Don, I caught a tiny bit of Kim and Lester's set at the WV State Folk Festival at Glenville in'06. I hated it that I had to leave that afternoon concert because I felt unwell. Though I have Kim's delightful cd "Keepers", I've not heard her and Lester play Cherry River Line 'live' and would like to!

Don Kemper said:

I've heard these two live a few times, always a treat. Thanks for posting.

Oh, I love Lester's fiddle play! Lester's 90 or better and I believe he was at Clifftop this year.

According to the liner notes in Kim Johnson's cd, Linda McCumbers (Lester's late-wife) used to sing Cherry River Line.
Have fun learning this cool tune, Phil!

Love It.Now I want to learn it.

Robin T , that's a great tune to add to the dulcimer fiddler repertoire- nicely played!

I find it interesting to note that there is only one note that dips below the tonic in the Lester clip- and that note is really just a rhythm ornament that the banjo player put in, it's not actually part of the tune melody. This tells me that this tune really is in mixolydian mode (it actually doesn't seem to work in other modes), and could be played from the open string tonic position too, if one chose not to use the one banjo ornament note. That one note does add some interesting difference to the tune, though. Just mental meanderings on tunings, versions, and such!

Don't you just LOVE Lester's raw tone on that fiddle? Talk about yummy !

Does sound like a 'Reuben's Train family' tune.

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Whoah -- way-- way different than the Cherry River line we've added to our set this year. Ours is a modified version of the West Virginia vocal that we added a couple verses with Copperhill & Duck Town :)Mzc

Here's my translation of the tune to lap dulcimer. Tuning is DGG. Any mistakes in my translation are mine. :)

Like it would sound good on a dulcimer, maybe I had better go look up Reuben's Train and learn that first.

I love this, thanks for posting I think it has turned into one of my most favorite tunes.

Great ear, Stephanie-- you heard Reuben in it! (Mark heard something from a tune he knows as Lonesome Reuben. . .) Thanks a bunch for the links-- they really add a lot to a thread!

Love this tune from Lester & Kim! I encourage you to check out the notes on YT; this was a banjo tune that Lester brought to fiddle.

Wondering whether anyone plays it on mountain dulcimer?

updated by @robin-thompson: 04/13/18 05:24:14AM