Jim Shank: A Song History
"Jim Shank," sometimes listed as "Jim Shanks," "Jimmy Shanks" or "Jimmy Shenk," is an old-time reel in A, played on a fiddle cross-tuned to A-E-A-E.[1] The source given for it is Sam Dyer, a fiddler from Macon County in north-central Tennessee, whom Bruce Greene recorded in February 1972; the tape is held in the Berea Sound Archives.[1] Writing in the Macon County Times, Boyd Deering described Dyer as close to eighty in 1975 and a player of Tennessee fiddle tunes all his life.[1] Greene's field recording of Dyer can also be heard on the Slippery Hill fiddle-tune site.[2]
Sylvanus J. Talbott, Alexander Violin, wood, various materials, late 19th century. An American-made bowed instrument, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.
Sources differ on the tune's regional home: the Traditional Tune Archive ties it to Dyer's Tennessee, near the Kentucky line,[1] while the Fiddler's Companion calls it a southern Kentucky tune from Greene's repertoire and points to a similar tune, "Henry Richmond."[3] The title's meaning is unclear; Kerry Blech has suggested it may be a mishearing of "Gin Seng," though the sources consulted here offer that only as his guess.[3]
The tune is printed in Milliner and Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011).[1] Ken Bloom and Harry Bollick recorded it on That Banjo from Hell: Fiddle Tunes & Uncivil Songs of Conflict (New Timey, 2003).[1] Mark Gilston includes it in More American Old Time Tunes For Dulcimer, his tablature collection of old-time American tunes.[4]
Browse more tunes like this: Old-Time & Fiddle Tunes Dulcimer Tab
Sources
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Jim Shanks".
- Slippery Hill: "Jim Shank" (Sam Dyer).
- The Fiddler's Companion: "Jim Shank(s)".
- Mark Gilston: "More American Old Time Tunes For Dulcimer".
- Image: Sylvanus J. Talbott, Alexander Violin, wood, various materials, late 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.