Sandy River Elfman: A Song History
"Sandy River Elfman" closes the song list in the DulcimerDownloads listing for All Over The Map, Bing Futch's J.O.B. Entertainment collection of dulcimer tablature that sets a handful of his own pieces beside folk standards, and the download comes with MP3 recordings of the songs.[1] Every other entry in that list carries a tuning, and most a composer credit, but this one gives neither.[1] Futch's April 2007 announcement of the songbook glossed the piece as "a spooky version of 'Sandy River Belle'" and left it without the asterisk that, in that post, flagged the tunes wholly his own.[2] His store page for the digital book puts it with the arrangements rather than his own compositions, calling it the "not-so-traditional" counterpart to the book's traditional numbers.[3] The sources consulted here do not explain the "Elfman" of the title or say when Futch worked up the arrangement.[2][3]
Richard Doyle, The Fairy Queen Takes an Airy Drive in a Light Carriage, a Twelve-in-hand, drawn by Thoroughbred Butterflies, color wood engraving and color lithograph, 1870. A fairy rather than an elf, shown in fun for the title; it has no connection to the tune.
"Sandy River Belle" is a title that more than one old-time fiddle tune goes by.[4][5] The Traditional Tune Archive describes one as an old-time breakdown, usually set in G, that Ken Perlman places in the country around Meadows of Dan in Patrick County, Virginia; Ralph Peer recorded it for Victor in Bristol, Tennessee, in August 1927, played by Dad Blackard's Moonshiners, a family group also known as the Shelor Family band.[4] Another, in D, was recorded for the Library of Congress in 1941 from Osey and Ernest Helton of western North Carolina, and Clark Kessinger also recorded it.[5] Which of these Futch's spooky treatment starts from is not stated in the sources consulted here.[2][3]
Futch lives in Orlando, Florida, and plays Americana on Appalachian mountain dulcimer, Native American flute and ukulele, ranging from his own blues and roots-rock songs to covers of Disney numbers and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.[6] According to his DulcimerDownloads biography, he co-founded the band Mohave on dulcimer in 1999, began performing solo around the country in 2006, and in 2016 reached the finals of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, where he won the Solo/Duo "Best Guitarist" award while playing only the mountain dulcimer.[6]
Sources
- J.O.B. Entertainment: "Bing Futch, All Over The Map".
- Bing Futch: ""All Over The Map" Now On Sale!".
- Bing Futch: "Digital Book Download: All Over The Map: Dulcimerica Volume 1".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Sandy River Belle (2)".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Sandy River Belle (1)".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Bing Futch".
- Image: Richard Doyle, The Fairy Queen Takes an Airy Drive in a Light Carriage, a Twelve-in-hand, drawn by Thoroughbred Butterflies, color wood engraving and color lithograph, 1870. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.