This is a beautiful fiddle tune written by John Hartford, with whom I had the pleasure to perform on the sternwheel steamboat Julia Belle Swain in my college years.
I grew up in a little town on the Illinois River, and met Mr. Hartford while working on the Julia Belle Swain traveling up and down that same river. Of course I had to record "Illinois River Rag" first.
Being a novice fiddler but reasonably facile on the mandolin, I decided to make this a mandolin tune. After all, that's what Bill Monroe did to all the fiddle tunes he heard over the years...
