“Whistling Rufus” was composed by Kerry Mills (1869–1948) in 1899, published as “a Characteristic March, Which Can Be Used Effectively as a Two-Step, Polka or Cake-Walk” — a title-page description that reflects the Tin Pan Alley practice of maximizing a composition’s commercial versatility. Mills, who also wrote “Georgia Camp Meeting” and “Red Wing,” was among the most prolific composers of the pre-ragtime instrumental era; “Whistling Rufus” was first recorded as a banjo rag by Vess Ossman in 1899, the year of publication.
Like “Golden Slippers” and “Down Yonder,” “Whistling Rufus” crossed from the commercial composed tradition into the living oral fiddle tradition within years of its publication. Kirk McGee, who recorded the tune in 1927 with his brother Sam, said they learned it from Will Graves of Franklin, Tennessee — a single generation of oral transmission separating a New York sheet-music publication from a Tennessee front porch. Vance Randolph collected it as a standard Ozarks fiddle tune; Arizona fiddler Kenner Kartchner described it as “a good two-step from around 1900.” By the mid-20th century the march-and-cake-walk origin was invisible to most players, and the tune functioned simply as a fast G-major breakdown.
Stuart Duncan recorded it for his self-titled debut album (Rounder, 1992), a record featuring Béla Fleck and Nashville Bluegrass Band members. Duncan — among the most technically accomplished and versatile Nashville fiddlers of his generation — brings the composed tune’s march energy into the bluegrass breakdown format without losing the distinctive phrase lengths that give “Whistling Rufus” its character.
