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The official state song of Oklahoma is not a waltz, it is the Rodger and Hammerstein's classic Oklahoma!. But in 1982, as part of the Oklahoma's Diamond Jubilee Celebration of its 75th year as a state, they named Oklahoma Wind as the official state waltz.
In a private communication, Dr. Dale, as he called by most people who know him, shared the thoughts he wanted to express in Oklahoma Wind. Here are his words:
I have always had a great sense of pride in my home state of Oklahoma. Over time, I wrote songs about Her but, generally speaking, my early compositions were stories about how I was emotionally impacted. My compositions related to my family pride and the feeling of my perceived roots. My father was a very intelligent but never schooled. He could not read or write. He was a loving and kind man, as was my mother. I was proud of my dad. I spoke of him in a line in a song..."I'm proud to be the son of a son of Oklahoma and you can bet your life, like him, I'm here to stay....."
As can be noted in nearly all of my songs, Oklahoma historical events are at the base of the compositions. For the song "Oklahoma Wind", I site major prevalent historical episodes. I wanted the lyrics to call these events to mind. "In an ancient sunrise lighting the sky, men and spirits came riding by on the land that was taken by you and I, in the wind..." Of course, this is a reference to the land being taken from the Native Americans. Another reference is..." the wind kept blowin' and moved us with haste. We devoured this country just for the taste of the land that was theirs, Lord, what a waste, in the wind!"
The second episode references the Western movement and the great Land Run of 1889. ....."Just a driftin' cowboy ridin' along, I heard the wind call and I had to belong to the land that was callin' and growin' up strong, in the wind. We waited for the signal to start the race, all we had to do was to drive our stakes in the land that was willin' to give us a place in the wind." Anyone who participated in the Land Run could claim and was given the right to 60 acres of land around the point in which they drove their stake.
The third episode references the Oklahoma drought (dust bowl era) of the 1930s. The verse further refers to the 'grit' of those who stayed in Oklahoma (my father and mother) while, at the same time. there was an on-going 'Okie' exodus to California. The last two lines is a statement about Oklahoma's recovery...."and now she's (the wind) blowin' across the plain, over fields of golden grain. Everybody knows She's alive again, in the wind".
As earlier stated, my compositions are all about our history. My hope has always been to find a way to have young Oklahoma students know more about our State history. As an educator, I think it is important to have young people know more about WHO WE ARE. To achieve this, young people need to know WHERE WE'VE BEEN. Ultimately, this foundation will help them take us to WHERE WE ARE GOING. After all, the wind keeps blowing.
No shortage of Oklahoma Waltzes - maybe one of the longest lists. Most popular recording appears to be that of Johnny Bond, "It happened in old Oklahoma" or the polka version of the same song usually called Old Oklahoma Waltz first recorded by Yankovic. Eliminates verse, just uses chorus and changes order of lyrics.
not a waltz but Johnny Bond sings Oklahoma Hills live here - https://youtu.be/t7YkcqLF1oI
In 1958, the polka musician Frankie Yankovic recorded his version which includes only the chorus.
1947, Jack Perry and the Light Crust Doughboys - not johnny bond "beautiful, beautiful Oklahoma.
Bernie and Blondie Roberts moon sailing on high. polka version with full lylrics.
full polka version
Byron Berline - not the Johnny bond tune. instrumental
Spade Cooley "come to Oklahoma" - not the Johnny Bond tune
Teresa Black -on sunday, my pop would drive us" not Johnny Bond tune.
Karaoke from Phillipines?? Johnny Bond tune
another cover from Phillipines? https://youtu.be/Yv8GkXzmhV4
It's big in the Philipines - https://youtu.be/ou1EYtdABnw
cover - johnny bond - https://youtu.be/kF_fPtxjcAM
cover johnny bond - https://youtu.be/ZNxSWRszSZw
amateur fiddle, not sure which version - https://youtu.be/gtMfeGmRuTg
cover - johnny bond - https://youtu.be/5pnpjlKfPP0
civer - johnny bond, first polka version - Frankie Yankovic - https://youtu.be/MpQbhN80Pqs
Chicken in the Snowbank - sounds like a new version - instrumental not johnny bond
Mistletoe version - composers listed in video melody very close to Bond but words quite different.
Oklahoma Waltz, "When we were dancing beneath the prairie moon" by Kelly McCune and Border Radio not johnny bond
Gene Ray, "we were dancing to the music of the Oklahoma Waltz" composer listed on label not johnny bond.
not johnny bond
Don Boots, not bond "oh the band was playing the oklahoma waltz
Peter Watercott, instrumental - nice
Kenny Waters, "I remember when I was but a child"
Waltz me Across Oklahoma
Acie Cargill, "Please give my your hand I'll lead you out to the dance floor" - very fast waltz
Bob Wills, Good Old Oklahoma - wonderful
Tom Paxton, Home, Sweet Oklahoma - very nice.
1948, Cowboy Copas, Rose of Oklahoma. written by Rose E. Black
Richie Lawrence, My Oklahoma Hills - different, very solemn.
Riders in the Sky, My Oklahoma
All Across Oklahoma
Jason Eklund, Loves in Oklahoma
Steve Young, My Oklahoma - different song from Riders in the Sky
Wilf Carter, My Oklahoma Rose
My Rose of Oklahoma, mystery record may or may not be different listen better
Carter Sampson, Queen of Oklahoma
Wink Burcham, Town in Oklahoma
Ramos y Ortega, La Tragedia de Oklahoma, Part 1. Part 2 is here.
