Midnight on the Water

Waltz in D major from the Texas contest fiddling tradition, usually credited to Luke (“Red Luke”) Thomasson, a Texas fiddler who died in 1924. The tune was popularized decades later by his son, the celebrated Texas-style fiddler Benny Thomasson. Family accounts differ on authorship. Some liner notes describe it as a joint composition Benny remembered his father and uncle working out together on the porch around 1900, and Benny himself held the copyright through Winwood Music. The tune’s resemblance to the Oklahoma-collected “Old Paint” has fueled ongoing debate among researchers about which tune derived from which. Benny Thomasson’s own recording (County 724, Country Fiddling from the Big State) is generally treated as the definitive version, and the tune has since traveled widely, including into British folk repertoire via Dave Bromberg’s 1975 recording. Often played in DDad tuning.