This tune comes from the playing of Moses “Mose” Coffman, born in Greenbrier County West Virginia on December 12, 1905, died in Lewisburg, West Virginia May 12, 1994. His Mennonite ancestors from Pennsylvania settled in Greenbrier County in 1788. Most of his fiddling he learned from extra family sources, particularly Edden Hammons, Glenn Gillespie and Sherman Hammons. Mose served his country in military service from 1942-1952 and returned to his family farm when his father became ill. (Blech). We don't know to which lake the title refers, nor can we trace this tune back into antiquity. It is played in a unique tuning on the fiddle; the only tune we've ever heard in it, though there are others. We first heard West Virginia fiddler Jimmy Triplett play this tune and our bowing is closer to his than that of Coffman's. But Triplett's consistent use of the third above the actual melody note as the final note in the last phrase is not uncommon in the playing of senior source fiddlers. (A downward run on the G and D strings at the end of the phrase E C D B C becomes E C D C E)
