No one can prove who Bill Cheatham was. Fiddlers have played his tune for more than 125 years without an answer. The title shows up at an 1899 fiddle contest in Gallatin, Tennessee, and it has stayed in the repertoire ever since. At most bluegrass jams, it is one of the first tunes called in the key of A.
Where it came from
The Traditional Tune Archive reports that Bill Cheatham was a contest “category” tune at Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1899. Each fiddler played a version, and the best rendition won a prize. That puts the tune in fiddle contests before country records existed. Researcher Paul Gifford found the name in print two years later. A 1901 Kentucky newspaper story about a fiddlers contest names “Billy Cheatham.”
So who was he? Gifford offers one guess. A stage performer named Billy Cheatham led the Cheatham Brothers’ Black Diamond Minstrels around 1900, and a fiddle tune could carry a showman’s name. Other players point to the Cheatham family of Tennessee, including Confederate general Benjamin Franklin Cheatham and his cousin William Archer Cheatham. Kirk McGee of the Grand Ole Opry played a companion tune called Frank Cheatham and claimed Frank was Bill’s brother. No document backs any of these claims. They are guesses, not facts.
The first recording came from Texas fiddler Eck Robertson. His 1922 Victor sessions in New York count among the first commercial country recordings. On July 1, 1922, he cut a piece Victor logged as “Brilliancy and Cheatum,” matrix B-26665, with Nathaniel Shilkret on piano. Victor held the master and released nothing. Robertson returned on October 11, 1929, in Dallas with his family band. That take, “Brilliancy Medley,” came out on Victor V-40298, and the Library of Congress identifies Bill Cheatham as the middle tune of the medley. Harry Smith put the side on his Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952, and the folk revival heard it there.
The tune spread across the whole South. Marion Thede printed it as “Bill Cheatem” in 1967, and spellings still wander between Cheatham, Cheatum, and Cheathem. It is traditional, anonymous, and instrumental. There are no lyrics, and the tune is in the public domain.
How it works
Bill Cheatham is a breakdown in A major and 4/4 time. The form is AABB. One strain sits low on the fiddle, and the other sits high. The chords stay on A, D, and E the whole way. Alan Jabbour’s transcription of Virginia fiddler Henry Reed maps each strain as a phrase, its answer, the phrase again, and a close. That shape makes the tune easy to hear and easy to learn.
Jams call it because everyone knows it and the key of A suits the whole band. Banjo players capo at the second fret, mandolins get open strings, and fiddles stay in standard tuning. Flatpickers claimed it too. Doc Watson cut it with Flatt & Scruggs in 1967, and it became a test piece for guitarists. Tony Rice kept it in the modern canon. The melody moves in a steady stream of notes, so every instrument gets a clean break. It holds a firm place in our songbook.
Recordings worth hearing
Start with Eck Robertson and Family, “Brilliancy Medley” (Victor V-40298, 1929), with Bill Cheatham in the middle. Blind Joe Mangrum, born in 1853 in Paducah, Kentucky, recorded the tune for Victor in Nashville in 1928, and County reissued it on Nashville: The Early String Bands, Vol. 2 (County 542). The James Cole String Band, a Black string band from Indianapolis, cut “Bill Cheatem” in 1928 (Vocalion 5226). Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith and His Dixieliners, with Clyde Moody on guitar, recorded it in Atlanta on October 7, 1940 (Bluebird B-8783). The Library of Congress holds a 1939 field recording by W.A. Bledsoe of Meridian, Mississippi, plus Jabbour’s 1960s tapes of Henry Reed. For the bluegrass era, hear Doc Watson with Flatt & Scruggs on Strictly Instrumental (Columbia, 1967), where the tune closes the album. Kenny Baker put it on Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler (County 719, 1968). Vassar Clements recorded it on Crossing the Catskills (Rounder 0016), and Jerry Douglas moved it to dobro on Fluxology (Rounder 0093). Tony Rice cut it with his brothers on The Rice Brothers 2 (Rounder, 1994).
Sources
Facts on this page come from the Traditional Tune Archive annotation for Bill Cheatham and its Bill Cheatum entry, the UCSB Discography of American Historical Recordings pages for Brilliancy and Cheatum, 1922, Brilliancy Medley, 1929, Arthur Smith, 1940, and the James Cole String Band, 1928, the Library of Congress Henry Reed collection, and research shared by Paul Gifford and others in a Fiddle Hangout thread and a Banjo Hangout tune of the week.