Foggy Mountain Top: A Song History
“Foggy Mountain Top” is less a fixed song than a gathering of floating verses; the Traditional Ballad Index classes it as a non-ballad and calls it “never-entirely-coherent.”[1] The Index gives its earliest date as 1916, from Cecil Sharp’s collection, and lists Sharp’s texts under the title “The Rocky Mountain Top.”[1] A note in the Index suggests that “The False Young Man” has bled into some versions, citing “White Oak Mountain” as a blended example, and observes that brief texts of the two are not always easy to separate.[1]
Jim Thompson Co., Views in Tennessee: View of mountains and clouds of fog; frost-covered trees in foreground, photographic print, c. 1930. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.
The Carter Family recorded “The Foggy Mountain Top” for Victor on February 15, 1929, and it was issued on Victor V-40058 with “My Clinch Mountain Home” on the other side.[2] Sources differ on authorship: the Discography of American Historical Recordings credits A. P. Carter as composer and lyricist in its entry for a 1952 Columbia recording,[3] while the Ballad Index lists the author as unknown.[1]
The Monroe Brothers, Bill and Charlie, recorded it as “On Some Foggy Mountain Top” in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 17, 1936, for release on Bluebird and Montgomery Ward.[4] That 1952 Columbia recording was made in Nashville by Maybelle Carter with Anita, Helen and June Carter, as the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle.[3] The Index also lists recordings by the New Lost City Ramblers and by Ola Belle and Bud Reed.[1] The similarly named “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is listed by Britannica among Earl Scruggs’s original instrumental compositions.[5] Jim Miller arranges “Foggy Mountain Top” in DGD tuning in 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1, a 42-page book of solo mountain dulcimer arrangements with tablature, lyrics and chord symbols, published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]
Sources
- Traditional Ballad Index: "Foggy Mountain Top".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor V-40058".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix CO47679. Foggy mountain top / The Carter Sisters".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-99198. On some foggy mountain top / Monroe Brothers".
- Britannica: "Foggy Mountain Boys".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Jim Miller, 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1".
- Image: Jim Thompson Co., Views in Tennessee: View of mountains and clouds of fog; frost-covered trees in foreground, photographic print, c. 1930. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.