Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase: A Song History
“Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase” appears to be one of several names for the hunting song that the Traditional Ballad Index catalogs as “The Bear Chase,” in which hunters and their hounds set out after a bear or a deer and the dogs take up most of the story.[1] The Index does not list the jam title itself, but its references include versions printed as “The Deer Chase” in Lomax’s Folk Songs of North America and as “Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase” in Botkin’s Treasury of Southern Folklore, and it gives the song’s earliest date as 1922, from a text called “The Wild Ashe Deer” in the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.[1] The Index adds that Brown’s notes mention a printed song of that name from 1854, which seems to have been meant for schools, and it leaves open whether the folk song grew out of the print or the print was taken from tradition and polished.[1]
Thomas Rowlandson, Deer Hunting – A Landscape Scene with Stag and Hounds in a River, etching, 1787. An English hunt, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.
The jam title is close to that of a song recorded by Uncle Dave Macon (1870–1952), the banjo player and singer who was an early star of the Grand Ole Opry; the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists it as “Cumberland Mountain Deer Race,” while Smithsonian Folkways’ notes call it “Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase.”[2][3] He made two takes of it for Brunswick in Chicago on June 21, 1929, and recorded it again for Victor on January 26, 1938, at a session the Discography places in Charlotte, North Carolina, a location it marks as unconfirmed.[2][4] The 1938 recording was issued on Bluebird B-7951 and Montgomery Ward M-7463,[4] and in September 1941 it appeared on Victor 27494, backed with the Carter Family’s “The East Virginia Blues,” as part of the album Smoky Mountain Ballads.[5]
Pete Seeger counted Macon among his favorite old-time banjo players, and Jeff Place’s notes to Smithsonian Folkways’ Seeger collection say he reworked Macon’s song into “a song-story for children,” “Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase,” which became a banjo showpiece at his concerts.[3] Seeger’s version is on Birds, Beasts, Bigger Fishes, and Foolish Frog, Smithsonian Folkways’ 1991 reissue of material first released in 1955 as Folkways FC 7611, where the track is titled “Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase (Bear Hunt).”[6] Another Seeger performance appeared in 1961 on Folk Music of the Newport Folk Festival, Vol. 1 (Folkways 2431).[3] Judy House includes a “Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase” in Jam Across America, her 178-page jam book for mountain dulcimer clubs, with songs chosen from the playlists of clubs around the country and all arrangements in DAD tuning.[7]
Sources
- Traditional Ballad Index: "The Bear Chase".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Brunswick matrix C3677. Cumberland Mountain deer race / Uncle Dave Macon".
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection" (liner notes by Jeff Place).
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-018760. Cumberland Mountain deer race / Uncle Dave Macon".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor 27494. Smoky Mountain ballads (Album P-79)".
- Smithsonian Institution, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives: "Birds, Beasts, Bigger Fishes, and Foolish Frog".
- Judy House: "Jam Across America".
- Image: Thomas Rowlandson, Deer Hunting – A Landscape Scene with Stag and Hounds in a River, etching, 1787. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.