“Red Prairie Dawn” was composed by Garry Harrison (1954–2012), an Illinois fiddler, field recorder and instrument builder. Born in Coles County, Illinois, he learned fiddle at sixteen from his father, Clifford, and played in the Indian Creek Delta Boys, which the Illinois General Assembly named the state’s official traditional old-time string band in 1981. From the 1970s he documented older Illinois musicians, and his recordings are held in archives including the Library of Congress. In 2007 he published Dear Old Illinois: Traditional Music of Downstate Illinois, a book of transcriptions with three CDs of his field recordings.
The tune is the title piece of his own 2000 CD Red Prairie Dawn, made with his band the Mule Team and released by Harrison himself; it includes several of his own compositions. Other tracks on it include “Road to Westfield,” “Dog Town” and “Ol’ Bob.” The Mule Team won the traditional band contest at Clifftop in 2008.
Cahalen Morrison and Eli West recorded “Red Prairie Dawn” as the last of twelve tracks on their album Our Lady of the Tall Trees, released on 25 September 2012, the day after Harrison died at the age of 58. A 2017 Banjo Hangout tune-of-the-week post described the tune’s popularity as rising among old-time players.
