This is the first time in history that Joel Sweeney’s 1840 banjo song “Old Tar River” has ever appeared on a professionally recorded album. (Not to be confused with the Chantey / spiritual of the same name.) First introduced as “Mr. Sweeney in his favorite song of ‘Old Tar River, or the Serenade of My Lovely Dinah,’" the song was written by Joel Sweeny, the “Elvis” of the 19th century, who wrote & popularized the tune. One year after its release on July 4, 1841, in Lynchburg, Virginia, the song was played by the Virginia Minstrels in New York, with the song titled "Old Tar River--or the incidents attending a Coon Hunt." “The Virginia Minstrels” was one of the foundational forces behind minstrelsy at the time, and this forgotten song was sung by none other than Dan Emmett, writer of one of the most famous American songs ever made - “Dixie.”
“We have concerts of our own getting up. We have a Banjo, Violin, Tambourine & Bones.”
Edwin Larkin, 5th New Hampshire
The first known time that “the bones” was played onstage was during that performance. “The bones” is an instrument that became immensely popular with soldiers during the Civil War, as two small wooden “bones” could easily be slipped into a haversack. This name originated from the rib and shin bones, which could be “clacked” together to provide a unique percussive sound. “Old Tar River” may have been one of the tunes performed by the minstrel band of the 5th New Hampshire in Falmouth.
In the Nutmeggers’ recordings featured on “In High Water: Songs of the Civil War,” we hope to do justice to those musicians who came before us, and especially those who gave their all, that we might see “a new birth of freedom.” We seek to honor the spirit and humanity of those brave souls who fought so that this nation might live. This is their music, and these are their stories.
Sources
My Brave Boys: To War with Colonel Cross and the Fighting Fifth, p. 220.
Alan Lomax Collection. "Alan Lomax Collection: Morehead City, North Carolina 1959." Association for Cultural Equity, archive.culturalequity.org/node/60420.
"Annotation: Old Tar River." Traditional Tune Archive, tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Old_Tar_River.
"Daniel Decatur Emmett." Songwriters Hall of Fame, www.songhall.org/profile/Daniel_Decatur_Emmett.
"Old Tar River." Traditional Tune Archive, tunearch.org/wiki/Old_Tar_River.
"Old Tar River." Digital North Carolina, lib.digitalnc.org/record/248076.
