“Brushy Fork of John’s Creek” is an old-time breakdown from eastern Kentucky. The Kentucky fiddler Hiram Stamper learned it from a Civil War veteran, and the title is said to commemorate a battle, one of the last of the war, fought along that creek.
A modal tune played in A Mixolydian, it carries the archaic, haunting quality of old eastern-Kentucky fiddling. Versions survive from the West Virginia fiddlers Burl Hammons and Ed Haley, and the tune has drawn fresh interest among younger old-time players.
The tune is now widely played in old-time circles. The version heard here is by George Jackson and Tristan Scroggins.
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