Snake River Reel: A Song History

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Unlike the many anonymous breakdowns heard at old-time jams, "Snake River Reel" has a named composer. Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion credits it to Peter Lippincott, a St. Louis, Missouri, player who also calls dances, and describes it as a two-part breakdown in D major, played in standard fiddle tuning.[1] None of the sources consulted here gives a firm date for its composition or explains the title.

Engraving of the broad Shoshone Falls of the Snake River pouring over a rock ledge under stormy skies

Elbridge Kingsley, Great Shoshone Falls, Idaho, engraving, 1890. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). The tune’s title is not documented as referring to the Idaho river.

Several old-time bands have recorded it. Kuntz lists a 1992 recording by the Ill-Mo Boys on their Marimac album Fine As Frog Hair, and a track by the same group also appears on the album Jump Fingers.[1][2] Dan Levenson recorded it on Light of the Moon, and the Boiled Buzzards also put it on record.[1][3] A transcription was printed in the 2002 tune book Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern.[1] It is also one of the tunes in Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer collection Join the Jam II.[4]

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Sources

  1. The Fiddler's Companion (Andrew Kuntz): "Snake River Reel".
  2. Bandcamp (missourifiddling): "Snake River Reel" (The Ill-Mo Boys, Jump Fingers).
  3. Dan Levenson Old Time Music (Bandcamp): "Snake River Reel" (Boiled Buzzards).
  4. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam II".