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This tune comes from Lee Hammons of West Virginia.  I just recently learned it from a series of recordings generously shared by Jimmy Triplett.  Jimmy wrote:

“I learned these from field recordings made by Dwight Diller, Gerry Milnes, Wayne Howard, and others. Many were reconstructed from fragments, and some of the names are best guesses. Lee Hammons (1886-1980 I think) learned to play traditional tunes from family and community musicians, mostly before commercial music was available. He played in a style that’s often characterized as archaic and deceptively simple.”

Here’s the audio file that he shared of his fiddling Burl Hammons Tune:

Here’s some info about Jimmy from the Old-Time Herald  Volume 11 Issue #1.

“Jimmy Triplett is a fiddler’s fiddler. With consummate technique, attention to detail, and respect for the traditions of old-time fiddling, Jimmy Triplett has forged a unique style that is elegant yet rough-hewn, accessible yet complex. Best known for playing West Virginia tunes in a manner that taps into their most archaic qualities, Jimmy has also worked to bring attention to the older masters of West Virginia fiddling, having produced the CD reissue of Ernie Carpenter’s Old-Time Fiddle Tunes from the Elk River Country and co-produced the CD-ROM / DVD set One More Time: The Life and Music of Melvin Wine.” 

It’s hard to talk about the Hammons family without talking about Dwight Diller. Dwight spent time with Lee Hammons and other members of the family and learned much of the their music on a knee-to-knee basis.  Here’s a link to a Banjo Newsletter article:

https://banjonews.com/2016-09/lee_hammons.html

Here’s a short introduction video from West Virginia Public Broadcasting with some Hammons Family information:

Here’s  a tab that I arranged:

Here’s a clawhammer banjo video of the above:

I learned this tune after hearing and playing it a bunch down at Clifftop. Every year it seems as if a tune that was never on my radar pops up.  I go somewhere and it seems as if everyone is playing and what’s more, the say they’ve always known it.

A few years back on the Saturday before the “official” start of Clifftop it was raining and I ducked under the awning of Andy and Toni Williams.  We got to playing and this tune came up and Andy was ripping it on the fiddle and Toni was playing bass.  I made them play it twice.  The next day I stumbled into the camp of Marynell and Gene Young from Texas and then they started playing it, and yes, I made them play it twice.

A year or so later I awoke with it playing in my head so I finally did a little research, listened to a bunch of recordings then tabbed out a version myself.  This comes from Missouri fiddler Pete McMahan. He learned it from his uncle (the Sheriff) who learned it from an itinerant fiddler at a railroad station. Here’s a great link to the story:
http://fiddlingmissouri.blogspot.com/2013/03/gilsaw-fiddler-from-hard-times-and-his.html

Thank you Amy for playing guitar and thank you Chad for recording us at your excellent studio Juniper Sound.

I first heard this tune after being in an old-time music desert for about twenty years.  I’d lived in Los Angeles for thirteen years where the only place that even sold banjos was McCabes guitar shop. Cut to 1995 Western Massachusetts- I visited  the Fretted Instrument Workshop in Amherst.  They had about twenty spectacular banjos on the wall.  I played them all.  Lyn Hardy was very patient- she even pulled down a guitar and played a few tunes with me.  Before I left she directed me to a wall racked filled with old-time music on cassette tapes- I think I said “Sell my clothes I’m going to heaven!”

I bought two cassettes- one by Mac Benford I think called “First Half Century” and the other by the Ill-Mo Boys called “Fine As Frogs Hair”.  Mac’s tape has the best rendition of Hangman’s Reel I’ve ever heard.  The Ill-Mo boys recording has a ton of great songs.

I listened to these two cassettes till they wore out.  I was so caught up in the Frogs Hair that it was about six months before I realized that there was no banjo on the recording.  One of my favorite tunes Snake River Reel by Peter Lippincott….

Certain sights, sounds and smells trigger memories.  When I play this tune, I remember clearly when and where I played it for the first time: The Lake Genero Old Time Musicians’ Gathering in Pennsylvania.  Cathy Mason invited me to sit and play tunes with her and Jim Stanko and Paul Sidlick.  Listening to Paul’s gorgeous and tasteful banjo playing I felt hesitant to try and add anything to the mix.  He was gracious and inviting.  It might well have been the highlight of that weekend for me.

I like Kentucky fiddler John Morgan Salyer’s home recording of this tune from the early 1940’s.  Most people play this square both sides. On Salyer’s recording he adds an extra beat in measure 7 of the B part. Recordings of Salyer are available from Berea College.