Don Williams, Where the Arkansas River Leaves Oklahoma
Scud Mountain Boys, Oklahoma
Dan Bern, Oklahoma - tribute to the bombing in Tulsa
Kevin Danzig, Oklahoma Miner
Oscar Brand, Oklahoma Moon
Snow Brothers, Oklahoma Moon (different than above)
Freddy Pigg, Oklahoma Rose
John Nelson, Oklahoma Saturday Night
Prior to 1953, our first-and-only state song was "Oklahoma, a Toast," written by Harriet Parker Camden in 1905 and revised by Marie Crosby. It was adopted as the state song on March 26, 1935, at which time the Legislature noted that most schools have been singing it for years already. https://youtu.be/zO-nUc4wyyk
The Junior Chamber of Commerce named first state song of Oklahoma was Pinky Tomlin's 1938 hit In Ole Oklahoma. Never agreed to by legislature. They picked oklahoma, a Toast. The state song for Oklahoma is, no surprise here, the Oscar Hammerstein classic, Oklahoma! from the 1943 musical by the same name. The surprise is that in 1982, the state legislature designated Oklahoma Wind by Dr. Dale Smith as the official state waltz.
don't forget that oh what a beautiful morning comes from the broadway show Oklahoma
The official state song of Ohio is a waltz, Beautiful Ohio! Beautiful Ohio was written in 1918. The book Music of the First World War by Don Tyler suggests that song was first published as a piano solo and was used to accompany acrobatic acts in vaudeville. The composer was listed as Mary Earl which most references list as a pseudonym for Robert King but other references claim that King was a pseudonym for a man whose birth name was Robert Keiser (1862-1932). Earl/King/Keiser was a prolific composer who according to David A. Jasen's book A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody and other Favorite Song Hits, 1918-1919 also composed under the names Vivian Grey, Ed Haley, Kathleen A. Roberts, R.A. Wilson and Mrs. Ravenhall. Keiser/King was hired in 1918 by Tin Pan Alley music publishers Shapiro, Bernstein in New York to compose one song per week. One of the first written under that contract was Beautiful Ohio. Lyrics to the song were written by Ballard MacDonald (1882-1932) and clearly refer to the Ohio River, not to the state. It was almost immediately a very popular song with recordings of both vocal and orchestral dance versions appearing almost simultaneously. One of the earliest recordings was by Joseph Knecht's Waldorf Astoria Orchestra issued in November, 1918 on Victor (18526) which can be heard below.
The real hit came when Henry Burr (1882-1941), a Canadian tenor, recorded the song in November, 1918 on Columbia (2701). The record was released to the public in April of 1919 and by May it was the largest selling record in America (it helped that I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles was on the flip side). It went on to sell 674,000 copies which, according to music historian Tim Brooks, made it the second largest selling record of the 1901-1934 period (Dardanella by Prince's Dance Orchestra was the largest with 832,000 copies). Burr (his birth name was Harry Haley McClaskey) was an incredibly busy musician who estimated that he had made more than 12,000 recordings as a soloist or member of a duet, trio or quartet. He recorded not only under the Henry Burr name but under many pseudonyms including Irving Gillette, Henry Gillette, Alfred Alexander, Robert Rice, Carl Ely, Harry Barr, Frank Knapp, Al King and Shamus McClaskey. Here is Burr's big hit - Beautiful Ohio.
While the publisher, Shapiro, Bernstein, no doubt benefited from the sale of the records, the bulk of their earnings came from the sale of sheet music. There were two editions in 1918, a standard version of the sheet music featured Mary Earl in large print and Ballard MacDonald in small print and cost fifty cents and a deluxe version which added a color cover, gave MacDonald equal billing and raised the price to sixty cents. Copies of both versions of the original music are still readily available on ebay. The music in both is identical and includes a vocal obligato, a simple counter melody which was to be sung with the second chorus. Calling it an obligato is the composer's way of saying "don't leave this out - it's important." But leave it out performers did. In the Henry Burr hit, the obligato is there but it is played by a muted trumpet, not sung as indicated on the score. It was only after sampling many recordings on YouTube that a version that included the vocal obligato was found. It was recorded in the United Kingdom in 1919 by a duo known as The Elliotts on Winner (3375). The obligato begins at about 1 minute and 50 seconds into the video.
The song was widely recorded when it first came out. Discogs lists some 34 recordings in the 1919-1921 period. Other recordings followed but infrequently until the 1950's when the advent of popular musical entertainment television shows brought back interest and some 100 or so new recordings were issued. The interest peaked in the 1960's where Discogs lists nearly 200 new recordings.
Perhaps because of this peak of interest, the State of Ohio took notice of the songs popularity and in 1969, the state legislature made Beautiful Ohio the official state song. Prior to 1969, Ohio did not have a state song although in the 1950's a Big Top Peanut Butter glass did declare (unofficially) that Down by the O-hi-o by Jack Yellen and Abe Olman was the state song.
Wilbert Bernard McBride (1915-2002), an attorney from Youngstown, Ohio, decided to rewrite the words to more appropriately reflect on the state of Ohio and in 1989, the state legislature adopted his lyrics for the official state version of Beautiful Ohio. Apparently the people of Ohio don't agree with the change because all recordings found to-date, even those which are recent and claim to be the official state song, still use Ballard MacDonald's original lyrics. Perhaps McBride's lyrics which include the memorable line "Mighty factories seem to hum a tune, so grand" just can't compete with "Looking in a pair of eyes that looked in mine."
While it is not a waltz, it is worth pointing out that Ohio has managed to bring Beautiful Ohio to the football field by creating a 4/4 march version, arranged by Richard Heine.
Beautiful Ohio is second only to Tennessee Waltz in being a widely known and popular state waltz. There are literally hundreds of recordings in almost any genre that can be imagined from blues and jazz to country and orchestral. It has been performed by artists ranging from Tiny Tim to Glenn Miller, from Kate Smith to Connie Francis and from Liberace to Chet Atkins. The popularity of Beautiful Ohio seems to have encouraged the creation of other waltzes celebrating Ohio. Examples follow.
