Daily Tunes: Cripple Creek

For Today's Daily Tune I'm playing Cripple Creek on Banjo.
This is always one of the first songs that a person learns on Banjo. I've taught many a student how to play this one.
I could have played this better but these vids are just for fun.
Thanks for watching !

"Cripple Creek" is a traditional Appalachian folk song and old-time tune, often performed on the fiddle or banjo, and is listed as number 3434 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Its origins are uncertain, with the tune likely predating the lyrics, which are believed to have emerged around 1900 or earlier. The song is a staple in bluegrass music, frequently one of the first tunes a banjo player learns, and its lively melody and playful lyrics capture the spirit of rural life. The lyrics, documented in sources like the 1915 Journal of American Folklore, often describe a narrator's romantic pursuits, drinking, and adventures along a creek, with lines like “Goin’ up Cripple Creek, goin’ in a run, Goin’ up Cripple Creek to have some fun.” The song’s title may refer to various places named Cripple Creek, with the most famous being Cripple Creek, Colorado, a gold mining town established after the 1891 gold rush, though many traditional Virginia musicians associate it with Cripple Creek, Virginia. Folklorist Alan Jabbour suggested the song might also connect to labor troubles in Colorado’s Cripple Creek, based on recollections from older Appalachian fiddlers.

The song’s history includes early documentation by Cecil Sharp, who collected two versions in 1917 from singers in Kentucky, one starting with “Buck Creek Girls, don’t you want to go to Somerset?” The first known recording was in 1924 by Sam Jones, a Black one-man-band performer known as Stovepipe No. 1, followed by the Skillet Lickers later that year. Over the years, it was recorded by various artists, including Luther Strong for the Library of Congress in 1937, Buffy Sainte-Marie on her 1964 album It’s My Way!, and Leo Kottke, who performed a fingerpicked guitar arrangement on his 1971 album Mudlark. Tony Saletan also played a banjo instrumental of the song on Sesame Street in 1969 to accompany a limberjack demonstration. The song’s raunchy undertones, as seen in lyrics about a gal who “wraps herself around me like a sweet potato vine,” reflect the earthy humor of 19th-century mountain music, and its widespread popularity is evidenced by its inclusion in collections like the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. Cripple Creek remains a beloved piece of American musical heritage, celebrated for its infectious rhythm and cultural resonance.

It’s worth noting that Cripple Creek is distinct from “Up on Cripple Creek,” a 1969 song by The Band, written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Levon Helm. While both songs share a title reference, they are unrelated in content and style, with The Band’s song drawing on Americana and rock influences to tell the story of a truck driver visiting a lover named Bessie in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The confusion sometimes arises due to the shared name, but the traditional Cripple Creek is a much older folk tune rooted in Appalachian tradition, whereas “Up on Cripple Creek” is a modern composition with a funky clavinet riff and narrative lyrics.