Annotation:Western Country

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WESTERN COUNTRY. AKA and see “Blue Eyed Girl/Blue Eyed Gal,” “Fare Thee Well My Pretty Little Miss,” "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," “Susannah Gal (1)/Suzanna Gal (1).” Old Time, Breakdown. USA; West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A variant of the song perhaps better known to old-time musicians as “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss” or “Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink," it was widespread in the upland South. In particular it was a Grayson-Carroll County, Virginia, standard, under a variety of titles. The 78 RPM era group The Hillbillies, a 1920’s stringband from around Galax, Virginia, recorded the tune in 1926 under the title “Blue Eyed Girl.” Lyrics go:

I'm going to the Western Country
Leavin you behind
I'm going to the Western Country
Leavin you behind

I wish I was in the Western Country
Settin in a big armchair
One arm around my whiskey jug (or barrel)
The other round my dear

Grayson County banjo player Wade Ward sang these verses; the second is shared with "Oh, Susannah":

Whiskey by the gallon
And sugar by the pound
A great big bowl to pour it in
Pretty gal to stir it round.

It rained all night the day I left
The weather was so dry;
The sun shined on and froze me to death,
Susannah, don't you cry.

Banjo player Dent Wimmer of Floyd, Floyd County, Virginia, sang a similar verse:

When I was in the western country,
Where the weather was so dry;
The sun came out and froze me,
Suzannah don’t you cry.

Wimmer’s playing partner, fiddler Sam Connor, called the tune “Little Pigee” from the verse:

Run the old hog over the fence,
And the little pigs through the cracks.

This verse was used by The Hillbillies in the 1925 recording of “Whoa Mule” for Okeh Records. See note for “Pretty Little Pink.”

Source for notated version: Kyle Creed (western North Carolina) [Brody].

Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 208.

Recorded sources: Appleseed APR CD 1036, Frank Proffitt. Biograph 6003, "The Original Bogtrotters." Mountain, Kyle Creed "Blue Ridge Style Square Dance Time." County 713, Cockerham, Jarrell, and Jenkins "Down to the Cider Mill" (appears as "Suzanna Gal"). County 201, The Old Virginia Fiddlers "Rare Recordings" (appears as "Susanna Gal"). Document DOCD-8039, The Hillbillies (reissue). Folkways FA 2375, "Old Reliable String Band" (appears as "Fly Around"). Folkways FA 2380, "Uncle Wade - A Memorial to Wade Ward: Old Time Virginia Banjo Picker, 1892-1971" (1973). Folkways FA 2398, New Lost City Ramblers - "vol. 3" (appears as "Fly Around"). Library of Congress (2741-A-1), 1939, J.W. "Peg" Thatcher (& the Bogtrotters). Musical Traditions MTCD 321-2, Sam Connor & Dent Wimmer (et al) – “Far in the Mountains, vols. 1 & 2” (2002). Rounder CD 1702, Hobart Smith. Smithsonian Folkways SFCD 40077, Lee Sexton – “Mountain Music of Kentucky.” Vocalation 5017 (78 RPM), The Hillbillies (1926). Yazoo CD 2028, Frank Blevins & his Pilot Mountaineers (reissue).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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