Mississippi Sawyer & The Oklahoma Rooster

Mississippi Sawyer is a jaunty little fiddle tune in D, one a whole breed of fiddle tunes which, contrary to expectation, appeals because it is so repetitive, rather than suffering as a result of repetition. It’s a useful addition to any banjoist’s repertoire. Also contrary to expectation, its title doesn’t refer to someone in Mississippi sawing logs, but was a term used by Mississippi riverboat pilots and crew to refer to a partially submerged log which bobbed in a sawing motion and could seriously damage a paddle boat’s hull.

The Oklahoma Rooster is a traditional American fiddle tune n D, with an interesting switch to B in the start of the second section. Slide up to the B chord in an attempt to imitate the rooster! There’s a nice recording of this on Jes’ Fine by the Backwoods Band [Rounder Records 0128]. The tune is also known as The Ten Strike and it appears in Gems of the Ballroom, published around the 1890s.

David Cotton

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