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Thread: Old Grimes

  1. #1
    Registered User Dave Hicks's Avatar
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    Default Old Grimes

    An autumnal-sounding fiddle tune, mellow as a punkin filled with apple butter. Mandolin and guitar.

    Sometimes said to be a.k.a. Dubuque, but the tune of that name that I am familiar with has a different melody and chord progression. Both tunes have some melodic affinity with Whiskey Before Breakfast.

    Old Grimes seems to have been rather obscure before Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage started to play it a few years ago.

    D.H.

    Last edited by Dave Hicks; Oct-22-2021 at 12:42pm.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Old Grimes

    Great playing, Dave, and a fine tune. Love to play this one. I've seen this attributed to Norman Blake and it appears on his "Just Gimme Something I'm Used To" album, but it may be a trad. Do Chris and Julian call it a trad tune?
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  3. #3
    Registered User Dave Hicks's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old Grimes

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Grieser View Post
    Great playing, Dave, and a fine tune. Love to play this one. I've seen this attributed to Norman Blake and it appears on his "Just Gimme Something I'm Used To" album, but it may be a trad. Do Chris and Julian call it a trad tune?
    Thanks for listening, Don.

    According to Acoustic Guitar magazine, where I got it from, Chris Eldridge learned it from Jesse Cobb's mandolin version in the Infamous Stringdusters, and Cobb learned it from someone else. A.G.M. says that it is "Traditional, arranged by...".

    D.H.

    D.H.

  4. #4
    Registered User bbcee's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old Grimes

    Nice job, Dave. I'm a recent discoverer of this tune, and it's just so nice to play. Like your version a lot.

  5. #5
    Registered User Dave Hicks's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old Grimes

    Quote Originally Posted by bbcee View Post
    Nice job, Dave. I'm a recent discoverer of this tune, and it's just so nice to play. Like your version a lot.
    Thanks for listening, bbcee. I was unfamiliar with this tune before the magazine showed up a couple weeks ago. I played through it once, and it immediately felt familiar, though I'd never heard it before.

    D.H.

    PS: I found some versions written out in notation here: http://www.sandymunromusic.com/s/Old_Grimes-G.html and here https://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/tunes/OldGrimes.pdf

    There's a number of versions on various instruments on Youtube, also.

  6. #6
    Registered User Dave Hicks's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old Grimes

    According to the good folks at the Mudcat Cafe, there's a poem and a song about Old Grimes:

    OLD GRIMES.
    (Albert C. Greene)

    Old Grimes is dead; that good old man
    We never shall see more:
    He used to wear a long, black coat
    All buttoned down before.

    His heart was open as the day,
    His feelings all were true;
    His hair was some inclined to grey,
    He wore it in a queue.

    Whene'er he heard the voice of pain,
    His breast with pity burned;
    The large, round head upon his cane
    From ivory was turned.

    Kind words he ever had for all;
    He knew no base design:
    His eyes were dark and rather small,
    His nose was aquiline.

    He lived at peace with all mankind,
    In friendship he was true:
    His coat had pocket holes behind,
    His pantaloons were blue.

    Unharmed, the sin which earth pollutes
    He passed securely o'er,
    And never wore a pair of boots
    For thirty years or more.

    But good old Grimes is now at rest,
    Nor fears misfortune's frown;
    He wore a double-breasted vest;
    The stripes ran up and down.

    He modest merit sought to find,
    And pay it its desert;
    He had no malice in his mind,
    No ruffles on his shirt.

    His neighbors he did not abuse,
    Was sociable and gay;
    He wore large buckles on his shoes,
    And changed them every day.

    His knowledge, hid from public gaze,
    He did not bring to view,—
    Nor make a noise, town-meeting days,
    As many people do.

    His worldly goods he never threw
    In trust to fortune's chances ;
    But lived (as all his brothers do)
    In easy circumstances.

    Thus undisturbed by anxious cares,
    His peaceful moments ran;
    And every body said he was
    A fine old gentleman.

    https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=37341

  7. #7
    Confused... or?
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    Default Re: Old Grimes

    Sweet and, yes, "autumnal-sounding"! Gonna dig out that AG issue for some friends I play with. Thanks!!
    - Ed

    "Then one day we weren't as young as before
    Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
    But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
    I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
    - Ian Tyson

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