Half Past Four

The Fiddler’s Companion lists it as an old-time breakdown in A major, played in AEae tuning. The same tune was recorded in the mid-twentieth century by Edden Hammons of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, who called it “Paddy on the Turnpike.”

The origin of the title is not documented. When Brandon Ray Kirk, who researched Haley’s life with John Hartford, played it for Haley’s son Lawrence on Ed’s own fiddle, Lawrence said he did not know where his father got a name like that, and guessed that it might have come from the birth of his oldest brother, Sherman Luther Haley, when their mother went into labor about 4:30 in the morning.

Bruce Molsky included it on his 1997 album Bruce Molsky & Big Hoedown, and Mac Benford’s 2004 album Half Past Four begins with it.