Topic: Dykes Magic City Trio--Frankie

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Dykes Magic City Trio, led by fiddler J. R. Dykes, and with Hub Mahaffey on guitar and Myrtle Vermillion on autoharp recorded a lively version of Frankie.  They played it out of G, and it is a treat to hear the rhythm that Dykes and Mahaffey generated (Vermillion is inaudible to me).

Frankie was a good woman, everybody knows
Paid a hundred dollar bill for little Albert, a suit of clothes
"For he's my man, my gambling man."

Frankie went down to the bar room, she ordered up a glass of beer
Said she to the bartender, "Is my little Albert here?
For he's my man, my gambling man."

"Not a-gonna tell you any, Frankie, not a-gonna tell you no lie.
He left here just about a moment ago with a girl called Alice Frye,
For he's your man, your gambling man."

Frankie went out a-walking, she did not go for fun
For underneath her apron she had concealed a .44 Gatling gun
"For to murder the man, that done me wrong."

"Please don't murder me, Frankie, please don't murder me now.
For I love you, indeed I do, and I know my love is true.
I'm the man that done you wrong."

"Turn me over, Frankie, turn me over slow.
But please don't touch my wounded side, my heart will overflow
But I'm the man that done you wrong."



All best,
Johnm

[Stuart]

Also available on Vol. 3 of "The Other Anthology"

http://woodenmouth.blogspot.com/2010/02/va-other-anthology-of-american-folk.html

Speaking of Harry, the 6th Annual Fest is this weekend:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harry-Smith-Festival/157409844280853

[Kokomo O]

John, that is a great find, yet another version of Frankie that I wasn't familiar with. I really like both the vocal and the fiddling.

I think it's interesting that you say you think the autoharp is inaudible. What I think I'm hearing--and think is the operative word--is that the guitarist is mainly picking out the bass line, while the higher-string strum is the autoharp. To me, it sounds like more strings, strong more taut, than we hear on a guitar. I know, it's hard to tell on these old recordings, with their constrained bandwidth, but that's what I think is there. I like the theory, because it has all present and accounted for, and also because that's a fairly involved bass line to strum chords under so consistently. And again, the chords just don't sound to me like a guitar.

[Johnm]

I don't think that's the case, Kokomo O.  Hub Mahaffey is just playing boom-chang and the chords perfectly match up with the strings and pitches he would be playing for the chords he's backing the song with.  If those chords were autoharp chords, they'd sustain more, too.
All best,
Johnm

[alyoung]

As possibly one of the few autoharp players on the list, I'm fairly much certain there ain't no autoharp audible on that recording. If the autoharp were providing the treble notes, they would sound  more brittle and clangy and less resonant than the ones heard on the records. Those notes are to my ear definitely being made with a guitar. (Resonance, by the way, was never an issue with the old black Oscar Schmidt harps used on early recordings --  they didn't have any, which is why players such as Pop Stoneman and Kilby Snow developed styles based on playing hard and fast.)   

[frailer24]

Al, I strongly agree. In fact, I have heard a few Dykes City Magic Trio recordings, and have yet to notice any 'harp at all.      -Larry