In 1921, Robert King/Keiser, again composing under the name of Mary Earl, along with lyricist Ballard MacDonald tried to recapture the magic with a second Ohio waltz, this one titled By the Old Ohio Shore. Sheet music was issued and a few recordings were made but it never escaped the shadow of Beautiful Ohio. Here is an instrumental version.
The Library of Congress collection of notated music contains the scores of four 19th century Ohio waltzes. The earliest is a student piano piece written by John R. Jennings in 1840. It was part of a suite of three state waltzes honoring Indiana and Kentucky in addition to Ohio. The piece was dedicated to William Henry Harrison, hero of Tippecanoe, who served as both a Congressman and Senator for the state of Ohio before his brief (31 days) tenure as the ninth President of the United States in 1841. You can find the score for the Ohio portion of the suite here and you can listen to a computer rendition of the waltz below.
In 1878, Mrs. J.H St. Lawrence wrote a set of four songs for piano or cabinet organ which were published as Prairie Breezes. Three of the songs were marches but the fourth was a waltz titled Ohio Waltz. You can find a copy here. In 1877, J.E. Ebrenz composed a lengthy suite of three waltzes titled On the Beautiful Ohio. You can find a copy here. And, in 1880, Wm.J. Smith wrote a waltz titled On the Ohio which you can find here. The score noted that Smith was a blind pianist who also composed "Parlor Waltz, Exposition Waltz, Moonlight Serenade Waltz, &c, &c."
Returning to the 20th century, Raymond Fairchild has been one of the world's best banjo pickers for forty years or so. He was voted best banjo player for a five year period, 1987-1991, and designed one of the more collectible banjos around, the Cox-Fairchild banjo. During that peak period of fame he wrote and recorded Ohio Waltz (of the Year) which was released in 1989 on an LP titled Me and My Banjo at Home in Maggie Valley Atteiram (API-L-1655) label. You can hear it below.
Interestingly, just 16 miles south of Raymond Fairchild's birthplace of Cherokee, NC in the town of Sylva, NC was born another banjo player, Tony Ellis. The two are within a year or two of being the same age. Fairchild made his home in North Carolina but Ellis moved to Virginia with his family at an early age - he still has a soft Virginia accent. After high school, he spent a couple of years touring as the banjo player with Bill Monroe's band before dropping out to go to college and study accounting. A job with a paper company eventually led him to his current home in Circleville, Ohio in appropriately named Pickaway county. There is a wonderful interview with Ellis on YouTube put together by the Ohio Arts Council which gives you some real insight into the man and his music. In 2003, that same Council named Ellis one of the first Ohio Heritage Fellows. In the interview Ellis talks about his world-wide tours with his wife and son, his appearances on stage with Steve Martin and about the unusual old-time tunings he employs to create memorable tunes that sound like old folk songs. He offers a number of examples of his tunes during the interview but, sadly, does include his Ohio Waltz which he recorded in 1998 on his Quaker World CD. Even better than that CD is the live version below.
Tony Ellis's Ohio Waltz is elevated above the others in this blog by the fact that it has been covered by two other bands. In 2013, a band called Snow Hill Strings recorded it on an album titled Babes in the Woods. The musicians are Palmer Loux and Sue Shumaker on fiddle accompanied by Greg Loux on guitar and Gordon Arnold on cello. The Loux's (a married couple) are usually found in the Philadelphia, PA band called Run of the Mill String Band. Shumaker is also a fiddler familiar to the Philadelphia/Brandywine old-time music community and has played in the past with Run of the Mill. On the other hand, Gordon Arnold, a retired IBM'er who lives in Cary, North Carolina, appears to be a new musical acquaintance. Arnold is one of the few musicians who are comfortable playing old-time music on the cello and is usually found playing with the Rip the Calico contra-dance band. His presence and the intertwining fiddles of Loux and Shumaker make their Ohio Waltz very special.
The second cover of Ellis's Ohio Waltz is by Rik Barron and Duncan Wells, You can find it in the 2019 recording Rollin' Home. Barron takes the tune back closer to its roots with a sparse but lovely arrangement with banjo (Barron), guitar (Wells) and a simple bass line played by Chili Taylor.
Writing waltzes about Ohio continues into the 21st century. Jake Speed (apparently his real name) is known as the Woody Guthrie of Cincinnati according to the bio on his website. He has been entertaining Cincinnati for nearly twenty years with a variety of musicians forming a band called the Freddies (Fred is an acronym for the Flashing Rear End Device on the back of a train). Jake and the Freddies have been the opening act for almost every big name band that appears in Cincinnati and even appeared on Prairie Home Companion when that show originated in Cincinnati.They have also found time to make a number of recordings with national distribution including one in 2004 titled Huzzah which contains a tune he wrote titled Ohio River Waltz. You can hear the recorded version here on YouTube but this blog prefers the live version below.
If favorites were allowed in this blog, this next waltz would be it for Ohio. It's Waltz of the Ohio, an instrumental composed by Fats Kaplin and played by Kaplin and George Bradfute on the 2006 CD, The Fatman Cometh . Good luck in finding that CD though, it was a limited edition with hand-printed covers, so rare it doesn't even show up on ebay. You can find it today in the double album issued in 2013 by Kaplin's own label, Pulp Country, with the title Fats Kaplin Plays the Fatman Cometh and World of Wonder. Kaplin, whose real name is Frank Ambrose Thomas Slate Kaplin (named thusly by his father who was a "Fats" Waller scholar in hopes that the acronymic nickname would stick - it did, except for his maternal grandmother who always called him Ambrose) is a multi-instrumentalist in strong demand in Nashville.* More recently he has moved into the spotlight as a headline performer with his wife, the vocalist Kristi Rose. But in the video clip below it is just Kaplin on fiddle (and probably on the mandolin) with Bradfute on guitar, bass and cello playing the beautiful Waltz of the Ohio.
