Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman - The Pressley Girls

The Pressley Girls are busy as bees these days. They are full time college students and work as part time landscapers. They do chores for us, they do chores for Pap and Granny. Chitter runs her Stamey Creek Creations Etsy store and hand crafts all the items in the store. Chatter makes all our soap, deodorant, and various other items in an effort to keep us healthy.  In addition The Pressley Girls are garnering more and more attention for their musical pursuits.

Whew! It makes me tired to think about all that busyness and I didn’t even mention the things they do for fun like crocheting and reading!

As with most musicians the girls always have a new favorite song to perform until the next one comes along. Just after Christmas they began playing the old fiddle tune Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman. The tune is often played at Contra Dances and because of that the girls and I have been familiar with it for many years.

The liner notes for the Thrufters and Throughstones cd has this to say about the fiddle tune:

“Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman” is a traditional fiddle tune heard in many fiddling traditions from Ireland to Scotland to Cape Breton to Quebec to Vermont. It is a popular tune for dances, fiddle contests and music sessions with a long history dating back to at least the 19th century. The first half of the tune (played on the fiddle in the low register) sounds the man’s part and the second half (high register) is the lady’s. In 1973 legendary fiddler Louis Beaudoin from Burlington recorded it on his debut recording on Philo Records and Ron West recorded it on Smithsonian Folkways “Mademoiselle, Voulez-Vous Danser?”

Check out The Pressley Girls’ version of the tune.

I hope you liked the fiddle tune! As you might guess, there has been much teasing about the name of the tune around here. The Deer Hunter and I have been told its about us and Pap and Granny’s been told it’s about them too.

Tipper

 

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26 Comments

  1. Tipper, we are so proud along with you ,your girls are so pretty, talented and you heard the chips don’t fall far from the tree. Truman and I no longer on Facebook . Our prayers are with you all and we enjoy your posts so much.
    Mary and Truman McKillip

  2. Tipper, we are so proud along with you ,your girls are so pretty, talented and you heard the chips don’t fall far from the tree. Truman and I no longer on Facebook . Our prayers are with you all and we enjoy your posts so much.
    Mary and Truman McKillip

  3. Tipper, we are so proud along with you ,your girls are so pretty, talented and you heard the chips don’t fall far from the tree. Truman and I no longer on Facebook . Our prayers are with you all and we enjoy your posts so much.
    Mary and Truman McKillip

  4. Tipper, we are so proud along with you ,your girls are so pretty, talented and you heard the chips don’t fall far from the tree. Truman and I no longer on Facebook . Our prayers are with you all and we enjoy your posts so much.
    Mary and Truman McKillip

  5. Ed-sorry about the Youtube comment thing-hopefully its just a temporary glitch : ) We filmed the song at Paps and theres no telling what that is by the tree LOL! But I’m pretty sure its not from a motorcycle since none of us has ever had one. But who knows maybe it is!

  6. The first couple that popped into my head were our Great Grandpa and Grandma Fry. She was a Scottish lady. He was an English man. Somewhere back in history, her family left Scotland for Ireland to get away from the English. Somehow they met and got married. She was a little over 12 years old, he was 17. They bickered a lot, usually over his tightwad ways.
    Funniest story I remember is, she loved potato chips. He wouldn’t waste “his” money on them. So when she got her first Social Security check, she went out and bought a big 5# can of Charles Chips. Before she could eat to the bottom of the can, they went stale. I was up with my Grandmother (her daughter) visiting, when she bid Grandma to sneak out to the garden with her. Not knowing what was going on I followed along with the two women. G-Grandma went into her basement, and fetched the can and a shovel, and out they went and buried those stale chips behind bushes beside the garden, cause she said, “If Harry finds out they went bad, for the rest of my days, I’ll never hear the end of how I wasted my money on them.” I still laugh thinking about watching them dig that hole to bury those chips.
    God bless.
    RB
    <><

  7. Forget to mention, that picture of the Pressley Girls with their instruments would make a great album or cd cover!

  8. Another great number!
    My family and I just attended the Appalachian Studies Conference and I attended a session that made me think of the Blind Pig gang. It was about how old music was generational and localized being played on local radio stations. The result was a development of a particular sound unique to a place and family.
    I thought about how on the way to the conference we listened to 3 generations of Pressleys and it is the Internet that puts the music out there.
    Somebody needs to write a paper about the Brasstown Pressley sound!
    Thanks as always for the great music.

  9. Tipper
    and girls…..Great picture and video! Just loved the tune…”Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman”….So typical on occasion, when you are old and suddenly thrown constantly together after retirement! In my instance, when two meet head on in the cooking process and he wants to do it his “fresh-learned” way and me wanting to do it the way I learned….in other words, my way! ha
    Tipper, I have read the tune called…”Growling Old Man and Cackling Old Lady”….I guess it is the same tune, or is it a different version? Just wondering?
    Got both my CDs,,,and I love them both…I love the song “NEW BIRTH” but all songs on both CDs are really good!
    Great Post Tipper,
    PS…Quite chilly here today…soooo grrreeenn looking outside, but so, brrrrr, cold…

  10. I’ve been listening to and loving this video for a couple of weeks on the tube. It is their best effort yet unless they are hiding something. For some reason it’s not taking my comments there. I just wanted to ask what the shiny chrome pipe looking object in the background next to the tree is. It’s hidden by the fiddle part of the time. Looks like somebody crashed a motorcycle in there and didn’t pick up all the pieces.

  11. Tipper,
    Those purdy girls look like they’re having fun and it’s nice to see them enjoying each other. I’d never heard that tune before, but I like it.
    Ooshie on this cold Spring morning. I’m going back to the far…Ken

  12. Oh what a joy to hear that tune and watch those lovely girls play it and have fun. Thank you for sharing that with us! Happy Easter!

  13. Why, even a growling old man on a cold first day of spring morning couldn’t help but smile listening to that ditty and especially watching the girls having fun with it.

  14. Loved it!! They are super talented girls. I wish I lived closer…I’d enjoy hearing them in person. Our daughter plays the violin, but has been trained mostly in the classical style, which is much more common here. Someday we’d love to see her learn to “fiddle”!

  15. My family and I really enjoyed seeing you and your girls perform yesterday at Ranger. Y’all are so blessed, thank you for sharing your talents. We had a great time.

  16. What a funny title for a song! It’s a good melody to get one up and movin’ ….. Happy Palm Sunday, Tipper and family …. and blessings!

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