Cotton Eyed Joe-Wilson Douglas

"Cotton-Eyed Joe" is an old song played as a fiddle tune by a great many West Virginia old time fiddlers. This Wikipedia entry has some interesting history about the song.

Drop down a couple posts for a video of Lester McCumbers playing "Cotton-Eyed Joe". Lester lives in Calhoun County, right next door to Clay County. As a matter of fact, some of Lester's ancestors moved (under interesting circumstances) to Calhoun County from the area known as Booger Hole in Clay County.

Wilson Douglas grew up on his family's farm on a hill above Rush's Creek (overlooking Booger Hole). Here Wilson plays Cotton-Eyed Joe for a fiddle master class at the Augusta workshops in 1995. I believe my photo of Wilson at left is from the same week. The tempo is slow on this recording, but once he gets going with the guitar (Leslie Green), it is really very close to the pace he usually played it at that time. In earlier years he played at a brisker speed. I like both; Wilson put a lot of feeling into every tune no matter what the speed. When you've been listening to music played at a fast pace, moderate can sound really slow, but Wilson's playing never seemed slow in context. Listen to Wilson's CD Fiddle Tunes From Central West Virginia (a compilation of two cassette tapes that had been released earlier) for his mature playing. Directions for ordering the CD are at the bottom of this tribute page put together by Kim Johnson, or you can also order it here.

Earlier, up tempo versions can be heard on the 1974 LP The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek and on Hot From the Kitchen. Rounder has re-released The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek on CD and includes extensive liner notes. You can listen to sound samples (including Cotton-Eyed Joe) on the Rounder site and also download the liner notes, though I was not able to open either the sound or pdf files on my computer. Wilson told Kim Johnson that Rounder was originally going to call the album Booger Hole, but Wilson said, "My mother'd kill me". Whatever the name, the CD is a treasure (in spite of a bit of a mismatch with the backup musicians). If anybody has played "Yew Piney Mountain' better (solo fiddle for that track), it isn't on record.

While looking for a source for Hot From the Kitchen, I found it as Dwight Diller's Feb 07 pick of the month on his Morning Star Folk Arts site. Dwight gives it a five star recommendation (out of five). That's good enough for me. These field recordings by Tom Brown in 1973 are the real deal. This CD is pure raw West Virginia old time music. The sound is rough, but the music is great. Pay some attention to the guitar backup by Wilson's uncle, Gruder Morris (not that you could miss it). That's the way Wilson liked it. I'd love to see this style of backup resurface; the rhythm sounds a lot like what is used "beating straws" (fiddlesticks). Here's a source with some sound samples (including Cotton-Eyed Joe). This is my favorite recording of Wilson playing Cotton-Eyed Joe.

Wilson Douglas learned a great deal of his fiddling from fellow Clay County fiddler French Carpenter. Wilson liked to say that he apprenticed with French. You can really hear the influence in the two earliest recordings. I hope to be able to post some recordings of French Carpenter soon.