In 2015, old-time fiddler and song creator, Kenny Jackson recorded an album titled The Shortest Day which contained a waltz he wrote titled Ohio Waltz. Jackson is a student of old-time fiddling as well as a teacher of the same (he also teaches banjo, mandolin and flat-picking guitar). He teaches by Skype, in his home in North Carolina and at many fiddle camps around the country. It was perhaps at one of those fiddle camps that the video below was made. Jackson is joined by two other stars in the old-time music world - husband and wife team, Erynn Marshall (fiddle) and Carl Jones (guitar) to play Jackson's Ohio Waltz.
The name of the band, Acid Ears, suggests that this next waltz celebrating Ohio might not be an old-time tune. That suggestion would be correct. Acid Ears is an Oxford, Ohio based progressive rock band - Jack Nutall on vocals and guitar, John Troll on bass and Sam Bryant on drums. This is one of the few waltzes you will find played by any kind of rock band. It's titled Ohio Waltz Capitol - strange title, strange waltz.
This blog is still seeking a digital copy of Drifting Down the Dreamy Ol' Ohio Waltz recorded in 1950 by Arthur Godfrey on Columbia 38882. According to the label on the record the waltz was written by Jack Elliot (words) and Harold Spina (music) and performed by Arthur Godfrey and all The Little Godfreys which apparently includes Archie Bleyer, Janette Davis, the Cordettes, the Mariners and 20 Ukuleles. Sounds interesting. If you have a copy you can share, please leave a comment below.
A search of digitized copyright records available on Internet Archive found the following additional waltzes celebrating Ohio. There is no indication that any of these were published or publicly performed.
1894, Moonlight on the Ohio Waltz, to Mary M. Donehoo.
1900, A Letter from Ohio; waltz. Arranged for orchestra by W. H. Mackie.
1907, Echoes from the Ohio; waltz. By Jerry Bundy.
1912, Sounds from the Ohio Waltz: valse elegante by Karl Merz, ed. and fingered by R. de Roode
1931, In the Hills of old Ohio; waltz. Words and music to B.N. Benoit
1932, Take me back to my Ohio; waltz. Melody to Harry P. Guy.
1938, Overflowing Ohio; waltz. Melody to Ben Adelman
1938, Drifting on the Old Ohio; waltz. Words to Austin B. Dixon , music to Luther A. Clarke, arrangement to Dela Weber.
1945, Apple Blossom Time in Ohio; waltz. Words and melody to Naomi Lessing
1949, Ohio Waltz, words and music to Fred W. Evans
1949, The Ohio Waltz, words and music to Joe William Tanner
1951, The Ohio Waltz, words and music to Walter Lawrence Thress
1952, New Ohio Waltz, words and music to Dennis Wendell Lewis and Herbert Tillman Lewis
1952, Ohio Waltz, words and music to James Alexander Gerwick
1953, The Ohio Waltz, words and music to Clarence Joseph Huntington
1961, Ohio Waltz, words and music to Henry Harrison (Wooden) and Lula Mae Harrison (Wooden)
1967, The Ohio Waltz. Words, music and arrangement to Opal Skaggs.
1969, The River Ohio Waltz. Words and music to Frank W. Lewis.
1975, The Beautiful Ohio Waltz. Words and music to Luther Morgan
And finally, for those who make their own music, here is a simplified score for the official Ohio state song (a waltz).
*It's true that Fats is a multi-instrumentalist who is strong demand in Nashville but the rest of this sentence is fake news.
The official state song of North Dakota, North Dakota Hymn, is not a waltz. There is an official state march, The Flickertail March, but there is no official state waltz. There almost was an official state waltz. In February, 2011, the North Dakota state senate voted 32-14 that Dancing Dakota should not be the state waltz. Dancing Dakota was written by Mandan, North Dakota resident Chuck Suchy in 1989 to help celebrate North Dakota's centenial. Tom Isern, a well known plains historian based in Fargo, North Dakota and the blogger, Jim Fuglie, joined to lobby a series of politicians to make Dancing Dakota the state waltz. You can read it about it here and here. The result was ND SB2194 making the proposal official. It was that bill which was rejected. Suchy is a well known North Dakota singer/songwriter - the best known, in fact. There are more than 50 YouTube videos of Suchy singing the songs he has written including Dancing Dakota.
Careful listeners will note that Suchy's lyrics never mention North Dakota - just Dakota, but it is clearly a waltz celebrating North Dakota. Like North and South Carolina it is difficult sometimes to distinguish which state is being celebrated in a waltz. As we did with the Carolinas, ambiguous waltzes will be associated with both states in this blog.
Only one Dakota waltz was found which specifically mentions North Dakota in the lyrics and that is North Dakota Waltz written by Dan Smith and performed by the Kansas City band, Riverrock, on the CD, Shuddup & Party, issued in 2011. Riverrock is almost up there with the Rolling Stones in longevity - they were established in 1974 and still perform with three of the original band members. Dan Smith, the composer of North Dakota Waltz, is one of those original member of the band and performs percussion and vocals. He is a clever lyricist as a listen to the tune below will demonstrate.
The remaining waltzes are "Dakota" waltzes, not specific to North or South Dakota. The earliest Dakota waltz is Dacota Waltz, a piano piece composed in 1858 by Louis Wallis (1827-1905). Dacota is an early alternate spelling of Dakota - the word itself comes from a regional Native American language and means something like allies or friends. The word came to describe the groups of Native Americans that lived in the northern Mississippi valley and their shared language. In 1858, your could have read about Dacota country referring to the general area part of which which became the Dakota territory in 1861 and from which the states of North and South Dakota were formed in 1889.
