Clayhole Waltz

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About the Song:

“The Clayhole” is a waltz that comes to us primarily from the playing of Larkin Gifford of Springdale, UT. Larkin learned it from his father, Moses Elias Gifford, who brought it with him to Utah in the late 1800s. Moses’ source for the tune is unknown, but no sources suggest he composed it himself. Larkin recorded the waltz for concertina player Hal Cannon in 1976 for the second volume of his snapshot of traditional music in Utah titled The New Beehive Songster, Vol. 2 (Okehdokee Records OK 76004) released the following year. Cannon went on to play it for Skip Gorman, who included it on two albums, 1981’s Powder River (Folk-Legacy Records FLG00076) with Ron Kane, and 1994’s A Greener Prairie (Rounder CD 0329).

In the liner notes for Powder River, Gorman recalls Larkin telling him that a “clayhole” was a camp on the Arizona-Utah where lumber freighters and cowboys would meet.

Learned from Bill Matthiesen’s 2002 book, The Waltz Book III.