Old-Time TOTW #30: Irish Boy (1/20/19)

This week's tune is Irish Boy, and comes from the playing of John Salyer (1882-1952) of Magoffin County, KY. He was the son of Morgan M. Salyer (1842-1913) and Katherine Patrick (1864-1885). Salyer's paternal family came to the United States in the 17th century. They immigrated from France to Suffolk, NY. Originally the surname was Sallier (Salier) or DeSallier. (source: Ancestry.com) When John was about eight years old, he fell out of a tree and broke his leg. His father (a fiddler) bought him a half-size fiddle to keep him occupied while recovering. John began to show a great deal of talent, and according to his son Grover, "it was not long before he could hear a piece and then play the piece himself." In those days, learning to play the fiddle was largely a matter of watching, listening and practicing, since generally the traditional fiddlers did not give lessons. Music was a part of everyday life, centered in the home and neighborhood. One of Salyer's close neighbors, and eventually his closest musical partner, was Willie Fletcher (born in 1871). John learned many of his tunes from Willie and greatly admired his musical abilities, considering him to be "the sweetest and smoothest fiddler he ever heard." Both John and Willie could play the banjo and fiddle equally well, and they visited each other's homes frequently, playing for hours at a time. Besides entertaining family and neighbors, John enjoyed playing for local square dances. His son Grover remembered those events well: "He...played for a lot of dances-...and I've seen him...playing for a hoedown dance and he'd jump up and dance and play the fiddle at the same time." One of John Salyer's good friends throughout his life was William "Bill" Stepp (born in 1875), whose fiddling was recorded by the Library of Congress field workers traveling through the region in 1937. The versions of several tunes Stepp and Salyer played in common are remarkably similar, and it is quite possible that Bill and John learned some from each other. John, along with Grover on guitar and his other son Glen on mandolin, was invited by the Sandy Valley Grocery Company to be entertainers on an excursion to the 1933 World's Fair at Chicago. They made music on the train during the trip. Once in Chicago, the Salyer trio was invited to play for a dance in the million dollar ballroom of the Knickerbocker Hotel. The dance floor was made of glass blocks with many colored lights in it. There were 6,500 people there; some wanted waltz music, some wanted square dance, and fox trot, others wanted Virginia reel or jig music. John said to them, "We'll play our kind of music and you dance any kind of dance you can!" Salyer didn't believe in recording on record labels, because the felt they didn't share enough profit with the fiddlers. Fortunately, his sons convinced him to make some home recordings in the early 1940s. If it weren't for those recordings, many of those tunes might not be known today. I wish to thank Bruce Greene not only for the above information, but for doing so much to collect and preserve so much of the history and the tunes themselves. Irish Boy is not related to the Irish air titled “The Irish Boy.” It is traditionally done in cross A tuning (AEAE), but I decided to play it here on the viola in DADA tuning. It works very well that way, and the lower sound of the viola is quite pleasant. John Morgan Salyer was born 137 years ago today. We thank you for the legacy you left with your fiddle tunes, Mr. Salyer. Joining me here is Bill Braun on guitar (Cleveland, OH). This was the first time we played this tune, and we had great fun with it. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and Stay Tuned for the next Old-Time TOTW, a different tune airing every Sunday morning. Next week we will mix things up a bit and feature a guest fiddler...see you then!