The earliest waltz celebrating the Dakotas is from 1858. You can find a copy of the original score in the wonderful Levy Sheet Music Collection of Johns Hopkins University. A computer created version of the piece can be heard below.
Dan Zahn and Kate Moretti from Lake Zurich, Illinois perform together with some friends as Briar Road. Their latest CD is titled East Dakota Waltz and does indeed include the song East Dakota Waltz which was written by Zahn. The recorded performance is by Zahn and Moretti joined by Martin Brunkalla (a noted luthier as well as a fine fiddler) and bass player, Rusty Winchel. Its title gives it a right to be included here but, in reality, it is actually a waltz about Minnesota as explained in a personal communication from Dan Zahn. He tells the story behind the song this way.
As a folk singer/songwriter, I traveled to perform several concerts in the southwestern Minnesota, South Dakota area. I had the good fortune of staying with a family of farmers in Minnesota just a few miles from the S.D. state line before leaving for Sioux Falls.
My host explained to me that the soil they farmed in his corner of MN was exactly the same as that of their neighbors to the west and that he and other farmers in his area lovingly referred to their land as “East Dakota”.
That evening after dinner, while sitting in their living room, I picked out an original melody on my mandolin and my host and his wife stood up and began waltzing across the living room floor. I decided to name the tune, “The East Dakota Waltz” in honor of my new friends.
Take a listen to East Dakota Waltz below.
One which was missed and needs to be incorporated in this blog [8/8/19]
The most intriguing title for a Dakota waltz is The Mosquitoes of Dakota Waltz by Felix Villiet Vinatieri (1837-1891). Vinatieri's story is almost as intriguing. In 1873, he joined Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer's 800 man army as chief musician. He and his sixteen member band accompanied Custer to that famous "last stand" at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 26, 1876. He was spared because Custer ordered the musicians to stay on the supply boat on the nearby Powder River rather than join the battle. Their role became to be medics instead of musicians as they helped treat the wounded brought back to the boat at the end of the battle. The Mosquitoes of Dakota Waltz was written in June, 1874, so Custer no doubt heard and probably enjoyed the tune. It was written for a full band and the score still exists in the Vinatieri Archive at the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota. No evidence was found that it has been recorded or even performed in recent times.
A search of the Internet Archive found the following copyrights. No evidence was found that any of these waltzes were performed or recorded.
Windy Dakota, waltz, 1936. Words and music to Sam Adelman Back to Dakota, waltz, 1936. Words and music to Ben Adelman On the farm in North Dakota; waltz, 1937. Words and music to Hertha McCombs When the sun sets in Dakota; waltz, 1938. Words and music to Fern Marion [pseud. of M.F. Newcomb] Dakota Waltz, 1945. Words and music to Lew Tobin Dakota Waltz, 1949. Words to Charles Leonard Cleek and words to Werner Hugo Fack The North Dakota Waltz, 1951. Words and music to Rosanna Gutterud Johnsrud North Dakota Waltz, 1952. Music to Arthur Reinhold Niedan North Dakota Waltz, 1953. Words and music to Ray Pfliger Dakota Waltz, 1957. Words and music to Thelma Chappell Dakota Waltz, 1959. Music and arrangement to Herbert Barfoot Dakota Waltz, 1960. Words and music to Corbin A. Waldron North Dakota Waltz, 1960. Words and music to Peter Clifford Petersen The North Dakota Waltz, 1962. Music to Ken Raymond and arrangement to Larry Crownson North Dakota Waltz, 1964. Words and music to Thelma Thompson
And, finally, a simplified score for Dancing Dakota. It is not possible to capture the magic of this song in written music. The song lends itself well to harmony and Suchy varies the melody a little, both rhythmically and harmonically, each time he sings it. But this score gives pleasure when played along with his singing. Try it.
The official state song of North Carolina, The Old North State, happens to be a waltz. The full story of the song is remarkably well documented in a "study lesson" written by Mrs. E.E. Randolph in 1942, now available in the Digital Collection of the State Library of North Carolina. The short version of the story is that the melody was brought to North Carolina by some traveling Swiss bell ringers in 1835. William Gaston, a judge from Raleigh, liked the tune and immediately wrote a set of words, celebrating his home state of North Carolina. The first known published version was a piano and voice arrangement by R. Culver published by George Willig in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1844. The arrangement commonly heard today was done by Mrs. E.E. Randolph in 1926 (yes, the same Mrs. Randolph who wrote the history of the song) and it was that version which was made the state song by the North Carolina legislature in 1927.
While North Carolinians have been singing The Old North State as the state song since Gaston wrote it in 1835, the first known recording is a symphonic version played by the North Carolina Symphony conducted by Ben Swalin. You can hear it in the video below. While the video dates the performance as 1927, that date is questionable since Swalin became the conductor of the North Carolina Symphony only in 1939.
The video below shows the The Old North State as it is more normally heard, performed here by the students of Coltrane Webb Elementary in Concord, North Carolina.
At just about the same time that William Gaston and R. Culver were creating The Old North State, Gustave Blessner wrote a waltz for piano which he dedicated to Miss T. Neal of St. Marys Hall, North Carolina. He called the tune Carolina Waltz and it may be the earliest Carolina waltz of all. Not much is known of Mr. Blessner. The Petrucci Music Library, which has 26 of his compositions, reports that in 1869 he lived in Canandagua, NY and taught music at the Ontario Female Seminary. There is a copy of the original sheet music of his waltz in the digital library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can hear a computer generated rendition of the waltz in the video below.
The most famous Carolina waltz is clearly Carolina Moon by Joe Burke (music) and Benny Davis (lyrics). Does the "Carolina" in Carolina Moon refer to North Carolina or South Carolina? No one seems to know. In fact, both states claim the waltz celebrates their state. This blog will remain neutral and list the song (as well as other ambiguous Carolina waltzes) for both. Burke and Davis wrote the song in 1924 but it was not recorded until 1928.
