Thinking way back to when I started exploring the fiddling style of Ward Jarvis, among the first batch of tunes I learned was "Tomahawk." Jarvis plays the tune in AEAE tuning, and the Milliner-Koken book includes notation for his version.
While researching and learning how to play the tune, I discovered that this fairly recent composition had gone through a few noticeable permutations. To my ear, the so-called "folk process" has yielded five distinct variations of "Tomahawk."
Folklorist David Brose recorded Jarvis playing "Tomahawk" in the 1970s, though the tune does not appear on either of the albums Brose produced for the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Folklife in 1979. The late Red Mules String Band fiddler Jeff Goehring also recorded Jarvis playing the tune in 1977, according to the liner notes of the resulting Field Recorders' Collective (FRC) release.
Jarvis is on record saying he learned the tune from Tommy Jackson, a fiddling prodigy who toured with Kitty Wells as a teenager and later, after serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a tail gunner during World War II, became a prominent Nashville session musician who appeared on a number of hit records by Hank Williams, Ray Price, George Jones and many more.
Jackson also recorded a handful of solo records in the 1950s, many of which were collections of popular square dance tunes. He recorded "Tomahawk" on his second album, Square Dance Tonight, released on Dot Records in 1958.
Through the FRC, I also have a recording of "Tomahawk" by Lonnie Seymour (click to listen), of Chillicothe, Ohio. As I continued to research the tune, I also acquired a recording from the Indiana Fiddlers' Convention now-defunct online store of the Red Mules playing the tune in the 1990s.
Knowing that Jarvis was an early fiddling mentor of Goehring, I assumed their versions would match. However, I quickly learned that Goehring's playing more resembles Seymour's rendition, which makes sense as Goehring apprenticed with Seymour in mid-1980s. The Seymour version sounded so different to me at first that I wondered if it was a whole other tune.
However, I have since had the opportunity to play "Tomahawk" with a fiddler who also learned it from Seymour, and I now hear the similarities much better. The Jarvis and Seymour versions sounded pretty interesting together when we played. I wish I had recorded it.
In digging a little further, I discovered some videos on YouTube (here and here) citing Missouri fiddler Bob Holt as the source. His version sounds different from the other three I had already discovered. Holt included the tune on his album Got a Little Home to Go To, released in 1998 on Rounder Records. The CD credits Tommy Jackson as the composer.
Finally, I came across yet another variation of "Tomahawk" in the playing of Benton Flippen, who plays the tune on the album Fiddler's Dream, by Benton Flippen & The Smokey Valley Boys, released in 2003 by the Music Maker Relief Foundation.
These five distinct versions of "Tomahawk" show just how quickly a tune can change. In the 62 years since its first appearance, Jackson's composition has traveled from Nashville, Tennessee, to Athens County and to Chillicothe, Ohio, to Ava, Missouri, and to Mount Airy, North Carolina. Were these fiddlers seeking to put their own spin on the tune, or were they just playing it the way they heard it? I think the answer lies somewhere in between.
While researching and learning how to play the tune, I discovered that this fairly recent composition had gone through a few noticeable permutations. To my ear, the so-called "folk process" has yielded five distinct variations of "Tomahawk."Folklorist David Brose recorded Jarvis playing "Tomahawk" in the 1970s, though the tune does not appear on either of the albums Brose produced for the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Folklife in 1979. The late Red Mules String Band fiddler Jeff Goehring also recorded Jarvis playing the tune in 1977, according to the liner notes of the resulting Field Recorders' Collective (FRC) release.
Jarvis is on record saying he learned the tune from Tommy Jackson, a fiddling prodigy who toured with Kitty Wells as a teenager and later, after serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a tail gunner during World War II, became a prominent Nashville session musician who appeared on a number of hit records by Hank Williams, Ray Price, George Jones and many more.
Jackson also recorded a handful of solo records in the 1950s, many of which were collections of popular square dance tunes. He recorded "Tomahawk" on his second album, Square Dance Tonight, released on Dot Records in 1958.
Through the FRC, I also have a recording of "Tomahawk" by Lonnie Seymour (click to listen), of Chillicothe, Ohio. As I continued to research the tune, I also acquired a recording from the Indiana Fiddlers' Convention now-defunct online store of the Red Mules playing the tune in the 1990s.
Knowing that Jarvis was an early fiddling mentor of Goehring, I assumed their versions would match. However, I quickly learned that Goehring's playing more resembles Seymour's rendition, which makes sense as Goehring apprenticed with Seymour in mid-1980s. The Seymour version sounded so different to me at first that I wondered if it was a whole other tune.
However, I have since had the opportunity to play "Tomahawk" with a fiddler who also learned it from Seymour, and I now hear the similarities much better. The Jarvis and Seymour versions sounded pretty interesting together when we played. I wish I had recorded it.
In digging a little further, I discovered some videos on YouTube (here and here) citing Missouri fiddler Bob Holt as the source. His version sounds different from the other three I had already discovered. Holt included the tune on his album Got a Little Home to Go To, released in 1998 on Rounder Records. The CD credits Tommy Jackson as the composer.
Finally, I came across yet another variation of "Tomahawk" in the playing of Benton Flippen, who plays the tune on the album Fiddler's Dream, by Benton Flippen & The Smokey Valley Boys, released in 2003 by the Music Maker Relief Foundation.
These five distinct versions of "Tomahawk" show just how quickly a tune can change. In the 62 years since its first appearance, Jackson's composition has traveled from Nashville, Tennessee, to Athens County and to Chillicothe, Ohio, to Ava, Missouri, and to Mount Airy, North Carolina. Were these fiddlers seeking to put their own spin on the tune, or were they just playing it the way they heard it? I think the answer lies somewhere in between.
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