[Musicians] Tune IDs? ("Dusty Roads" and "Rubber Dolly")

[tom hinds]

I used to have a fairly large collection of square dance 45s.  My impression is that studio musicians would often make up a melody so it is possible that the A part of Dusty Road was made up.  The B part does sound familiar though.



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> On Oct 30, 2019, at 1:39 AM, jim saxe via Musicians <musicians at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> For many years--even from before "modern western" square dance substantially diverged from its traditional roots--square dance music producers have sometimes released recordings of traditional tunes under new names.  I'm not sure of the reason.  Perhaps the idea was to get callers to buy multiple recordings of the same tune.  Or perhaps the producers thought the new names would help them claim copyrights.  I dunno.  Anyway, this page from Vic and Debbie Ceder's square dance record database
> 
>     https://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php?RecordId=9791&SqlId=249698
> 
> includes sound clips from the A and B sides of Sets In Order record 69 / 70, identified with the titles "Dusty Roads" and "Rubber Dolly" respectively. I suspect that these tunes may have other, more common/familiar/traditional titles, and I'm wondering whether any of you can help me identify them.
> 
> "Dusty Roads" is the one I'm more curious about.  It sure seems familiar, but I can't place it.
> 
> I've read that "Rubber Dolly" is an alternate title for "Back Up And Push".  After listening to a few versions of "Back Up And Push" that I found on the intertubes, I find that I can just maybe possibly imagine the version of "Rubber Dolly" cited above as a variant of the same tune.  But I'm not at all sure someone mightn't identify a different traditional title that wouldn't require so much of a reach.
> 
> A search for "Rubber Dolly" in the Ceder database turns up a number of other cuts under that title that seem like closer matches to the Youtube videos I've found of "Back Up And Push," at least in the A part.  Some of those "Back Up And Push" videos have the B part played in a very ornamented style (derived from bluegrass and/or contest fiddling?) that makes it hard for my musical muggle brain even to discern the underlying melody.  There don't seem to be any versions of "Dusty Roads" in the database besides the one I've cited--at least not under that title.
> 
> If you identify traditional titles for either of these tunes, it would be helpful if you could also supply links to recordings (e.g., mp3 files or Youtube videos) under those titles that illustrate the resemblance to the clips I've asked about.  I say that because whatever tune(s) you mention might exist in widely different versions, and the titles might even be associated with other, unrelated tunes.
> 
> I also realize that some MWSD releases may be mishmashes stitched together using fragments of multiple traditional tunes, but I have no idea whether either "Dusty Roads" or "Rubber Dolly" is such a frankenstune.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> --Jim
> 
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