Annotation:Pigtown Fling

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PIGTOWN FLING. AKA and see see "Buck Creek Girl/Gals," “Buffalo Breakdown,” "Goin' Up Chaney," "Hop Along Sally,” "Kelton's Reel," “Off with Your Jacket,” "Old Dad," "Old Mother Goodwin" (Pa.), "Ston(e)y Point (1)," "Stony Point Reel" (Pa. title, 1866), “Warm Stuff,” "Wild Horse," "Wild Horses at Stony Point." American, Scottish, Irish; Reel, Fling. G Major ('A' part) & E Minor ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B (Kerr): AABB (most versions): AABB’ (Skinner): AA’BB’ (Kennedy). A tune of unknown origins but widely known in the United States under a variety of titles. Pigtown Fling is the common New England title for this widely known tune, although it was collected by Shaw in Colorado as “Pigtown Hoe Down.” Chet Parker, a hammered dulcimer player from western New York, called it “Buffalo Breakdown.” See also “Nigger in the Woodpile (2)," "In the Woodpile (1)” and “Cotton Patch.”

Some believe the tune has an Irish provenance, although it is not found in either older manuscript of published Irish materials of any antiquity. It is called “Pigtown” in County Donegal, Ireland, where it is played as a highland, although Perlman (1979) says it was originally a Co. Kerry polka, also called "Pigtown." Linscott (1939) identifies this tune as "an Irish reel sometimes known as 'Kelton's Reel'" (by which title it appears in Boston-published Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883).

Source for notated version: Edson Cole (Freedom, N.H.) [Linscott], seven southwestern Pa. fiddlers [Bayard].

Printed sources: Adam, 1928; No. 27. American Veteran Fifer, 1905; No. 19. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 166A-G, pp. 111-113. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland vol. 2), 1974; No. 7. Cazden, 1955; p. 28. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; No. 139 (four parts). DeVille, 1905; No. 65. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pp. 35 and 64. Harding's Original Collection, 1928; No. 121. Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Reels and Rants), 1997; No. 158, p. 37. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2), c. 1880’s; No. 269, p. 29. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; p. 61 (three parts). Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England), 1939; p. 71. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 126. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 2, p. 3. Shaw (Cowboy Dances), 1943; p. 388 (appears as “Pigtown Hoe Down”). Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 143 (appears as “The Pig Town”). Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; p. 47. Tolman (Nelson Music Collection), 1969; p. 11. Welling (Welling’s Hartford Tunebook), 1976; p. 3. White's Excelsior Collection, p. 23. White's Unique Collection, No. 70.

Recorded sources: Gennett 6088 (78 RPM), Uncle Steve Hubbard and His Boys, c. 1928 (recorded under the title "Big-Town Fling"). John Edwards Memorial Foundation JEMF-105, Uncle Joe Shippee - "New England Traditional Fiddling" (1978). Shanachie 79022, “The Chieftains #2.” “Music at Matt Molloy’s.” Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Bob McQuillen & Old New England – “Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire” (1999).

See also listings at:
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Alan Ng’s Irishtune.info [2]
Alan Synder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [3]

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