I’ll do a solo show at the Echo Curio in Echo Park, Los Angeles, tomorrow night. Showtime loosely 9:45. Suggested donation $5. Other acts on the bill are Mark Miller of skeeter truck, who plays in a lonesome slide style, and a fine bluegrass combo called the Homebillies.
To help people play Frog in the Well for themselves, here’s guitar tablature and sheet music:
I know this tune as “King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O” by Chubby Parker & His Old Time Banjo, from Harry Smith’s Anthology Of American Folk Music. So, I was a little curious about some of the history around this tune, was poking around the web, and found that Roger McGuinn has a whole post on the history of King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O:
“King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O” is a version of the old English song “Frog Went A-Courting.” Its first known appearance is in Wedderburn’s Complaynt of Scotland (1548) under the name “The frog came to the myl dur.” There is a reference in the London Company of Stationer’s Register of 1580 to “A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mouse.” The oldest known musical version is in Thomas Ravenscroft’s Melismata in 1611.
There’s more in McGuinn’s post, including the lyrics and an mp3 of a performance of the song by McGuinn himself, I think.
For people who aren’t going to dowload the tablature, here’s a quick look at it:
This post is a recording of a civil war fife and drum tune called “Frog in the Well.” It’s short and simple.
MP3 version: Lucas Gonze — Frog in the Well (MP3) (1:12)
FLAC version: Lucas Gonze — Frog in the Well (FLAC) (1:12)
As always, this recording is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license, and you are welcome to ask for a version under a different license (like a fully commercial license or a CC non-commercial license.
Update: for tablature and sheet music, see the followup post to this one.
Lucas Gonze — Frog in the Well (MP3)