It is widely reported that Gene Austin made the first recording of Carolina Moon on December 10, 1928. That was indeed the first released recording of Carolina Moon but the Discography of American Historical Recordings reveals that Andrew Lawrence recorded Carolina Moon, probably in the same studio, about two weeks earlier, on November 26th, but the recording was a test or audition, never meant to be released. Austin's recording was a big hit and remained at the top of the hit parade for fourteen weeks until it was displaced by another Joe Burke tune, Tiptoe through the Tulips. You can hear Austin's recording in the video below.
There were at least a dozen other versions of Carolina Moon released as recordings in the 1920's and early '30's but the song never went out of style. In the 1940's the song became famous as the radio show theme song for Irish tenor, Morton Downey. According to the Discography of Historic American Recordings Downey recorded Carolina Moon in a New York studio on October 5, 1931 for use in a United Artists movie and it was never released as a record. But you can still hear Downey's Carolina Moon from a November, 1945 radio broadcast of the NK Musical Showroom. You can hear that broadcast in the video below thanks to Keith Helsley's excellent Retro Radio Podcast.
There have been several waltzes written which specifically recognize North Carolina:
One of the earliest known waltzes to specifically celebrate North Carolina is North Carolina Moon written and recorded by the Callahan Brothers (Homer and Walter, although they recorded as Bill and Joe, respectively) on January 3, 1934 on the Melotone label (13018 B). The brothers were from Madison county in western North Carolina. North Carolina Moon was recorded on their second recording session in the ARC studios in New York City (their first ever recording session was the day before in the same studio). The brothers remained active performers, even appearing in movies, into the 1950's.
Clint Alphin celebrates his North Carolina roots in North Carolina Waltz which appears on his most recent album, Postmodern Man, on his own ClinAlph label. There are two versions available on YouTube - one from a May, 2012 appearance at the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance conference in Montreat, NCand the other from his appearance on the TV show, Mountain Morning, on Park City TV from Park City, Utah which you can see below.
Bill Monroe is a recurring figure in state waltzes. He wrote the famous Kentucky Waltz. He wrote the not-so-famous Mississippi Waltzand he inspired the most famous of state waltzes, Tennessee Waltz. For North Carolina waltzes, he plays a different role. As a young, single mandolin player Monroe had an eye for the pretty girl and he met one, Ruby Elma Polk, after a concert in Norwood, North Carolina in 1943. Mutual attraction, opportunity and biology led nine months later to the birth Gloria Jean Polk. Gloria Jean showed early musical talent and grew up to become the bluegrass singer/songwriter known as Carolina Rose. She wrote about her life in the book The Road from Gloria Jean to Carolina Rose and according to the book Carolina Bluegrass: A High Lonesome History a movie of her life has been planned. You can find evidence of that movie (and an autobiographical song), which appears to be still in the funding stage here. In 2017 she was inducted into the Independent Country Gospel Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame, joining her famous father. She has recorded eleven albums, many of them contain autobiographical songs, including, perhaps, her own Waltz of North Carolina:
Joe Collins, from Shelby, North Carolina, is a pastor, a dulcimer builder/player/teacher and a singer/song writer. His Carolina Waltz is popular amongst dulcimer players. There are at least three versions of the tune on YouTube. A good example is the one played by Kevin Teague on an unusual dulcimer, a Gold Tone Dulciborn, in the video below. But in order to appreciate that the song is specific to North Carolina you need to hear the lyrics as sung by Joe Collins here.
Buddy Tresize (1933-2012) was the best country musician in Australia and hailed from Bendigo, Victoria according to his YouTube profile. He sings Carolina Waltz on a privately pressed CD. The version he sings was composed by Dick Roman and Lou Vickers in 1948. It is also known as Charlotte Belle (the lyrics mention "my Charlotte belle") which is the clue that makes this waltz specific to North Carolina. It is just a guess, but Tresize probably learned the song from a 1950 Australian recording by Tim McNamara (Rodeo Records 10-0021). In the U.S., the song has also been recorded by Dick Thomas and his Nashville Ramblers. Here is Tresize's version:
Caleb and Sara Davis from Mocksville, North Carolina perform as the folk/bluegrass duo His & Hers throughout the state of North Carolina. They perform their own original music and one of their best is Carolina Waltz. In a private communication, the Davis's confirm that their Carolina Waltz celebrates their home state of North Carolina. You can find it on their most recent album, Family Land or listen here. But, the live performance below, captured at the Muddy Creek Music Hall in Bethania, North Carolina in April, 2019, provides a better sense of the musicians themselves.
The absence of lyrics makes it difficult to know if a Carolina waltz relates to North or South Carolina but a private communication with composer Buck Brown made it clear that he was thinking of North Carolina when he wrote the waltz. Brown is not only a composer, he is a singer/songwriter and a well known jazz guitar educator who is responsible for 18 books/CD's in the Alfred Music catalog. Brown was a member of Nils Lofgren's band and acoustic duo in the 1990's and is currently an active performer in Nashville where he currently resides. His website has a full "CD" of his instrumental music which includes the version of his Carolina Waltz featured in the video below.
Moving into the category of waltzes which could be claimed by North or South Carolina, first by looking at some tin pan alley type waltzes which were most popular in the 1920's and 1930's. Many of these were popularized in piano sheet music as well as on the 78 rpm records which became affordable and common in that era.
1918 is not quite into the 1920's but it was in that year that Erwin R. Schmidt wrote what became a very popular waltz titled Carolina Sunshine. Lyrics to the song were provided by Walter Hirsch. Sheet music for the song can be seen here. It was recorded by at least four different performers in 1919 - an instrumental version by the Joseph C. Smith Orchestra on Victor 18646, Vernon Dalhart on Edison Disks (50595), the Six Brown Brothers on Emerson 1055, and on three different labels by the Sterling Trio (Albert Campbell, Henry Burr (aka Harry McClaskey) and John H. Meyer) - Victor (18612), Columbia (A2770) and Paramount (33019). You can hear a piano roll version here but the best way to appreciate the song is to listen to the performance by the Sterling trio in the video below.
