Cheat River Waltz: A Song History

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"Cheat River Waltz" is a newer piece rather than a traditional fiddle tune: the old-time band Doofus calls it an original tune, and the digital release of the band's recording lists Neal Walters as its songwriter.[1][2] Doofus joined Neal and Coleen Walters, who live in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, with the Connecticut duo John and Heidi Cerrigione, and the band put the waltz on Handful of Songs, its second album, released in December 2000.[1][2][3] Walters had played in the Mill Run Dulcimer Band from 1979 to 2000, making eight albums with that group, and in Doofus he sings lead while switching among guitar, mountain dulcimer, banjo, mandolin and autoharp.[3] He and Coleen entered the Autoharp Hall of Fame in 2011.[3]

Painting of a broad river valley with farmland and a winding river, seen from a hillside with a large tree

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, oil on canvas, 1864. A Pennsylvania river valley rather than the Cheat, shown for its setting only.

The waltz should not be confused with "The Cheat River," an older D-major reel that Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981) prints from a Pennsylvania source, Berkey, noted in 1957; the river of that name runs from West Virginia to meet the Monongahela at Point Marion, Pennsylvania.[4] Walters's own arrangement, sold as single-tune sheet music, is a fifteen-page score with parts for two or more mountain dulcimers, chording guitar, fiddle, autoharp and hammered dulcimer, and its listing notes that a smaller group can play it from a selection of those parts.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Cheat River Waltz"

Sources

  1. Doofus Music: "Products".
  2. Apple Music: "Cheat River Waltz" by Doofus.
  3. Doofus Music: "About Us".
  4. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Cheat River (The)".
  5. Neal Walters: "Cheat River Waltz".
  6. Image: Jasper Francis Cropsey, Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, oil on canvas, 1864. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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