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On the morning 09/24/202 I got up with a tune in my head which I'm pretty sure was the last one we played at Friends Creek on the previous Saturday. But when I sat down with the banjo this is what came out. it was not the tune that I was thinking about at all.I did not recognize or remember this tune. It's pretty cute, so I wanted to keep it around to keep it around. I know many tune gatherers so I asked on FaceBook if anyone recognized it, but the consensus was that it was a new tune. It has elements of other tunes, but it appears to be original.

I hope I spelled it right. It's my only Swedish fiddle tune on the banjo.

I learned this tune about 13 years ago at a workshop under the name Old Plank Road. I played it fairly nonstop for a week or so, and then it got relegated to the mind-archive. Maybe a month ago someone asked me about for a TOTW on the Banjo Hangout, so I passed him on to Paul Tyler. Paul had been a co-presenter with Chirps Smith at the workshop. He got some really good information, including Paul's recording and the source recording by Midwestern fiddler Ray Shepherd. The Banjo Hangout community has reached the consensus that Ray Shepherd is calling it Old Plank Reel, not Road.

This is what I came up with when I learned the tune a few years ago. It's compatible. I'm more-or-less in C here, but I've heard it in a wide range of keys. Generally, melody is the same as a late minstrel song, "I'm Gwine Back to Dixie." 

Moses Hoe Your Corn, Snake River Reel (by accident morphing back into Moses), Walking in the Parlor

Wrap a little ginseng, pink root, poke root, little oak-a-dill dock, pennyrile tea.

This morning I finally listened to a Skip Gorman cd I bought at Bluff Country Gathering in May, and I was reminded of this tune. I'm pretty sure I've played it before, but I wanted to do a quick recording so I could remind myself in the future. 

There is a good bit of information  on this title, and the particular melody, out on the web already, and I've just sort of gathered it together here. So let's delve into the tune.First, the text from the Traditional Tune Archive:COLORED ARISTOCRACY. AKA and see "Southern Aristocracy." Old-Time, March. USA, West Virginia. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AA'BB' (Brody). This late 19th century or c.