Booth Shot Lincoln

Here’s a rousing fiddle tune to begin the New Year. I’m always on the lookout for new music to learn. After playing the dulcimer for 30-plus years, I’m eager to expand my repertoire of fiddle tunes. “Booth Shot Lincoln” is one of those “sleeper” fiddle tunes. It is not well known in our parts of the dulcimer world; evertheless it is an enjoyable tune to play. “Booth Shot Lincoln” (or “Booth Killed Lincoln”) is a ballad telling the story of John Wilkes who shot Lincoln on April 14, 1865. You can play and sing it two ways — slowly, with compassion, as a ballad or dial it up and play it as a spritely fiddle tune. The song dates to the late 1800’s and is from the Black Mountain region of North Carolina. I first heard it played by Butch Ross, dulcimer player from Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a YouTube video. I used his version as my starting point and tried adapting my own arrangements.

“Booth Shot Lincoln” dates to the late 1800s. Its origins can be traced to the fiddlers of western North Carolina including Osey Helton and Marcus Martin from the Black Mountain region. That’s one of the regions which was hit so hard with the flooding after the hurricane in the summer of 2024. It’s where the Swannanoah Gatherning at Warren Wilson College took place. I attended that gathering years ago and loved it. Our hearts and prayers go out to the folks affected by the storm.

Here’s the Library of Congress card catalog of “Booth” as song and played on fiddle by Lunsford and collect by Hibbitt and Greet.

North Carolina fiddler and Appalachian region folk song collector, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, (1882-1973) had this song in his reperatorie of tunes and recorded it several times in the 1930s. Lunsford, born in Mars Hill, North Carolina, was an interesting man. He started out first just singing folks songs and ballads, but soon recognized the importance of collecting and preserving the music of North Carolina and Kentucky. He was a preeminent collector of Appalachian folk ballads, showman, buck dancer, and folk festival founder. Lunsford didn’t write his music down; rather learned “by ear.” In 1949 he sat down with Ducan Emrich, head of the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Song, during a marathon set of sessions and sang over 300 songs. Lundsford stated that he learned this tune from his father and heard him hum and sing a few stanzas. Later, during several 1930s recording sessions, Lunsford added the full set of lyrics to this ballad. (I have not included the lyrics here, it is easy to find them on the internet.)

Here is Bascom Lamar Lunsford and two “Alabama visitors” at the Mountain Music Festival, Asheville, North Carolina, in 1938. Lunsford is on the left.

Playing the tune on the dulcimer

When you listen to Lundsford sing the tune on YouTube videos, the song has a very simple melody. However, Lundsford adds alot of ornamentation and emblishments when he plays the song on the fiddle. Some YouTube versions by other fiddlers also add quite a bit of syncopation and dotted quarter notes.

The syncopated rhythm can make it challenging for beginning dulcimer players to learn. It can also make it difficult for anyone to play in a jam. The tune often changes pitches on the syncopated note.

Since I wanted to write an arrangement which beginners could play, I simplified the tune quite a bit. I eliminated the syncopation by inserting eighth notes at these places. It eliminates the peppy nature of the fiddle tune, but makes it much easier to play. So, play back-and-forth strums on all the eighth notes. Or, “air strum” some of these eighth notes to create a syncopated rhythm.

In the “Easy Version,” I moved some of the notes to the middle string. The tablature just seems to flow better that way. However, continue to strum back and forth across all the strings. The melody shines through the struming.

Usually the tune is played in the Key of A. In this case, place on a capo at the 4th fret to play.

I have included two versions — a very easy one and a second one which includes the syncopation. Download either — or both (they can be played together). Remember this is a ballad, so play if slowly or quickly.

Let’s enjoy learning some new tunes in 2025. This ballad/fiddle tune is from a rich area of music in North Carolina. Thanks to the Library of Congress for preserving much of the music so that we can enjoy it now!

And, PDF files follow these images. Please download the PDF files, share with other local dulcimer players and enjoy my arrangement of the tune.

Here are PDF files which can be downloaded for you to share with friends.

References:

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Booth_Shot_Lincoln_(1)

 In the liner notes to AFS 29, Emrich wrote:

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2023/06/caught-my-ear-bascom-lamar-lunsfords-booth-killed-lincoln