Summer At The Fair: A Song History
"Summer At The Fair" is one of Bing Futch's own pieces in All Over The Map, a collection of downloadable dulcimer tablature published by J.O.B. Entertainment; the DulcimerDownloads listing sets it in DAD tuning and names Futch as its composer.[1] The download holds the 75-page book, a separate PDF for each song, and an MP3 of every piece.[1] When Futch announced the book in April 2007 as his first songbook, he put an asterisk beside this title, the mark he used in that post for tunes that were entirely his own.[2] The store page for the digital edition on his website lists it with his other works rather than with the pieces carried over from his album Dulcimerica: Volume 1, and it carries a playable recording of the tune.[3] Nor is it among the sixteen tracks Apple Music lists for that album.[4] The sources consulted here do not say when Futch wrote it or which fair, if any, he had in mind.[2][3]
Currier & Ives, The "Queen of Cattle" Bred and Fattened by George Ayrault, Poughkeepsie, New York, Exhibited at the Centennial, Philadelphia, 1876, hand-colored lithograph, 1876. A prize animal from an exhibition rather than a fair, shown loosely for the title; it has no connection to the tune.
Futch, who lives in Orlando, Florida, has toured nationally as a solo act since 2006, according to his DulcimerDownloads biography, headlining gatherings such as the Walnut Valley Festival, the Old Songs Festival and Common Ground On The Hill.[5] The same biography credits him with several instructional books, among them Blues Method For Mountain Dulcimer 101, and with a 2016 International Blues Challenge award for "Best Guitarist" in the Solo/Duo category, won on mountain dulcimer alone.[5]
As background to the title only, the Smithsonian traces the American agricultural fair to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where Elkanah Watson exhibited a pair of Merino sheep, a breed newly brought from Spain, in 1808; in October 1810 a group of men there staged a livestock show, after which its organizers incorporated the Berkshire Agricultural Society.[6] County fairs on that pattern spread into the Midwest and South, and the first state fair followed in 1841, when the New York State Agricultural Society held one in Syracuse.[6] No source consulted here connects Futch's tune with any of this history.[2][3]
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".
- Apple Music: "Dulcimerica: Volume 1" (Bing Futch).
- DulcimerDownloads: "Bing Futch".
- Smithsonian Magazine: "How State Fairs Got Their Start and Kept Growing".
- Image: Currier & Ives, The "Queen of Cattle" Bred and Fattened by George Ayrault, Poughkeepsie, New York, Exhibited at the Centennial, Philadelphia, 1876, hand-colored lithograph, 1876. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.