Chuck Levy Plays Nicky Mill's Cuffy on the Clawhammer Banjo

Here is a second take on Cuffy, which I posted previously. My earlier version was assembled from memory and from playing with friends. After listening to Armin Barnett's field recording of Nicky Mills, I thought the tune merited a second try, this time closer to the Nicky's melody. I am playing a banjo with a Wyatt Fawley neck attached to an anonymous spun-over rim.

Cuffy has a number of interesting threads that when woven together make the tune richer than its melody alone. The source of the tune is fiddler Nicky (N.H.) Mills of Boone's Mill, Virginia. Seattle Violin Maker and old-time and Cajun fiddler extraordinaire, Armin Barnett visited and recorded Mr. Mills playing Cuffy in 1972. Mills has been described as a rather taciturn individual, who did not want to encourage other visitors. He told Armin "If anyone asks about me, tell them I'm dead." Armin did as instructed.

Cuf´fy (k f`f)
n. 1. A name for a negro.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co..

There are at least two slave rebellions linked to Cuffy: The New York Slave Insurrection of 1741, and the rebellion in Guyana in 1763.

When I play this tune, I think of the enslaved Africans that built so much of this country, the hardships they endured, and honor their memory.