Indiana

While there are a number of Indiana waltzes the most popular one appeared almost simultaneously with Tennessee Waltz. The August 7, 1948 issue of Billboard Magazine announced the release of Pee Wee Jenkins and his Barn Dance Buddies recording of Indiana Waltz on the Mercury label.  That same issue reported that Tennessee Waltz played by Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys was number four on the Most-Played Jukebox Folk Records list. Fred Rose was the common denominator of the two records. Fred Rose is one of the founding fathers of American country music. He was one of the first to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was a song wrangler - he connected songwriters, singers and record producers. He was also a composer, a session pianist and personal advisor to country stars from Gene Autry to Hank Williams to the Louvin Brothers.  Rose wrote the words and music to Indiana Waltz and when Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart sought a publisher for Tennessee Waltz, they brought it to Rose.  Rose was a native of Indiana and that plus the success of Bill Monroe's Kentucky Waltz and his knowledge of Tennessee Waltz may have inspired him to write the song. Both Indiana Waltz and Tennessee waltz were first recorded in the month of December, 1947. There is some similarity in the stories told by the songs and both songs are self-referential - couples dancing to the very song that is being sung.  Indiana Waltz has a happy ending; Tennessee Waltz has a sad ending. Rose apparently convinced two record companies to record his Indiana Waltz. The first was recorded by Eddie Hazelwood on the Decca label (46129), released in December, 1947 followed in August, 1948 with a recording by Pee Wee Jenkins and his Barn Dance Buddies on the Mercury label (6124). You can hear the Pee Wee Jenkins version below. Neither record made the charts.

Rome Johnson also released a version of Rose's Indiana Waltz in 1948 on MGM 10130 but it was not until 1959 that Rose's Indiana Waltz got another chance at popularity when it appeared on Jack Scott's first LP which was on the Carleton label.  Scott was just emerging as a Canadian rock star when his laconic version of Indiana Waltz was released.  It was reissued on several of his later albums.

You can find lyrics and a simplified score for Rose's Indiana Waltz at the bottom of this blog.

Several years after Rose's decidedly Nashville version of Indiana Waltz, Robert Sauer and Eric Gawehn created a tin pan alley version of Indiana Waltz.  It was recorded on the Rondo label with the Melody Five doing the vocals accompanied by the Bill Walker trio. The recording date is uncertain but there is evidence of a studio recording gig for Bill Walker in 1951, making that the probable date. The recording is available on the Internet Archive website and in a noise-reduced version below.

New Indiana Waltz, composed by  Earl A. Brooks, appeared in the same time period as the Rose and Sauer/Gawehn versions.  It was recorded on the Noble label (NR141) by Bud Greenwalt. A sound file for this record is not currently available.

In 1956, Rosemary Mitchell recorded Indiana Waltz by Les Cox on a local Indiana label, Solid Gold (711).  She was accompanied by Eddie Ballantine's Orchestra. Billboard magazine described the tune as "a charming liltet in the Tennessee Waltz family." A sound file for this record is not currently available.

There are several "historic" 19th and early 20th century Indiana waltzes.  The excellent IN Harmony website which combines sheet music collections from Indiana University Lilly Library, the Indiana State Library, the Indiana State Museum, and the Indiana Historical Society lists two along with many other Indiana related waltzes:

The Indiana Grand Valse (1856) by G. Marcailhou
Governors of Indiana Waltz (1904) by Giuseppe Marone

But the earliest known Indiana Waltz was composed by John R. Jennings in 1840. A copy is available in the Notated Music Collection of the U.S. Library of Congress.  In addition to his Indiana Waltz, Jennings also composed a Kentucky Waltz and an Ohio Waltz which will be visited later in this blog. Here is his Indiana Waltz:

There is a traditional fiddle tune titled Indiana Waltz which has been passed down through generations of folk musicians.  You can hear a raw version of it played by Ellis Vorhees collected in 1973 in a field recording by Bruce Greene of Berea College.  A more refined version, but still very much in the folk tradition is the one below played by "Uncle Luther."

The same tune refined into a bluegrass waltz appears on the album Country Mountain Favorites.  According to Banjo Hangout, the music on that album was made by the musicians from the group Foghorn Stringband and some of their friends.  The group had a five day recording session where they recorded 90 tunes which were released on a series of six albums under several labels.  The group is known on those albums as the Pine Tree String Band. Here is their version of the traditional Indiana Waltz.

The most recent Indiana waltz dates to 1996. It was written by Richard Greene, who is believed by many to be the best bluegrass fiddler ever - maybe the best fiddler ever since he also plays jazz, folk, rock and classical music. He is also a fine composer as you can hear from his Indiana Waltz as it appears on the album, Wolves A Howlin':

Greene has published transcriptions of all the tunes on the Wolves A'Howlin record.  You can buy them in his website store. Greene is also a frequent teacher at fiddle camps including the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp. It is not know if he was at the 2006 Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp but Miss Molly either learned it from him there or carefully studied his transcription because she plays a nice cover of the tune with Miss Molly's Bogglemuffins:

Indiana waltz candidates found but not included in this blog include:

Two copyrights to Indiana Waltzes were found but no other evidence that they were ever performed:

•  1920 copyright issued to Walter A. Stoube for a piano composition titled Indiana Waltz
•  1949 copyright issued to Norman Bradford Hughes for a song titled Indiana Waltz

The 1961 Stecheson Classified Song Directory Supplement lists on page 425 an Indiana Waltz composed by Bourne.

The Complete Catalogue of Sheet Music Published by the Board of Musical Trade of the United States lists an Indiana Waltz composed by Keller.

There is a 1922 recording of Indiana Lullaby by Elsie Baker and Olive Cline  which is sometimes improperly identified as Indiana Lullaby Waltz.

There is an Indiana Waltz from the1886 comic opera, Indiana, music by Edmond Audran, book by Liddell.  The opera was originated in France but translated into English for performance in London and New York in 1887.  The score is available in the Notated Music section of the Library of Congress but is not included here since the subject is no related to the state of Indiana. Indiana was a relatively common French name for women at the time.

There is an mid-19th century Indiana Waltz by Gatien Marcailhou of which there is a piano performance on YouTube.  The subject of piece is title character in George Sand's novel Indiana. Marcailhou also published a story inspired by his waltz. It was illustrated with color plates of watercolors.  Judging by the number of contemporary references to Marcailhou's song in Google Books, this was a very popular song at the time of its composition.

And finally, here are the lyrics and a simplified score for Fred Rose's Indiana Waltz:

Beneath the stars,
We heard two guitars
play the Indiana Waltz.
And just by chance,
I asked you to dance
To the Indiana Waltz

I held you near,
My heart stood still.
I loved you then
And always will.
I thank the stars
And singin' guitars
For the Indiana waltz

 
Return to the Index of other state waltzes.