Annotation:Pick the Devil's Eye Out

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PICK THE DEVIL'S EYE OUT. AKA - “Pickin(g) the Devil’s Eye.” Old-Time, Breakdown (2/4 time). USA; Mississippi, Arkansas. A Major. AEac# tuning (fiddle). Recorded (as "Pickin' the Devil's Eye") in 1939 for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing of Magee, Simpson County, Mississippi, fiddler Enos Canoy with straw beating by Jim Meyers [AFS 03058 A01]. Halpert originally listed the tune as "The Pig and the Devil's Eye." Canoy mentions that the plucking of the strings is “pickin’ the Devil’s eye, trying to get it out.” The title appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Thornton Spencer also played a version in ADad tuning called “Pickin’ Out the Devil’s Eyes,” learned from 75 year old fiddler Monsey Galt, who said it was the oldest tune he knew.

Source for notated version: Enos Canoy, who learned it from the playing of Love Kennaday, according to Halpert's field notes.

Printed sources: Bolick (Mississippi Fiddle Tunes), 2015, p. 244.

Recorded sources: Document DOCD-8071, Enos Canoy - "Mississippi Fiddle Tunes" (2015. Various artists). HCR-CD001, The Whitetop Mountaineers - "Go Away with Me" (2010).

See also listing at:
Hear Thornton Spencer play the tune in a recording from the 1979 Fiddler's Grove festival [1] [2]

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