Liberty

Liberty is a breakdown in D major, carried widely across the United States and Canada in old time, bluegrass, New England contra dance, and Texas fiddle repertoires. The melody circulates under a long list of alternate titles, including “Reel de Ti-Jean” in French Canada, “Tipsy Parson,” and “Liberty Hornpipe.” The earliest documented recording of this melody is Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys for Columbia in 1947, and it spread quickly after that: Don Messer issued it in Canada as “Liberty Two-Step” in 1953, and Tommy Jackson’s 1954 Dot single carried it to a wide audience of American fiddlers.

Note: Two earlier Georgia 78s titled “Liberty,” by Fiddlin’ John Carson (1925) and Gid Tanner’s Skillet Lickers (“Liberty Off the Corn Liquor Still,” 1928), are a different tune in G.