California Blues: A Song History
"California Blues" is an old-time fiddle tune that the Traditional Tune Archive credits to Charlie Stripling of Alabama, listing among its sources his 1936 Decca recording, made in New Orleans.[1] Stripling, born in 1896 in northeastern Pickens County, got his first tunes from a neighbor, Plez Carroll, and in time made his home in Lamar County.[2] Backed by his brother Ira on guitar, he won a string of local fiddle contests, and the pair made records as the Stripling Brothers for Brunswick in 1928 and 1929 and for Decca in 1934 and 1936.[2]
Albert Bierstadt, Mount Starr King, Yosemite, oil on canvas, 1866. A California landscape, shown for the tune's title; it has no connection to the tune.
The brothers cut "California Blues" on March 12, 1936, one of fourteen sides from that day's session.[3] Decca issued it on a 78 with "Late in the Evening," from the same date, on the other side.[4] The Tune Archive lists it as a two-part tune in D major.[5] That New Orleans session was the duo's last, since hard Depression times ended the partnership after it.[2] As for the title, an anecdote the Tune Archive credits to Kerry Blech has Stripling's son Robert asking why it was named for a state his father had never visited, and getting the answer, "Son, you gotta call it something."[1]
The brothers' recordings have since been reissued: County Records put thirteen of their sides on an album in 1971, and Document Records released their complete recorded works in 1997.[2] The Traditional Tune Archive lists "California Blues" in Stacy Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Volume 2 (1995), and on a 2001 album by Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky and others.[1] Mark Gilston includes it in More American Old Time Tunes For Dulcimer, a collection of old-time American tunes; the book's alphabetical tune list marks it with the state name Alabama.[6]
Sources
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: California Blues".
- Encyclopedia of Alabama: "Charlie Stripling".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Recordings made Thursday, March 12, 1936".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Decca 5246 (10-in. double-faced)".
- Traditional Tune Archive: "California Blues".
- Mark Gilston: "More American Old Time Tunes For Dulcimer".
- Image: Albert Bierstadt, Mount Starr King, Yosemite, oil on canvas, 1866. The Cleveland Museum of Art.