Flop Eared Mule: A Song History

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"Flop Eared Mule" is one of those fiddle tunes with a family tree rather than a single birthplace, and sources differ on its roots. The Traditional Tune Archive gathers several theories. Mark Wilson thought it probably came from Central Europe as a polka. In writings from 1944 and 1981, Bayard considered it relatively young, possibly dating to the early 1800s, and guessed that it spread northward from the South, where it was a great favorite. Paul Gifford considered it a likely descendant of the "Detroit Schottische" of 1854, a tune in three strains composed and issued by Adam Couse, who taught dancing and ran a music shop in that city.[1] Related melodies include the English "Bluebell Polka," and the tune travels under a whole stable of names: "Big Eared Mule," "Lop-Eared Mule" in Pennsylvania, and "Long-Eared Mule," the title used by Canada's Don Messer.[1][2]

Walker Evans photograph of a work mule in harness with tall ears, Hale County, Alabama, 1936

Walker Evans, Mule. Hale County, Alabama, photograph, 1936. Farm Security Administration collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication.

Old-time musicians recorded it often. Gus Meade's discography Country Music Sources lists about forty recordings. According to the Tune Archive, the first of these was by the Kentucky-born William B. Houchens, with Uncle Jimmy Thompson, Ernest Stoneman, Doc Roberts, the Kessinger Brothers and the Skillet Lickers among those who followed between 1926 and 1930.[1] Stoneman's trio cut it for OKeh in New York on January 27, 1927, with Kahle Brewer on fiddle.[3] In 1924 the Helton Brothers of western North Carolina had already recorded it under a different title, "Asheville." In the early 1940s, Vance Randolph recorded Ozark fiddlers playing it for the Library of Congress.[1]

Its signature trick is a key change: the second part jumps up a fifth from the first. Sources differ on the starting key; the Tune Archive gives G moving to D, while one dulcimer club's lesson places it in D moving to A in DAD tuning.[1][4] That same lesson says the shift is what makes the tune tricky on the mountain dulcimer and recommends barre chords as the simplest way through it.[4] David Schnaufer recorded it on an instrument the archive catalogs as an 1820 transitional scheitholt-to-dulcimer, and the recording is now in Vanderbilt University's Appalachian Dulcimer Archive.[5] It is also part of the dulcimer jam canon, one of the 75 tunes in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam.[6]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Flop Eared Mule (1)".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Flop Eared Mule (1)".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix W80346. Flop eared mule / Ernest V. Stoneman Trio".
  4. Lagniappe Dulcimer Society (Dulcimer Jambalaya): "Flop Eared Mule & Other Fiddle Tunes".
  5. Appalachian Dulcimer Archive (Vanderbilt University): "Flop Eared Mule".
  6. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam DAD Tuning".