Altamont

A traditional old-time fiddle tune from Tennessee, recorded by John Lusk on fiddle with Murphy Gribble on banjo and Albert York on guitar as part of the Milliner-Koken Collection in Campaign, Tennessee, 1946. The tune appears in the collection “Black Stringband Music from the Library of Congress” and represents the important African-American old-time string band tradition. Sources also reference a version learned from fiddler Oscar Overturf (born 1900) from the South Cumberland region. The tune is typically played in the key of C and demonstrates the influential role of Black musicians in developing American fiddle traditions.