"Molly and Tenbrooks," also known as "The Racehorse Song," is a traditional song of the late 19th century. One of the first recordings of the song was the Carver Boys' 1929 version called "Tim Brook."
[Wolfe 1996, p. 42.] The song was recorded by
Bill Monroe and His
Blue Grass Boys on October 28, 1947, but not released until 1949. In 1948,
The Stanley Brothers
The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo of singer-songwriters and musicians, made up of brothers Carter Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) and Ralph Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016). Ralph and Carter perform ...
released a recording of it in the Blue Grass Boys' style, marking the first recorded adoption of the
bluegrass style by a second band. The song was also recorded by
Steve Gillette
Since their marriage in 1989, Steve Gillette (born 1942) and Cindy Mangsen have been traveling, performing and recording together.
Their album ''Live In Concert'', recorded at The Ark in Ann Arbor in 1991, is available from their own company, Co ...
on his self-titled debut album in 1967 in the folk style and a very different adaptation, by Gillette and Linda Albertano. Their version was later recorded by the well-known Canadian folk duo
Ian and Sylvia
Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, née Fricker. They began performing together in 1959 (full-time in 1961), married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975.
His ...
for their album, Play One More.
Song plot
The song deals with a match race between two champion horses. According to most song versions, Tenbrooks "ran all around The Midwest and beat the Memphis train," while "out in California Molly did as she pleased, came back to Kentucky and got beat with all ease."
Historical facts
This song is a fictional account of the
July 4, 1878 match race between the Kentucky horse
Ten Broeck and the California
mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...
Mollie McCarty
Mollie McCarty, (sometimes spelled Mollie McCarthy), foaled in 1873, was an outstanding California-based Thoroughbred racehorse who won her first 13 race starts and was second on the two occasions when she was defeated.
Breeding
Mollie McCarty ...
at the Louisville Jockey Club (now
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was ...
). Ten Broeck won the race before a record crowd of 30,000. The song commonly states that Ten Broeck "was a big bay horse", and although he was a bay, he was "very compactly built". The song refers to a fatal outcome, which did not in fact occur; Mollie McCarty lived nearly five more years, winning multiple races and producing three foals.
See also
*
Skewball
Skewball was the name of an 18th-century British racehorse, most famous as the subject of a broadsheet ballad and folk-song.
History
The horse was foaled in 1741 and originally owned by Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin, and later sold. ...
is a topically related song, but it is melodically, lyrically, and historically distinct, although they have sometimes been
conflate
Conflation is the merging of two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, opinions, etc., into one, often in error. Conflation is often misunderstood. It originally meant to fuse or blend, but has since come to mean the same as equate, treati ...
d.
* Tenbrooks appears again later on
Peter Rowan's ''Muleskinnner'' album, in the song "Blue Mule", in which the horse is pitted against a blue mule who is the child of
Babe the Blue Ox
Babe or babes may refer to:
* Babe, a term of endearment
* A newborn baby
* An attractive (especially female) person
People Nickname
* Babe Adams (1882–1968), American Major League Baseball pitcher
* Babe Barna (1917–1972), American Major ...
.
Footnotes
References
* Rosenberg, Neil V. 1985. ''Bluegrass: A History''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
* Wolfe, Charles K. 1996. ''Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky
External links
from a well-known version recorded by Bill Monroe
Bluegrass songs">Bill Monroe">from a well-known version recorded by Bill Monroe
Bluegrass songs
American folk songs
Folk ballads
Bill Monroe songs
The Stanley Brothers songs
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