Hawks And Eagles: A Song History

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"Hawks and Eagles" is an old-time reel that comes down from Norman Edmonds (1889–1976), a fiddler from Hillsville in southwest Virginia.[1] Edmonds was born in Wythe County,[2] and the fiddling was a family inheritance, handed to him by his father and, before that, his grandfather.[3] He played fiddle alongside J. P. Nester at the 1927 Bristol Sessions,[2][3] but "Hawks and Eagles" was not among those sides; in the sources consulted here it turns up only in his later recordings. Starting in the mid-1950s and continuing until around 1970, his son Rush recorded Edmonds and his band, the Old Timers, for a quarter-hour broadcast that went out on Galax radio each Saturday morning. The tune is on the second volume of those tapes, which the Field Recorders' Collective issued in 2004.[4] Edmonds also recorded it for a Davis Unlimited LP, Train on the Island,[5] which the Traditional Tune Archive dates to 1973 and lists under a Spring Fed Records number.[1]

Audubon print of three hawks perched on branches and stumps

John James Audubon, Goshawk, Stanley Hawk (No. 29), print from The Birds of America, 1830. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

Printed settings differ on the key: some give it in D, while a 1980 collection has it in G, and some players hear a likeness to another tune, "Nancy Blevins."[1] None of the sources consulted here explains the title. Other recordings followed in the 1970s. Edmonds's grandson Jimmie Edmonds recorded it in 1974,[1] and the Highwoods Stringband put it on Dance All Night (Rounder, 1975).[6] It has since appeared in fiddle collections such as Spadaro's 10 Cents a Dance (1980), Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) and the second volume of Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1995).[1]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Hawks and Eagles".
  2. Birthplace of Country Music: "Music in the Blood: Norman Edmonds and Jimmy Edmonds".
  3. Music of Our Mountains: "J.P. Nester & Norman Edmonds".
  4. Field Recorders' Collective: "Norman Edmonds and the Old Timers, Volume 2 (FRC302)".
  5. Jane Keefer, Folk Music Index: "Folk Music Performer Index – E to Ek".
  6. Jane Keefer, Folk Music Index: "Folk Music Performer Index – Hid to Hil".