"Blackberry Blossom" is a fiddle tune in the key of G Major. It is classified as a "breakdown" and is popular in old time, bluegrass and Celtic traditional circles.
Contents
History
The tune has been added to over 250 tune books. The tune became popular as recorded by Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. That version, according to Alan Jabbour, supplanted an earlier tune played by Sanford Kelly from Morgan County, which is now represented by the tune "Yew Piney Mountain". It is also called "Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom", perhaps to distinguish it from the earlier version. Contradicting Jabbour, who clearly distinguishes the earlier version, is the account of Andrew Kuntz to the effect that "Betty Vornbrock and others have noted a similarity between 'Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom' and the West Virginia tune 'Yew Piney Mountain', a variant ... also played by Kentucky fiddlers J.P. Fraley and Santford Kelly". Alan Snyder gives an alternate name of "Strawberry Beds".
Culture
Although the tune is closely associated with the old time/ bluegrass traditions of the United States, it enjoys the distinction of often being frequently played by traditional Irish musicians.
In Celtic music
This is a partial list of covers by Irish musicians and bands.
In Bluegrass
According to Devon Wells, Blackberry Blossom, as a banjo tune, was brought to the public's attention as one of the earliest arrangements of Bill Keith. Wells, a bluegrass teacher, asserts that the tune is a standard in the bluegrass banjo repertoire. Some of the older recordings archived at the Digital Library of Appalachia include:
Structure
Like most fiddle tunes, Blackberry Blossom has an A part and a B part. In Arthur Smith's 1935 version, the A part is in the key of G Major, with C and D chords in the second half of the part; the B part introduces an E major chord, making for a rather unusual mood shift.
Later recorded versions changed the harmonic structure of this tune radically, introducing additional chord changes (substitutions based on the melody line) in the A part, and alternating E minor and B7 in the B part. The key of E minor is the relative minor of the key of G Major - it uses the same sharps and flats but its modal center is E rather than G. This makes for a more "standard" harmonic structure.
Melodically, according to Anthony, "The note played on the 1st & 3rd beat of the first 2 measures are the first 4 notes of the descending scale of G. Each of these notes is the beginning of a 3-note run, returning to this base note, before moving on to the next note in the G scale. "
Videographic documentation
Fiddle Solo (Vi Wickam)
Fiddle and Guitar
Fiddle Guitar and Banjo
Mandolin (Mark O'Connor)
Fiddle & percussion- interpretive - (Carrie Rodriguez)