Lyr Req: Gold Rush

Subject: Lyr Req: Lyrics to the song Gold Rush
From:
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:04 PM

Has anyone ever heard of lyrics to the tune Gold Rush? I know Bill Monroe "organized" the tune, but I believe (if I'm correct) that he "borrowed" the tune from an older tune, very similar to Gold Rush. I've heard Charlie Acuff, left-handed fiddler in NE Tenn sing words to what he calls "Gold Rush", but wasn't able to make out what was being said. Anyone know or ever hear of lyrics sung to something even remotely similar to Gold Rush?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lyrics to the song Gold Rush
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:59 PM

If you were looking for "After the Gold Rush," I could help you...!

Seriously, when I was starting to learn to backup old-time fiddle tunes, I noticed that lots of tunes seemed to have a verse or two that was generally sung in a very high voice and largely unintelligibly.   In Bruce Molsky's band lab at the Fiddle Tunes Festival in Port Townsend, Washington, in 1989, we learned "Fortune," and it had these words:

Once I had a fortune, locked it in a trunk
Lost it all a gamblin', one night when I got drunk
Fortune and I had it, fortune and I lost it
Fortune and I lost it, one night when I got drunk

I often wondered if there was a songbook somewhere that had these snatches of words to fiddle tunes. If there is, maybe "Gold Rush" is in there.

Aloha,
Mark