HI

I learned it on the fiddle from Mitch Reed. He said that Bebe Carriere wrote it after watching his grandmother running away from a blue runner snake who was trying to climb into her basket of eggs she had collected from the chickens. It's a jaunty little tune. Definitely blues based but also with a hint of ragtime thrown in.....

Next........

roger

I'd guess 4/4.

Definitely NOT 6/8. (6/8 sounds kind of jazzy)

Chris Miller would know for sure

Geno does a great version on the 3-row

--Big

From a bass, or guitar point of view, I think it has more of a 2/4 feel, but that doesn't mean anything. I believe Geno plays it in C, but like Chris, he plays it on a piano accordion. Chris plays it in D which works well with a standard tuned fiddle.

If you have a recorded version of the tune in D, use your C accordion and try to find the notes using the same scale used to play Pine Grove Blues. The notes are there, but its difficult to get the feel of the tune at any acceptable speed.

If your recorded version is in C, you would need a Bb accordion.

I have a G/C diatonic accordion and chords should be D to G, right? so I hope because I start to learn it with that chord

There is no chord change. It stays D all the way through.

ok, good to know, thanks!

Re: Geno, I am pretty sure he uses a triple row to play it. I saw him play it that way some years ago, and it has many of the characteristic triple row licks in it.

It's possible he also played it on a piano accordion, but I haven't seen him pull out the piano accordion in many years. I think he used one for a while after the French Rockin' Boogie album, but since then, he seems to have dropped it entirely - at least when he's on the road. Heck, he hardly even touches the triple row anymore from what I have seen.

You probably right. It was a very long time ago that I saw Geno playing a PA. I remember that it was much bigger than the one Chris plays.

C, on the F row of an F/Bflat/Eflat triple row

wle

I have the same question for the French blues tune I watch from Big nick box lesson, have you got an idea? 4/4 or 6/8?

because it seem to be blues (from the name at least) and I know some cajun/zydeco blues are in 6/8 (rosalie, bosco blues, blues de voyage...)...but I know some others are in 4/4 or 9/8 (ternary!),

So it introduce my last question: What does give blues to a tune (it shouldn't be a question of rhythm, should it?)? If someone have a clear idea it could be very usefull to me

best regards,
Greg

Yeah, now I am pretty sure it's 4/4, I just tried it and it works, I just don't understand how his intro is built (I can't put what he plays into a 4/4 structure, but after 45 first second it's really clear!).

And thank you very much for info behind the song, it's really interesting :)

A Blue Runner is a snake found in the bayou country. The first time I heard the tune is from Canray Fontenot and I had always heard it was his tune. Gino plays it on a three-row, but all the original versions I heard before Gino were on fiddle. There is a live 'house party' tape of Canray playing it with a band that I remember from over 20 years ago and. Very old video, prolly 20 years before that. If someone can locate it, maybe put it up for us all to see

You can see Bébé Carriere play Blue Runner in the Folkstreams video, Zydeco: Creole Music and Culture in South Louisiana.

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,181

It's at about 1:50

thanks for the link, I have had not seen it yet

That is a real neat film. I just finished watching it and enjoyed every minute of it.

Here is a Zydeco version on the triple note. I think we did it in C. See second link below.

best version i ever heard was mitch reed - on fiddle

he is so hot on that it;s practically a signature tune for him

when he was in charivari it was anyway

pretty sure it;s on one of their records


it;s really more of a fiddle tune

with the slides and slurred notes, it has more interest to distract you from the one-chord vamp aspect

wle