Moscow Stockade Blues: A Song History
"Moscow Stockade Blues" is Dana Gruber's E-minor reworking of the old song "Columbus Stockade Blues," included in her book Deja-New, a Fingers Of Steel book that puts a fresh spin on classic and traditional songs for mountain dulcimer, with optional guitar chords.[1] The listing gives the new title first, with the original named in parentheses, and marks the piece for a capo at the first fret.[1] Three other pieces in the book are listed the same way, each a familiar tune recast in E minor under a new name: "Soldier's Lament" from "Soldier's Joy," "Sourwood Blossom" from "Wildwood Flower," and "Vodka Before Breakfast" from "Whiskey Before Breakfast."[1]
Jean Baptiste Le Prince, The Moscow Tavern (Le Cabaret de Moskou), aquatint, 1773. Shown for its Moscow setting; it has no connection to the tune.
A 1985 historical marker at the former jail in Columbus, Georgia, credits the original song to Thomas Darby and Jimmie Tarlton and dates both its writing and its recording to 1927.[2] Darby and Tarlton cut it for Columbia in Atlanta on November 10, 1927, singing as a duet over guitar and steel guitar, and it was issued as Columbia 15212-D.[3]
Gruber came to the mountain dulcimer in 1997, when she and her husband, Hank, came across it at Cincinnati's Appalachian Festival, and the two have played together as an acoustic instrumental pair since then.[4] The sources consulted here do not say why she renamed this piece or when she arranged it.[1][4]
Sources
- Fingers Of Steel: "Dana Gruber, Deja-New".
- Digital Library of Georgia: "Columbus Stockade Blues historical marker".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix W145203. Columbus stockade blues / Darby & Tarlton".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Dana Gruber".
- Image: Jean Baptiste Le Prince, The Moscow Tavern (Le Cabaret de Moskou), aquatint, 1773. The Cleveland Museum of Art.