In 2006,  the dulcimer world lost one its greatest talents and advocates, David L. Schnaufer,  to a battle with cancer.  He left behind legions of friends, admirers, and inspired dulcimer players who mourn his loss, and celebrate his life.  His music especially is in all of us who ever had the privilege of meeting him, hearing him, and learning from him, and his influence continues to spread as we continue to share what he taught us with others.  For more about David's life, check out the "Remembering David" page which you can get to from the Nashville Dulcimer Quartet's website.

September was David's birth month, so I am taking this opportunity to post an arrangement of a tune I learned from his playing -  a traditional fiddle tune he played and recorded with mandolin virtuoso and fellow Blair professor Butch Baldasarri called "Tater Patch".  

Butch was as passionate about the mandolin as David was about the dulcimer, and they both were true ambassadors and evangelists for their respective instruments.  One of the many things they had in common was the unshakeable belief that these instruments should not be "pigeon-holed" into any one single type of music, and they effortlessly straddled the widest spectrum of musical genres.  Sadly, Butch also lost a battle with cancer in January, 2009.  But the two left us with the culmination of their collaboration in their 2006 recording release of "Appalachian Mandolin and Dulcimer", a program of 14 tunes performed on a variety of mandolin and dulcimer family instruments that showcase traditional music of the Appalachian Mountains, including a spirited version of "Tater Patch". 

Like many old fiddle tunes, the exact origins of "Tater Patch" are a bit of a mystery.   Tommy Jarrell, an old-time fiddler whose performances of the tune are the most-often quoted source for it, credited it to a banjo player named Ike Leonard.   "Ike was out working in his potato patch one day when the tune came to him, so he just throwed down what ever he was a doin' and went to the house and got his banjo and played it.   This was back in about 1910, maybe earlier.  When Ike passed, my uncle Charlie Lowe married his widow, and that's when the tune was passed on to Charlie, who later taught it to me."

The arrangement presented here is a 2-part arrangement, with melody and bass parts.   It is in the key of "A mixolydian", but that is accomplished out of D-A-d tuning without the need for a capo.  The form of the tune is a bit irregular, in that you play 2 "A-parts" followed by 3 "B-parts".

Enjoy the tune, and as David and Butch would say, keep on pickin'!

Cheers,

--Tull