Back Up and Push

A standard bluegrass instrumental that began as one strain of a ragtime piece. Danish-born American violinist and bandleader J. Bodewalt Lampe published “Creole Belles” in 1900, and early in the twentieth century fiddlers recast it’s catchy second strain under names like “Back Up and Push” and “Rubber Dolly,”. It developed its own form, floating lyrics, and performance tradition, and is now a tune in its own right rather than an excerpt of Lampe’s march. The tune demonstrates the cultural cross-pollination running through American musical history, evolving from ragtime through country and Western swing into modern bluegrass repertoire.

Most Appalachian string bands recording in the 1920s and 1930s released some version, and Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers’ 1934 Bluebird recording became one of the year’s best-selling country records. Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys recorded it as an instrumental in 1941 (Bluebird 8988), fixing it in bluegrass repertoire. Bluegrass and Western swing versions are built around the double shuffle (“hokum bowing”). The tune is generally led by fiddle or mandolin and typically played in C, with a distinctive progression that kicks off on the IV chord rather than the I. See the “Creole Belles” tune entry for the parent composition.