Chinese Breakdown: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"Chinese Breakdown" is an old-time fiddle tune whose origins are uncertain. The Traditional Tune Archive lists it as a reel and notes that it has travelled widely: across the American South, Midwest and North, and on into Canada, England and Scotland. It is also known as "Chinese Rag," and the archive cross-references it with titles such as "Georgia Breakdown" and "Beaver Valley Breakdown."[1] The same reference records one tentative idea about its origin, which credits Joel Shimberg: Fred Roe of the Walker Mountain String Band may have composed it. It is offered only as a possibility, not a settled fact.[1] The reliable sources consulted here do not explain where the "Chinese" in the title came from.

1941 photograph of fiddler Ed Larkin playing for square dances at the Tunbridge World's Fair in Vermont

Jack Delano, “Fiddler, Mr. Ed. Larkin, for the square dances at the World's Fair at Tunbridge, Vermont,” photograph, September 1941 (detail). Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

The tune turns up on several hillbilly 78s from the late 1920s. Under the title "Chinese Rag," a little-documented band called the Spooney Five recorded it for Columbia (15234-D). New World Records dates that recording to about 1929, while one discographic index gives November 8, 1927.[2][3] New World later reissued it on its anthology Maple Leaf Rag: Ragtime in Rural America.[2] The Scottdale String Band, named for a mill village near Atlanta, recorded "Chinese Breakdown" in Atlanta in 1927 for OKeh (45103), and Jack Reedy & His Walker Mountain String Band issued it on Brunswick 221 in 1928. Hoke Rice also recorded it for the QRS label.[1] Folklorists found it in the field as well. John A. and Ruby T. Lomax recorded fiddler Frank Goodwyn, with Manuel Salinas, playing it in Texas on April 29, 1939.[4] In the early 1940s Vance Randolph recorded Ozark fiddlers playing it for the Library of Congress.[1]

The folk revival brought the tune to new players. The New Lost City Ramblers recorded it on their 1964 Folkways album String Band Instrumentals.[5] The Tune Archive classes it as Canadian as well as American, and among its printed sources is Don Messer's 1980 Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes.[1] The key depends on who is playing it. Most printed versions are in C, but Oregon fiddlers and many others play it in D.[6]

Find books with Chinese Breakdown for sale →

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Chinese Breakdown (1)".
  2. New World Records: Liner notes to Maple Leaf Rag: Ragtime in Rural America (NW 235).
  3. Folk Music Index to Recordings (ibiblio): "Chim to Cioz".
  4. Association for Cultural Equity: "Inspiration: Instrumentalists from the 1939 Texas Recordings".
  5. Smithsonian Folkways: "Chinese Breakdown" – The New Lost City Ramblers.
  6. Oregon Old Time Fiddlers Association: "Tune of the Month: Chinese Breakdown" (Sept. 2023).