Arkansas traveler

fiddlesCollected by Mary Celestia Parler; Transcribed by Neil Byer Absie Morrison, fiddle Campbell, Ark. November 6, 1954 Reel 222, Item 1 Arkansas Traveler (an account of the skit) Well, you know, the 'Arkansas Traveler,' the way that play comes on, they're camped and a-cooking and eating. And there's a fellow sitting there playing the 'Arkansas Traveler' and he don't know the fine part, he just... (fiddles first theme) "Hello, stranger, why don't you play the fine part to that tune?" "They ain't no fine part." "I can play it fer ye." "Get down off your horse and play it. I want to know it if it's such a thing as the fine part to 'Arkansas Traveler.'" (fiddles second theme) "Say, Amandi, go to getting this man some supper. I'm going to have him stay all night. I'm going to learn that." Well, they go to getting supper, you know. And so I got off my horse and hitched up and I began to talk to him. "How long have you lived here?" "You see that white oak tree out there about two foot through? My woman planted the acorn that growed that tree when we settled here." And the next is, how far is it to Little Rock? Reel 222, Item 1, con't "Well, I don't know. But there's a great hell of a big one down there in my field." (fiddles) "Why don't you cover the other side of your house?" "Well, when it's a-raining, it's too wet to cover it, and when it's dry, it don't need it." (fiddles) "Come on, now, supper's ready. Come on, come on." Well, that just keeps a-going on. You can put any darn thing on earth you want to, just so it's a burlesque on Arkansas.Funding for digitization provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Happy Hollow Foundation