Mississippi Smilax (1907)...Harry Landrum.

[Steve Harrison]

Little is known about Landrum as this is his only known published composition.

'Perfessor' Bill Edwards, the fount of knowledge of all things ragtime, kindly sent me the following links which make interesting reading and gives some info on Landrum.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19271010&id...

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1977&dat=19290531&id...

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1977&dat=19281204&id...

They're newspaper articles, the first one is about Fred Bacon with quite a good picture. At the end of the article it mentions Harry Landrum as a banjo player. The other two articles also mention Landrum as  being a banjo player.

This begs the question,"Was Smilax initially written as a banjo tune?". It certainly works well on banjo. I've changed the key from the piano score which is in G to C as this fits the banjo more easily. It's a catchy tune, almost a slow drag and the score and midi are in the library.....Steve.

[Trapdoor2]

Neat little tune, Steve. I had to look up "smilax"...in my area it is an invasive vine that takes over everything if not constantly weeded out. Impossible to get rid of.

Given Landrum was a banjoist, I would expect it was published as a piano piece only to make it appeal to a broader playing audience. IOW, I imagine he probably wrote it on the banjo...but many musical types double on other instruments and piano was very popular. He could have been just as comfortable on the piano.

I wonder: what is the significance of the number "5" on the sheet music cover...?

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Marc, I had a look on the web as well regarding Smilax and apparently there is one variety, the root of which, is used to make sarsaparilla and other root beers. As for the number 5, I couldn't guess what that is about..maybe it's some secret masonic code....Steve. 

Trapdoor2 said:

Neat little tune, Steve. I had to look up "smilax"...in my area it is an invasive vine that takes over everything if not constantly weeded out. Impossible to get rid of.

Given Landrum was a banjoist, I would expect it was published as a piano piece only to make it appeal to a broader playing audience. IOW, I imagine he probably wrote it on the banjo...but many musical types double on other instruments and piano was very popular. He could have been just as comfortable on the piano.

I wonder: what is the significance of the number "5" on the sheet music cover...?