From the recording Both Sides Of The River
PAPPY PLAYED
“Everything comes from somewhere.”
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
My great grandfather, Pappy Cole, was a “World Champion” fiddle player in the early years of the 20th Century. He grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, farming and playing fiddle at barn dances, church socials and community events. Pappy was left-handed, but played a right-handed instrument “over the bass,” as they say. He built a reputation that allowed him, for many years, to earn a living traveling around the country playing at dances and festivals. During this period he won the “World Champion” prize at a festival in the South. Later in life, he settled down to farming and family and became a Methodist minister.
I was lucky to meet Pappy when I was a little boy. He passed about the time I was eight years old. I did not know him, or indeed his side of my family, well, but I remember the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, his easy laugh, an amazing shock of wild white hair, and his natural talent as a showman. He told silly jokes, did sleight-of-hand tricks and obviously delighted in entertaining us kids.
This is his story. And part of mine.
Ed Skibbe, Cave Creek
September 2023
CREDITS
Ed Skibbe: acoustic guitar, vocal
Spencer Pyne: bass
Brian McClure: drums
Suzanne Lansford: violin
Eric Weber: mandolin
Suzanne’s violin was recorded by Christophe Violland at Aeronote Studios in Paris France.
NOTES
What a perfect mix. Suzanne played violin on our last record, and we were SO happy when she said she would play on this song. She played this song with us live once a couple of years ago in Cave Creek. When the time came to record, Suzanne was visiting and working in Paris. Poor thing! Lucky for us, she and her friend, producer Christophe Violland, recorded her part at Christophe’s Aeronote Studio in Paris! What an amazing honor for us all the way around! Thank you Suzanne for the gorgeous violin. Thank you Christophe for capturing it so wonderfully!
Our friend and bandmate Eric Weber as usual played the perfect mandolin part. We had tracked the basic rhythm parts at ESP, and I sang the final lead vocal at ESP as well. That was a memorable session. We didn’t have one of Pappy’s jugs, but there may have been some good tequila involved. I do not remember if I tracked a guitar part in Arizona or if we used the reference guitar from the basic rhythm tracking session.
Spencer mixed this with great love and skill. I think it is perfect.
Lyrics
PAPPY PLAYED (Skibbe)
© 2022, Coyote Tongue Music (ASCAP)
They called him Pappy from the day he turned thirteen
Fever took his mama, daddy took to drink
Pappy raised the young’uns, did the best a brother could
Working forty acres of crops and woods
Scratching out a living from the Oklahoma mud
Put an aching in his muscles and a stirring in his blood
Pappy would open up a jug beneath a Cherokee moon
Take down his fiddle and conjure up a tune
And Pappy played, Pappy played
Buffalo Nickel and Lady of the Lake
The moon would shine a little brighter and the trees would start to sway
When Pappy played, Pappy played
Andy Jackson took the Cherokee land away
Made his cronies rich, made the people pay
The Trail of Tears is an American stain
A bloody death march and a river of pain
Eighty years later, Pappy walked that trail again
This time west back to where it all began
Those people came from everywhere just to hear Pappy play
Champion of the World they crowned him on that day
And Pappy played, Pappy played
Buffalo Nickel and Lady of the Lake
The moon would shine a little brighter and the trees would start to sway
When Pappy played, Pappy played
I said goodbye to Pappy when I was eight years old
His hair was white as cotton, but his eyes were still aglow
He said boy you feel that music start to stirring in your soul
Remember where you come from and remember Pappy Cole
‘Cause Pappy played, Pappy played
Buffalo Nickel and Lady of the Lake
The moon would shine a little brighter and the trees would start to sway
When Pappy played, Pappy played
Pappy played, Pappy played
Before old Johnny Gimble, before Uncle Bob Wills
From the plains of Oklahoma to the Tennessee hills
Pappy played, Pappy played
Pappy played, Pappy played
Pappy played, Pappy played