Down By The Old Mill Stream

Down By The Old Mill Stream is a fine arrangement of a truly good old song.

Tell Taylor, who composed the melody and wrote the lyrics, was an Ohioan. He later moved to Chicago, where he died while he was still a young man. Among many other songs, he composed "Hello! My Baby."

Not only is "Down By The Old Mill Stream" a good song, but it has its place in barbershop history. After the 1939 international quartet contest, the Society contracted with RCA Victor of Chicago to make a record album, and "Down By The Old Mill Stream" was among the songs in this recording. (For those who are too young to remember, a record album is a collection of songs on vinyl, packaged in a folder.)

It is interesting that, although the Bartlesville Barflies had won the international championship at that first contest, they were not asked to do the recording. Instead, O.C. Cash asked the Capitol City Four, the second place finishers to do the honors.

Shortly before the recording was made, the quartet’s bass singer, Fred Raney, died suddenly. Baritone Glenn Howard switched to bass, and the son of tenor singer Dwight Dragoo, Gene Dragoo, sang baritone. The recording was a success.

As was characteristic of this period in our Society every arrangement was woodshedded. After hearing the recording, Tell Taylor wrote to Glenn Howard and told him the Capitol City Four had recorded "Down By The Old Mill Stream" the way it should be sung.

None of the songs on this first Society recording is probably better known or more frequently sung than "Down By The Old Mill Stream." Indeed, as noted in the Heritage of Harmony Songbook, "No close harmony songfest is complete without it."

Source: Dr. David Wright’s class on the history of barbershop harmony and the Heritage of Harmony Songbook.

¨ from the Macon, GA Sharptalk, Fred Hinesley, editor

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