Pharaoh

A traditional Old Time breakdown in G major, documented solely from Darley Fulks (1895–1990) of Campton, Wolfe County, northeastern Kentucky, recorded by John Harrod in 1978. Fulks said the tune was once well-known among Wolfe County fiddlers; the name came from a story his grandfather, fiddler Stephen Tutt, told him — a man had composed the melody while his wife fought a swarm of locusts (locally called “pharaohs” for their sound), using the tune as justification for not helping her. Fulks’s recording appears on Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, vol. 2 (Rounder 0377, 1997).