Edwin R. Schmidt, composer of the Carolina Sunshine above, must have loved Carolina because he wrote a second Carolina waltz in 1925 titled Dreamy Carolina Moon. Evans Lloyd wrote the lyrics. Copies of the sheet music an occasionally be found on Amazon. It was recorded at least four times - by Carl Fenton's Orchestra on Brunswick (2938), by The Denza Dance Band (led by Ben Selvin) on Columbia (3781), by the Miami Marimba Band on Brunswick (A 303) and by vocalist Vernon Dalhart and the Cavaliers (also led by Ben Selvin) on Columbia (390 D). The latter has been captured on YouTube:
There are two waltzes that carry the title Carolina Sweetheart. The earliest (1925) was composed by Billy James and was recorded at least six times - by the B.F. Goodrich Silvertown Cord Orchestra with vocals by the Silver-Masked Tenor (Joseph M. White) on Victor (19798), by Bob Haring and his Orchestra on Cameo (739), by the Castlewood Marimba Band (this is exactly the same band as the Miami Marimba Band - they may have recorded under at least seven different names) on Brunswick (2986), by Jack Stillman's Orchestra on Edison (51638), by and for release in Australia a version by Wood and Turner on Grand Pree (18472). You can hear the B.F. Goodrich Silvertown Cord Orchestra version here and the Castlewood Marimba Band version here and for your listening pleasure, the six version which was recorded by Lanes Dance band (led by Bob Haring) on the Lincoln label (2366) can be viewed below.
Parallel in time to those tin pan alley Carolina waltzes but quite different in style were hillbilly or country waltzes which were recorded but rarely distributed as sheet music. There was some national distribution of the records and some airplay on powerful country radio stations but most of these waltzes were created and stayed in the deep South.
A first example is the second waltz titled Carolina Waltz which was recorded in 1936 by the Callahan Brothers - the same Callahan Brothers who recorded North Carolina Moon in 1934 (see above). They probably wrote the song also since no composer is credited on the record. You may find references on the web that suggest this song was sung by the Dixon Brothers. Those are just wrong - the result of mis-identification from a compilation record that included both the Dixon and Callahan Brothers.
The Georgia Yellow Hammers (note: Yellowhammers are woodpeckers native to Georgia) were a quartet of musicians from Gordon county Georgia in the 1920's. They wrote much of their own music and recorded 36 songs on the Victor label. They are recognized today as a foundation band of the "old time" sound. There is even a current Georgia Yellow Hammers band which has honored them by resurrecting their name and performing much of their old music . Two of the members of the original Yellow Hammers, Charles Earnest Moody, Jr. and Bud Landress, wrote a waltz titled My Carolina Girl which was released on the Victor (20943) label in 1927. That record was their best selling record ever (although it may have been due to the song on the flip side, The Picture on the Wall). You can hear it below.
In 1927, Clayton "Pappy" McMichen wrote a waltz titled My Carolina Home. McMichen was a contest winning fiddler and extremely versatile musician. If you have never heard of him, go back two sentences and click that link on his name. Then stop and thank another remarkable musician, Richard L. Matteson, Jr., for preserving the memory of McMichen and so many other early bluegrass musicians in his Bluegrass Messenger website. At the age of 18, McMichen formed his first band, the Lick the Skillet band, in Atlanta, Georgia. A young guitarist, Riley Puckett, was one of the four members of that band. The band was a local success and made some local recordings but it wasn't
until 1926 that McMichen got a big break when Columbia records invited McMichen and Puckett to record in their Atlanta studios. Recording under the name of Bob Nichols (probably to avoid a contract problem with a local record company) McMichen and Puckett recorded My Carolina Home. You can hear that original recording in the video below.
You may note that both of the two above waltzes celebrating Carolina come from Georgia - so does this next one. The Scottdale String Band was created in Scottdale, Georgia by four musicians - Barney Pritchard, Marvin Head, Belvie Freeman and Charlie Simmons - who all worked in a cotton mill in that town. The band usually performed as a trio with guitarists Pritchard and Freeman being constants joined either by Freeman or Simmons on mandolin-banjo. Many of the tunes they recorded were novelty numbers but Carolina Glide, which was originally recorded in 1927 on Okeh (45142) is a straight forward waltz which is still played today by groups such as this Dutch ukulele duo and the late Jon Bekoff and his protege Nate Paine in the video below which is shared to make sure you do not miss the perfect harmony this well-matched pair creates once they get going.
You can find the original Carolina Glide in the wonderful Arhooley LP reissue of the Scottdale String Bands recordings titled Old Folks Better Go To Bed. And you can hear it now in the YouTube video below.
Moving on to waltzes celebrating the Carolinas from the mid-20th century to current times ...
Clyde Moody was known as the Hillbilly Waltz King. Some of his best known waltzes were Whispering Pines, Tennessee Rose, Shenandoah Waltz (his only million seller), Dark Midnight and Carolina Waltz. Moody was born in Cherokee, North Carolina and is a member of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. It is a good bet than his Carolina Waltz, recorded in 1948 on King (706) refers to North Carolina but listen to the lyrics below and decide if think it refers to North or South Carolina.
Another Carolina Waltz that would good make a good North Carolina bet is the one by banjo player Andrew Eversole since he is from Greensboro, North Carolina. You will find the bluegrassy tune on his 2008 album, Creature. Over the next ten years, Eversole has moved into a Ry Cooder stage and has taken his banjo around the world and melded his blue grass chops with world music to produce some very fine music through his Banjo Earth project. But his Carolina Waltz is very much local, not world music.
