The Blue Ridge Highballers were a Virginia string band led by fiddler Charley La Prade. They recorded seventeen sides for Columbia and Paramount (and their respective affiliate labels) in 1926 and 1927, and an additional three sides accompanying vocalist Luther B. Clarke.

Flop-Eared Mule is an old warhorse that’s unusual among fiddle tunes in that the strains are in different keys, and the order of the strains is often reversed. I’ve long annoyed our banjo player by insisting that this tune is in ‘D’, with a second strain in ‘A’. Like many banjo players, he prefers to play in ‘G’, and learned this tune with the first strain in ‘G’ and the second in ‘D’. To his credit, here’s a 1926 recording with the first strain in ‘G’ and the second in ‘D’. Except that the second strain is first.

This was recorded in March, 1926, in New York for the Columbia company. The personnel:

• Charlie La Prade, fiddle
• Arthur Wells, banjo
• Lonnie Griffith, guitar

Flop-Eared Mule (MP3)

Courtesy of Archive.org