Bill Livers: Notes on the Songs and Tunes

  1. Carroll County Blues – This tune travelled far in oral tradition from its Narmour and Smith Mississippi origin to be reborn in Bill’s version with some floating verses from blues tradition. (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY)  JH
  2. Up and Down Old Eagle Creek – Eagle Creek forms the northern boundary of Owen County. Bill said it was 99 miles long and one more mile it would have been a river. This was the local name for this tune in D. It is to be distinguished from Flop Eared Mule that Bill played in G.  (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY)  This performance has been previously released on Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, Vol. 2 – Along the Kentucky River –Various Artists (℗1997 Rounder).
  3. Sweet Bunch of Daisies – Clayton McMichen spent the latter part of his life in Louisville and was well known throughout northern Kentucky. Many of his tunes, such as this one, found their way into the repertoire of local fiddlers. (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY)  JH
  4. Stormy Weather – This Lena Horne song is a good example of what this country fiddler and entertainer would do with the popular songs of his day. Although he played the popular music of his youth, he was no imitator. Bill put the mark of his own personality on everything he played. (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY)  JH
  5. Silver Bell – This old Tin Pan Alley tune was published in 1910 with words by Edward Madden and music by Percy Wenrich. It was popular with fiddlers all across Kentucky. Bill may have heard it from Clayton McMichen.  (5-10-1977, Bill’s home, New Liberty. KY)  NA,EL
  6. Yes Sir, That’s My Baby – Bill could really work his magic with a bar crowd. For several years we played every weekend at a couple of student bars near the University of Kentucky, the Station House and the Jefferson Davis Inn.  This was a new audience for Bill, and he embraced it in more ways than one.  It was a new experience for the students as well who got some education from this marvelous entertainer from another time. Yes Sir was composed by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn in 1925 and was recorded by many popular entertainers in the 1920 and 30s. (11-26-1977; Jefferson Davis Inn, Lexington, KY) JH
  7. St. Louis Blues – Published by W. C. Handy in 1914 and recorded by Louis Armstrong, Clayton McMichen, and many others, this song translates well to Bill’s own style. This is from a video we shot of Bill for Frankfort’s Cable 10 Television.
    the-setting-for-the-barn-recording-Tacy-Groves

    Recording in Bill’s tobacco barn. (L to R): Ben Griffith, Bill Livers, Eric Larson (Tacy Groves)

    The setting was in the doorway of his tobacco barn with the golden cured tobacco framing the group of musicians. The visual was perfect, but the sound was marred by wind noise.  We felt that the performance outweighed the distortion. No different than listening to old 78 records, right? (1982; New Liberty, KY) TG, MT