Jim Hardin appears to be from South Carolina according to the minimal available information about him found by the usual search engines. He may or may not be part of a band once known as Jim Hardin and the Musical Erupters. He may or may not have been part of a the gospel quartet known as the Bluegrass Statesman and he is definitely not the tragic folksinger figure, Tim Hardin. But, his 2008 album Bluegrass on the Bayou definitely contains a nice song titled Carolina Waltz:
Chuck "Coyote" Larson, lead singer for the Snake Oil Cowboys lives on the outer banks of North Carolina but has roots in Oklahoma and has spent almost as many years at sea as he has on land. In the 60's he was a rock musician with a number of bands that almost made it big. He sang and played guitar for those bands but his contribution was song writing - something he still does well. After rock, he spent more than twenty years rolling on the seas with the merchant marine before retiring to the beach in North Carolina where he rejoined old friend Robbie Vernon to form the Snake Oil Cowboys. Today he owns the Swampworks Recording Studio in Kitty Hawk, NC and runs the Blind Weasel record company. The video below captures Larson and Vernon along with Muskrat Reams on the pedal steel playing Larson's Carolina Waltz at a 2015 concert for the Tidewater Friends of Acoustic Music in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Brent Stewart saw the need for a new Carolina waltz and created one. There are no hints as to North or South Carolina nor are there any hints about Stewart's musical life. Here he is, at home, sitting in his desk chair playing his banjo and singing his own Carolina Waltz:
The information on Brent Stewart was encyclopedic compared to the information on the next creator/singer of the next Carolina Waltz. His YouTube name is "B", he likes horses (based on the photos with his songs) and he is a singer/songwriter with a home studio. Here is his Carolina Waltz:
There is one more YouTube video which carries the title Carolina Waltz although the lyrics do not seem to relate to the title. Probably written by Melissa Hyman since she sings it in three different videos - the easiest-to-listen-to version is here.
There are three additional instrumental versions of Carolina Waltz, none of which seem to refer specifically to North or South Carolina. The first was written by Roger Campbell and is played by Canadian fiddler, Bruce Osborne. You will find quite a collection of fiddle tunes played by Osborne on his YouTube Channel. He plays viola in this video and the graphics recognize both North and South Carolina.
The Oklahoma country star, Johnny Bond, will be encountered later in this blog because he wrote and performed a hit song titled Oklahoma Waltz but he also wrote a tune titled Carolina Waltz. He recorded Carolina Waltz on the a Columbia 45 rpm record (cat. 4-21424) in 1955. A digital copy has not been found to share on this blog but curiously, a Danish trumpet player, Arne Lamberth, has recorded a big band version of Carolina Waltz, which the liner notes say was composed by Johnny Bond. Could it be the same song? Until a copy of the Bond original is found, all we can do is listen to the Lamberth version below and wonder.
Johnny Tanner is a singer/songwriter and artist from South Carolina. He is also a very good guitar player. Almost all of his music includes a vocal but he occasionally writes a pure instrumental which is the case for his version of Carolina Waltz which you can hear below. Given his residence it is a good bet that the song celebrates South Carolina but until that is firmly determined, it is included in this non-state-specific section of the blog.
A number of waltzes celebrating the Carolina's have been recorded but no digital version of the recordings are currently available. These include:
In 1951, Uncle Harve's Ragtime Wranglers recorded North Carolina Waltz written by Harve Spivey and Harold (Lazy) Donelson on Cardinal (1014). Donelson also provided vocals on the record. The Ragtime Wranglers were located in Miami and provided western swing music to the south Florida area from the 1940's to the 1960's.
In 1952, Cliffie Stone and his Orchestra recorded Carolina Waltz written by David Coleman on Capitol (1960).
Sometime in the late 1980's Morgan Ruppe of Clover, South Carolina wrote and sang Carolina Waltz on what appears to be his own record label, Hummingbird of Clover (MC-111).
In the late 1960's, Rural Rhythms issued two collections of waltzes featuring Clarence "Tater" Tate, a well known bluegrass fiddler, and other musicians: Beautiful Waltzes (RRBW203) and More Favorite Waltzes (RRCT-220). Both of those records contained Carolina Waltz although it is unknown whose version of Carolina Waltz was covered. No evidence was found that the Carolina Waltz versions had been previously released as singles.
The Library of Congress contains the sheet music for La Carolina Waltz by J. Dodsley Humphreys, published by John F. Nunns, New York in 1843. There is no hint if it relates to North or South Carolina but if it were to be described as a state waltz it would have to relate to South Carolina since North Carolina did not become a state until 1879 - it was still a colony in 1843.
A search using the Internet Archive showed the following issued copyrights which apparently never recorded.
1921, Carolina, waltz. son, words and melody by V.J. Brando.
1924, Dreams of Carolina, waltz. Words and melody to John Arthur Mills
1926, Take me back to dear old Carolina, waltz. Words and music by A. L. Allred
1930, Dreamy Carolina, waltz. Words and music by Irving Knight and Julian Dey
1935, When it's raining down in Carolina, waltz. Words by P. Preslar and S. Adelman and melody by B. Adelman.
1935, Dear old Carolina, waltz. Words to Anna M. Whelan. Music to J. Schatenstein and A.M. Whelan
1951, (Last night they played the) Carolina Waltz. Words and music to Jimmy Melvin Dall
1960, The Carolina Waltz. Words to Patricia Rathbone. Words to George Leddy
1977, Carolina Waltz. D.B. Johnson
There is one recorded waltz which was not included here just because it doesn't really sound like a waltz: Carolina Sunday Waltz by Adrian Legg.
And finally, a musical score of the official North Carolina state song (which happens to be a waltz although it is rarely performed that way), The Old North State.
