bit, and also employed low tuning. He is tuned quite low on his recording of Happy Hollow, done in 1941 (found on Larry Warren's Slippery-Hill.com). If we relate his pitch to the modern standards, he was tuned to the key of F, though a few cents sharp. He was in calico tuning, FCFA. I was pleasantly surprised to find this out when I listened to the source recording. I just learned the tune at the Crook Farm Old-Time Music Festival ("Crooktop") in Bradford, PA, this past August. I started a jam in F calico about midnight, and that went on for some time. Everybody was really enjoying the calico tunes played so low. Then Gray Buchanan came by to join us and called Happy Hollow. I think I had heard the title before, but I did not know the tune. Little did I know that we were tuned very close to where Mr. Martin was when he recorded the tune in 1941. My friend Noah Bowman informed me that an article from the banjo newsletter states that when Martin made the recordings for the Library of Congress, he talked a bit about the tunes before playing them. Martin said he learned Happy Hollow from Miss Dora Evans of Clay County, NC, and she wrote the tune. For this Old-Time TOTW recording, we were tuned to G calico (GDGB). I generally play calico tunes in GDGB, but will go down to FCFA, and even EBEG#. Oddly, I play them less often in AEAC# as most people do now. I often have people ask me what guides my decision to tune to a certain key. Why GDGB one day and FCFA the next? For me, fiddle tunings are about mood and tone color. It really all depends on how I'm feeling and what sound journey I want to take with my fiddle and the people playing with me. When I'm playing with larger groups of people, people who do not have much experience with low tuning, or people who do not feel comfortable with low tuning, I tune to the keys in which most play (GDAE, ADAE, and AEAE). In my travels, though, I have found that people are curious about low tunings/cross tunings and really enjoy trying them. Joining me here are friends Stephen Rapp on banjo (Kent, OH), Jeanie Creamer on guitar (Hocking Hills, OH), Bill Miller on bass (Bellville, OH), and some energetic dancing from our friend Bonny Shiplet. If it looks like we were having a good time, that would be an understatement! I love these folks and was very happy to make lots of great music with them on a trip to southern Ohio earlier this month with Stephen. Subscribe to my channel and join the Old-Time TOTW group on Facebook   / 331005451133333   See you next week for another great tune!