Magnolia Waltz: A Song History

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The old-time "Magnolia Waltz" is a brief, one-part tune in three-quarter time, and the Traditional Tune Archive bases its transcription on a December 1928 recording by the Leake County Revelers, a Mississippi string band.[1] The record credits four musicians: Will Gilmer on fiddle, R. O. Mosley on mandolin, Jim Wolverton on five-string banjo, and Dallas Jones on guitar.[2][3] The group was based around Sebastopol, Mississippi, and just two of the four were Leake County natives; the band's name was the choice of Columbia producer Frank Walker.[4] Their biggest seller was the 1927 "Wednesday Night Waltz," which the Discography of American Historical Recordings says had passed 195,000 copies by 1931.[3]

Watercolor study of a single white magnolia blossom opening above a whorl of broad green leaves

Tiffany & Co., Study of Magnolia Blossom, opaque and transparent watercolor and graphite on paper, ca. 1891. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.

The band recorded "Magnolia Waltz" for Columbia on December 13, 1928, and the label paired it with "Birds in the Brook" on disc 15625-D.[2] The Traditional Tune Archive places the session in New Orleans and observes that Gilmer sometimes drops the melody an octave as a variation.[1] The same two sides were also released in Australia on Regal Zonophone G 21139, where the performers were credited as the Alabama Barnstormers.[1][5] The sources consulted here say nothing about how well the record sold, name no composer, and do not trace the tune back before that 1928 session.[1][2]

Document Records brought the performance back into print in 1998 on Leake County Revelers, Vol. 1 (DOCD 8029).[1] Stacy Phillips included the tune in the second volume of his Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1995).[6] Larry Conger includes it in The Waltz Collection, fifteen waltzes in DAD tuning, mostly traditional American fiddle and dance tunes, with a recording of every tune, published by Fingers Of Steel.[7] A different melody of the same name, Francis Buck's "Magnolia Waltz," was published in 1846.[1]

Our book that contains the song "Magnolia Waltz"

Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Magnolia Waltz".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia 15625-D (10-in. double-faced)".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Leake County Revelers".
  4. Mississippi Country Music Trail: "Leake County Revelers".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Regal Zonophone (Australia) G 21139 (10-in.)".
  6. Traditional Tune Archive: "Magnolia Waltz".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, The Waltz Collection".
  8. Image: Tiffany & Co., Study of Magnolia Blossom, opaque and transparent watercolor and graphite on paper, ca. 1891. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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