“Mississippi Sawyer” is one of the oldest and most widely played tunes in the American old-time tradition — a D-major reel with a long, sweeping melody that moves with the forward force of the river it evokes. The tune is documented in 19th-century American fiddle manuscripts, and the name almost certainly refers to the river-navigation hazard: a “sawyer” was a submerged log that moved with the current and posed a constant danger to riverboat pilots, the kind of distinctive landmark that working rivermen gave memorable names. It has been recorded continuously since the commercial string-band era of the 1920s.
The A part is one of the most recognizable opening phrases in all of old-time music — a melodic statement so clear that audiences who have never heard the title recognize the tune within two bars. That immediate recognizability, unusual even among the oldest pieces in the canon, is part of why “Mississippi Sawyer” remains a first-call jam tune decades after the folk revival made it widely known.
Norman Blake and Red Rector recorded the featured version for their self-titled duo album (Rounder, 1976). Blake — one of the most versatile and respected flat-pickers in acoustic music — and Rector — a veteran Georgia mandolinist — brought the tune into the post-revival era with a spare, authoritative reading that has been a reference version for old-time players ever since.