Keep The Ark A Movin': A Song History
"Keep the Ark a Movin'" is one of several names for an American reel in D major better known in reference works as "The Old Ark's a-Moving." The Traditional Tune Archive links it with other titles and versions, among them "Grandfather's Tune" and "Twin Sisters."[1] It is tied to north Georgia and southwestern Virginia, and fiddlers usually take it a little slower than a typical breakdown.[1] Many think it is related to the Irish hornpipe "The Boys of Bluehill," although the archive notes that the origin of neither tune has been established.[1][2] The name may come from religious song. In 1972 Bill Hicks suggested it was borrowed from a hymn titled "Keep the Ark a Moverin'," though the fiddle tune and the hymn share no melody.[1] A sacred song called "Old Ark's a-Movin'" appears in collections such as John W. Work's American Negro Songs and Spirituals (1940), and the Folk Music Index files it separately from the fiddle tune.[2]
Currier & Ives, Noah’s Ark, hand-colored lithograph, about 1857–72. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).
The notated versions in two published fiddle collections come from Taylor Kimble, a fiddler from Carroll County, Virginia, who learned it from Buck MacMillan, probably of Franklin County.[1] Kimble and his family recorded it for County's Blue Ridge Barn Dance LP in 1974.[1][2] The Fuzzy Mountain String Band learned it from Kimble and recorded it as "Keep the Ark a Movin'" on their self-titled Rounder album of 1972.[1][2] David Brody printed it in The Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), and it appears among the jam tunes in Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer book Join the Jam II.[1][2][3]
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