Blackberry Blossom (Arthur Smith)
Blackberry Blossom is a fiddle tune that almost every Bluegrass player seems to know. One reason might be that the melody fits nicely on all the instruments. Another might be the lonely sound you get from the descending scale that is hidden in the melody. (Stacy Philips has commented that lonesome was a favorite theme of Bill Monroe when titling tunes.) Whatever the reason, I was curious to find out more background for this classic tune, which I certainly played a lot when I was a teenager attending jams and festivals.
The Other Blackberry Blossom
To make matters slightly confusing, there is another melody (probably not related to this one) that sometimes goes under the name Blackberry Blossom. John Hartford called it “Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom” and relates a story on his recording about how the tune title comes from an event involving General Garfield spitting in a Blackberry Bush! This other tune is more Old-Time in style and is a great tune in its own right, and I intend to post it at a later date.
Arthur Smith’s Version
Arthur Smith was a performer on the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920’s and recorded a lot of music that has become popular with Bluegrass players especially. So much of his repertoire is still being played today (and there is some great lesser-known material as well). In Charle’s Wolfe’s fiddle history book called “The Devil’s Box,” he tells us that Smith didn’t have a title (perhaps he had written it and not named it?) until he performed it on the radio, and asked listeners to send in title ideas! This supports the idea that the Smith version is separate from the Garfield. Also, we can usually see, when one tune has evolved out of another, that both melodies will have a lot of the same notes on the same beats. And the melodies will tend to have some other obvious similarities. There is almost none of that with the two Blackberry Blossoms, besides a vague similarity in the first measures. Probably it is just a coincidence that they share the same name.
Two things jump out on the Arthur Smith recording that are a little different than what we hear commonly from Bluegrass players. One is a bit of a Swing sound to the guitars in the accompaniment. They are playing more of a Swing sounding oom-chuck versus a Bluegrass one…probably reflecting the Swing styles that were coming in in the 20’s and 30’s. (Smith recorded Blackberry Blossom in 1935.) The other difference is that the main harmony in the B part is E major, which is much more unexpected than the modern E minor. Also, the rhythm of the B part is a bit different than what most people play now, but I kind of like the old way.
Notes on Playing the Tune
I had to guess a little about the bowings (since I just put them in based on listening) but it sounds like Smith played a lot of slurs, usually one bow per beat…an interesting approach. You could start with no slurs, of course.
You could play just one of the variations of the A part twice, instead of as written. For example, you could do measure 2-9 repeated, or 10-18. Same for the B part.
