Beaumont Rag

Ages 56-69 Competition - The 1977 Oklahoma State Fiddle Contest

Red says he learned this from a guitar player around 1927

Gordon McCann on guitar

The fiddlers who played for me did not use the "Georgia lick," a bowing technique of fairly recent origin, which generates a syncopated accent. It is often used in "Beaumont Rag" and other tunes but can be quickly overdone, since it obscures the beat and throws accompanists off stride. It is one of the modern divertissements in present-day fiddling known as "hokum." Recorded by Bill Driver and Red Williams.