Wild Rose Of The Mountain: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"Wild Rose of the Mountain" is a Kentucky reel in A, sitting between major and mixolydian, that became widely known through the playing of the fiddler J. P. Fraley (1924–2011).[1] Fraley learned it in his late twenties at Rush, Kentucky, from June Rice and from Bun Oney, a blacksmith who fiddled.[1] He had first learned fiddle from his father as a boy, and he was among the last players to learn directly from the eastern Kentucky fiddler Ed Haley. He worked in coal mining and later as a salesman of mining equipment, and he did not begin performing and recording professionally until the 1970s.[2] In 1974 he and his wife Annadeene released an album named after the tune on Rounder Records. It was later reissued on CD with added tracks featuring their daughter Danielle.[1][2]

Botanical watercolor of a pasture rose with pink blossoms and leafy stems

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Pasture Rose (Rosa Carolina Corymbosa), watercolor, 1817–24. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

Its tempo is moderate, and it is often given a deliberate treatment that brings it close to a tune for listening.[1] It is a crooked tune, with irregular phrase lengths, and it is played in standard GDAE tuning.[3][1] Reiner and Anick reported a tale that it was composed for a pretty young woman who went from suitor to suitor at Kentucky dances, though the Traditional Tune Archive says their source for the tale is unknown.[1] The Archive also notes how closely it resembles Henry Reed's "Kitchen Girl."[1] Revival musicians also took it up. Jay Ungar recorded it with Lyn Hardy for Philo in 1975. John McCutcheon included it on his hammered dulcimer album The Wind That Shakes the Barley (1977), and the group Fiddle Fever included it in a longer track on their 1981 album. It was printed in fiddle collections such as Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983).[1]

Other tunes carry the same name. One is a distinct crooked version from West Virginia, played in AEae tuning, which may be related to "Yew Piney Mountain."[4] Another is a G-major slow air written by the Orkney fiddler and composer John Mason.[5] The title also appears among the old-time jam tunes in Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer book Join the Jam II.[6]

Find books with Wild Rose Of The Mountain for sale →

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Wild Rose of the Mountain (1)".
  2. Bluegrass Today: "JP Fraley passes".
  3. Slippery-Hill: "Wild Rose Of The Mountain".
  4. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Wild Rose of the Mountain (2)".
  5. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Wild Rose of the Mountain (3)".
  6. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam II".