The Session: Tunes - Log Drivers (slide)

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Every Canadian over 30 has heard this tune

This is the Log Drivers Waltz from the NFB animated short that used to play on TV all the time when I was a kid.

# Posted on March 30th 2007 by Panhandlephillips

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPDi9DzihrE

# Posted on March 30th 2007 by Panhandlephillips

So, are you going to add the lyrics too? That poor concertina...

# Posted on March 30th 2007 by ceolachan

So panhandlephillips, who wrote it?

# Posted on March 30th 2007 by ceolachan

Wade Hemsworth wrote the Log Driver's Waltz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Hemsworth

I prefer it as a waltz.

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by McMandolin

Rustic Dance

This is a well-known tune that I thought went back quite a ways. The old-timers played this in Missouri in my youth, although it could have been written in the 1930-50s and picked up off the radio. Mid-Missouri fiddlers did listen to Canadian fiddle programs. It went by the title of "Rustic Dance."

From the Fiddler's Companion:

RUSTIC DANCE--SCOTTISCHE [3], THE. AKA and see "Billy Wilson's Clog,” “California Dance,” “California Hornpipe,” "Evening Pleasures Schottische," “Kenion Clog,” “The Mason-Dixon Schottische,” “Nightingale (Clog) [2],” "O Dear Mother My Toes Are Sore [1]," “Parkersburg Landing,” “Peacock Rag,” “Rustic Hornpipe,” “Starlight Clog,” “Wilson’s Clog [2].” American, Canadian; Schottische. USA; Missouri, Nebraska, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, New York. D Major (Christeson): C Major (Messer). Standard. AABB (Messer): ABC (Christeson). A common, though widely varied dance tune in the East, Midwest and other parts of the country. It can be heard rendered in various rhythms, including a schottische, although some maintain that it is actually a difficult tune to perform that dance to. Northeastern Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley told writer and old-time fiddler Kerry Blech that a lot of the old-timers in his area played it but that he did not recall anyone dancing to it. Musicologist Jim Kimball, however, reports the tune is commonly played for a schottische for community dances in western New York and that fiddler Mark Hamilton plays a two part version in C which he calls "Humpty Dumpty Schottische.” He thinks his dad learned it when visiting the Toronto World's Fair in 1902. Fiddler Lauchlin Shaw, from the North Carolina piedmont region, had the tune in his repertoire, learned from Virgil Craven. Fiddler Les Raber of Hastings, Michigan, played the tune in the key of C Major, as did Lonnie Austin of the Spray/Eden area of North Carolina. West Virginia traditional musician Burl Hammons played it on the banjo and called it “Wilson’s Clog.” Source for notated version: Bob Walters (Burt County, Nebraska) [Christeson]. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 2), 1984; pg. 107. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 164, pg. 111 (appears as “Clog in C Major”). County Records, Babe Spangler – “Old Virginia Fiddlers” (appears as “Schottische”). County 723, Oscar Jenkins ‑ "Back Home in the Blue Ridge." Edison Records (78 RPM), John Baltzell {Ohio} (1928). MSOTFA 007, Charlie Walden - "Draggin the Bow" (1985). Smithsonian/Folkways, Burl Hammons – “The Hammons Family.” Walter McNew (Ky.) – “Black Jack Grove.”

--rogmc

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by rogmc

? ~ cut-and-paste ~ ? ~ except that a 'schottische' is 4/4 and this transcription is not???

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

It wouldn't be the first time a swung 4/4 tune were notated otherwise... :-/

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

Log driver

Here is a version that is similar to what is played on the video above.

T:The Log Driver's Waltz
M:3/4
L:1/4
K:G
D/2D/2D/2 | D B G | D2 D/2D/2 | E c A | E2 E |
D F A | d d d | e d ^c | d z D |
D B G | D ^C D | E =c A | E2 E/2E/2 |
D d3/2 d/2 | d =c A | B G G | d e f |
g2 d | B2 d | c2 e | e c2 |
B d3/2 d/2 | d c B | A3/2 d/2 d | d e f |
g2 d | B2 d | c2 e | e c3/2 c/2 |
B d d | d c B | A2 d | B G2 |

It is a modified version from this website:

http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiLOGDRIVR;ttLOGDRIVR.html

When I play it as a waltz, lot of people come waltzing because they know the tune...

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by Dr.Carabus

And here's the fiddler companion version

T:Log Driver's Waltz
L:1/16
M:12/16
K:G
B,C^C |: "G"D2B G2E "G"D2^C D2^D | "C"E2c A2c "C"E2E AG_G |
"D"F2c E2c "D"D2D DEF |1 "G"GBA GFE "G"D2D B,C^C :|2 "G"G2 z D2 z "G"G2 ||
d^cd |: "G"e2d B2G "G"D2G F2G | "C"A2G F2G "C"E2E A2G |
"D"F2c E2c "D"D2D DEF |1 "G"GBA GFE "G"D2 z d^cd :|2 "G"G2 z D2 z "G"G2 |]

http://www.ceolas.org/cgi-bin/ht2/ht2-fc2/file=/tunes/fc2/fc.html&style=&refer=&abstract=&ftpstyle=&grab=&linemode=&max=250?log

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by Dr.Carabus

Schottisched ~

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

Carbus, we meet in the most unusual places... ;-)

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

It actually makes a nice schottische and even seems familiar to me... I'll have to do some more looking...

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

Via Carabus' link to "The Digital Mirror" ~ the lyrics

This would be a kick to play and sing for dancing...

The Log Driver's Waltz
(Wade Hemsworth, copyright)

If you should ask any girl from the parish around
What pleases her most from her head to her toes,
She'll say - I'm not sure that it's business of yours,
But I do like to waltz with a log driver.

Chorus: For he goes birling down a-down the white water;
That's where the log driver learns to step lightly.
It's birling down, a-down white water;
A log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

When the drive's nearly over, I like to go down
To see all the lads while they work on the river.
I know that come evening they'll be in the town
And we all want to waltz with a log driver.

To please both my parents I've had to give way
And dance with the doctors and merchants and lawyers.
Their manners are fine but their feet are of clay
For there's none with the style of a log driver.

I've had my chances with all sorts of men
But none is so fine as my lad on the river.
So when the drive's over, if he asks me again,
I think I will marry my log driver.

Recorded by Kate and Anna McGarrigle for animated cartoon "Log Driver's Waltz" by Canada's National Film Board.

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

Nice schottisched version. I will try it. Most unusual places indeed ceolachan, I love this répertoire.

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by Dr.Carabus

"Ryan's Schottische" ~ D & G Major

Key signature: D Major (& G)
Submitted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7018

# Posted on March 31st 2007 by ceolachan

I think I heard a recording of that tune by Louis Boudreault or some fiddler from Quebec. Under what name I can't tell. (Log driver = draveur)

# Posted on July 21st 2009 by birlibirdie