Cripple Creek (folk song)

"Cripple Creek" is an Old Time Appalachian folk song for the fiddle, though it is often played on the banjo as well. It has become a standard among bluegrass musicians and is often one of the first songs a banjo picker learns. No one knows exactly when it was composed, but there are theories about just where Cripple Creek is. Some say it is Cripple Creek, Virginia, while others say it is based on Cripple Creek, Colorado during the gold rush. It was frequently recorded by early country musicians in the 1920s.

Simplified version of the basic melody (A part followed by B part). $<< \new ChordNames { \set chordChanges = ##t a4 a4|%1 a4 a4|%2 a4 a4|%3 e4 a4|%4 e4 a4|%5 a4 a4|%6 a4 a4|%7 a4 a4|%8 e4 a4|%9 e4 a4|%10 } \new Staff \relative c'' { \key a \major \time 2/4 \repeat volta 2 { %start repeat a'8 a16 a e8 cis | %1 d8 fis e a,16 b | %2 cis8 cis16 cis b8 a | %3 }%end repeat \alternative{ {e8 fis16 e a8 a16 a |} %4 {e8 fis16 e a4 |} %5 } \break \repeat volta 2 { %start repeat cis8 cis16 cis b8 a |%6 cis8 cis16 cis e8 a,16 b |%7 cis8 cis16 cis b8 a |%8 } %end repeat \alternative{ {e8 fis16 e a8 a16 b |} %9 {e,8 fis16 e a4 \bar "|." |} %10 } } >>$

The following are lyrics from a 1909 version included in the Journal of American Folklore, 1915.

When Cecil Sharp collected folksongs in the Appalachian Mountains in 1917 he found one version of "Cripple Creek":

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