Wedneday Tune Fix – Red Fox Waltz


This old piece is one Taylor McBaine of Columbia taught me to play quite early on. He played the dickens out of it with his heavy bow-hand and made a cloud of rosin on the low notes. Set in the key of D, this one great waltz that every Midwestern fiddler should know.

Andrew Kuntz at tunearch.org attributes this tune to Harold Allen, a Nebraska transplant to Oregon who was active in the Western contest scene in the 1960s. Below is an MP3 of Taylor playing the tune at O.A.K. Towers in Columbia, MO, back in 1975. Note the thumb-pick guitar styling, which was a hallmark (if you want to call it that) of Mid-Missouri fiddle accompaniment in the 60s & 70s.



Here’s another example featuring Cyril Stinnett from a tape I obtained from Al Cooley of Hannibal, MO.



This little playlist from one of my workshops should guide you through learning this old tune. Patt Plunkett on the “88”.

At the end of the playlist there is a little clip of Taylor showing the tune to some youths at the Bethel Fiddle Camp in 1988.

Get the transcription on my DOTS page: http://www.charliewalden.com/Dots.htm.