Tunesmiths

A Favorite Tune and its Mysterious Title

- Mark Simos

Stefan Curl is one of my long-time "As I was saying..." friends: those friends we're fortunate to have where, after not seeing one another for years, you can meet and say "As I was saying..." and simply carry on with your conversation. We've long been carrying on just such a continuing colloquy, about music, the philosophy of time, friendship - always engaging, never conclusive.

Stefan also wrote "Race the River Jordan," one of my favorite "new" fiddle tunes - although he wrote it on banjo, a long time ago. The winding path this tune - and title - have taken constitute another kind of continuing conversation. I pilfered the intriguing, mysterious title for a song (musically unrelated), which became the title track of my first album of original old-time style fiddle tunes, Race the River Jordan (Yodel-ay-hee, 1995). Though I've championed Stefan's actual tune, I didn't record it until 10 years later, as a member of Childsplay, on Heaven and Earth (2005) - where it is medleyed with my song, just to make things even more confusing!

So, in finally sharing this great tune, I thought it would be good to also share the tune's story, if only to set the record straight. (In fact, Stefan tells me he's been chastized by some for stealing my title for his tune, which as you'll see is exactly backwards in any case, as it turns out, you cannot copyright a title.)