Another schottische, this one from the prolific ragtime composer from Kansas City, Charles Leslie Johnson. “Barn dance” was another name for a schottische and was referred to as such on many pieces of old sheet music. This was probably due to the most popular schottische Dancing In The Barn by Turner and Orrin.

Charles L. Johnson lived and worked in Kansas City his entire life, instead of moving to a larger city, as other small town composers did once they achieved success. Because of this, he was able to help other local musicians and composers such as Ed Kuhn and E. Harry Kelly. Kelly had a huge hit in 1901 with a rag called Peaceful Henry, perhaps the biggest hit to come out of Kansas City. Early in his career, Johnson performed with a string band called “The Walton Mandolin Club”, which consisted of two mandolins, banjo-mandolin and two guitars. As a writer, Johnson had a huge hit in 1906 with Dill Pickles Rag, an excellent folk rag that worked its way into the fiddle repertoire and can still be heard today at fiddle contests. His second big hit was a song entitled, Sweet and Low, published in 1919. Johnson’s music is very folksy and reveals his fun-loving nature and sense of humor. Johnson had a long career as a musician, composer, arranger and publisher.

Knocky Parker, ragtime pianist and former member of the Light Crust Doughboys once said that Charlie Johnson was his favorite composer and that he liked Johnson’s music even better than Scott Joplin’s.

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