  8. Whispering – Another old pop standard that was one of our favorites. Whispering was composed by Malvin and John Schonberger and recorded by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1920.  (5-10-1977; Bill’s home, New Liberty, KY) NA, EL
  9. Cabbage Head – Bill’s version of Four Nights Drunk that derives from an old Irish ballad was always a crowd favorite for good reason. He sang it like he had experience with something like this. (9-5-1976, Natural Bridge State Park, Slade, KY)  JH
  10. Honeysuckle Rose – This jazz standard was composed by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf in 1929 and covered by many other jazz artists of the day. Bill brings it down to rural Owen County thereby proving the universality of good music. (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY) JH
  11. Just Because – This rousing number was always one of Bill’s favorites. It was first recorded by Nelstone’s Hawaiians in 1929 and later by the Shelton Brothers in 1933. This is another one from the tobacco barn session that we decided to include even with the wind noise because it was just too good. (1982; barn session, New Liberty, KY)  TG, MT
  12. Shake That Thing – Bill would really get down on this one with some funky low down dance moves between the lines of the song that would get audiences riled up. It was first recorded by Papa Charlie Jackson in 1925 and was one of the first hokum blues. J. Mayo Williams called it the song that “put the roar in the roaring 20s.” (1982; barn session, New Liberty, KY)  TG, MT
  13. Old Virge – This one came down through Bill’s family. He said it was named after his grandfather Virgil Livers. The whooping was always part of his performance of this piece. Originating with his grandfather, the tune had spread to neighboring Grant Co. where it was played by the white fiddler John Kinman whom Mark Wilson and I recorded in 1997 when he was 94 years old and still playing for square dances in the little community of Goforth.  (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY)  This performance has been previously released on Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, Vol. 2 – Along the Kentucky River –Various Artists (℗1997 Rounder).
  14. Underneath the Harlem MoonUnderneath the Harlem Moon – Cab Calloway, Bill’s source for this, was popular on both sides of the slippery racial divide. Someone else can analyze that if they want to. All I will say about it is Bill loved to perform it. He relished the suggestiveness of it, and we did too. The song was written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel and first recorded by Howard Joyner in 1932 and later by Fletcher Henderson and others, but we haven’t yet found it in a Calloway discography.  (11-26-1977, Jefferson Davis Inn, Lexington, KY)  JH
  15. Running Around Blues – Bill said that he and his old music companion Buck Payne made up this piece. It shows Bill’s blues fiddling at its best. Bill suggested we should track down Buck Payne whom we found living over in Madison, Indiana. It didn’t take long for these two old friends, who hadn’t seen each other in many years, to get down to playing with Bill on the fiddle and Buck on the guitar and piano.  I was sitting on the floor in rapture, recording it all with my cassette recorder. Our session was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Buck’s formidable wife in the door.  She obviously did not approve of this music. She marched straight in and kicked my cassette recorder against the wall whereupon Bill grabbed his fiddle, I retrieved my recorder, and we were out the door in a barrage of cussing and stammering. Fortunately, the recording survived but the recorder didn’t, one more casualty of the war between religion and good music. Running Around Blues was one of the tunes they played that day.  (9-16-1977, home of Nathalie Andrews, Louisville, KY) NA, EL
  16. Nobody’s Darling But Mine – Written and recorded by Jimmie Davis in 1934, the song was recorded by country artists from Gene Autry to Merle Haggard (11-20-1977, Earthward Bound Festival, Howardstown, KY) JH
  17. Old Fowl – This is what Bill called it, and we think we heard him correctly though we couldn’t make sense of what it referred to. It is nevertheless a beautiful waltz. (2-21-1977, Bill’s home, New Liberty, KY) NA, EL
  18. Georgiana Moon – This is another Clayton McMichen song that was current in northern Kentucky when Bill was young. (1982, barn session, New Liberty, KY)   TG, MT
  19. Martha Campbell – The Kentucky fiddle national anthem undoubtedly originated as a black fiddle tune. The earliest mention I can find of it was a black fiddler Darley Fulks heard at Mt. Sterling Court Days in 1916.  I often wondered if that could have been Bill’s grandfather Virge who travelled around Kentucky with his nephews playing for court days.  (9-6-1976, Cressy Farm, Estill Co., KY)  JH
  20. Darktown Strutter’s Ball – Composed by Shelton Brooks in 1917, the song was recorded by many of the early jazz bands. (9-16- 1977; Bill’s home, New Liberty, KY) NA, EL
  21. James Infirmary – Also known as the Gambler’s Blues, this song comes from American folk tradition and was included in Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag (1927). It was claimed, copyrighted and fought over by various performers and publishers, and recorded by many blues and jazz artists over the years. Bill may have been influenced by Cab Calloway’s 1930 recording. (1982; barn session, New Liberty, KY) TG, MT
  22. Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight – This was first recorded by John Lomax in 1934 sung by a group of black convicts in Georgia. It was rewritten and adapted by many others including Jimmy Dean and Johnny Mercer. The song was commercially recorded for Columbia by Hugh Cross & Riley Puckett in 1928, but it had likely been around for a while. Bill’s rousing chorus always invited a rousing singalong, especially in venues like the Jefferson Davis Inn. (11-26-1977, Jefferson Davis Inn, Lexington, KY) JH
  23. Peace in the Valley – Thomas Dorsey wrote Peace in the Valley in 1939 during World War II for Mahalia Jackson. Dorsey said he got the idea for the song while traveling through southern Indiana and observing cows, sheep, and horses grazing peacefully together in a pasture. The scene inspired him to ask why people couldn’t also live together in peace. It was a big hit for many others including Red Foley and Elvis Presley. (11-26-1977, Jefferson Davis Inn, Lexington, KY) JH
  24. Rainbow’s End – Bill always liked to close his performances with this nostalgic look at the end of life. The song had been recorded by Hank Thompson, Hank Snow and others, but Bill always maintained that he wrote it. It’s likely that he got the idea from one of these recordings and then came up with his own words. He certainly invested it with his own personality and feeling.  (1-12-1977, Monterey, KY)  JH

Recordings by Nathalie Andrews (NA), Eric Larson (EL), John Harrod (JH), Tacy Groves (TG), and Marshall Thompson (MT)