Annotation:Maggie Grey

Back to Maggie Grey

MAGGIE GREY. AKA - "Maggie Gray," "Margaret Grey," "Meg Grey." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. E Minor ('A' part), A Mixolydian ('B' part) & G Major ('C' part). Standard tuning or GCgd (fiddle). AABBCC (Titon): AABB'BB'CC (Phillips). Mark Wilson writes that source George Hawkins fashioned the tune from a banjo player's tune he heard when he was a boy. Hawkins was a friend and fiddling buddy of John W. Summers, notes fiddler Joel Shimberg. There is a possibility that the third part did not originally go to the tune, according to Kerry Blech, but rather became attached after "floating" from another tune. He points out that Hawkins, while he always did play the third part, would not play it in order, but would rather insert it into the sequence of parts seemingly at will. See also the related tune "Cattle in the Cane (1)". Shimberg also sees some similarities with Tennessee fiddler Allen Sisson's "Sally Brown Jig."

Sources for notated versions: Kerry Blech (Seattle, Washington) [Phillips]; George Hawkins (Bethel, Bath County, Kentucky), learned from a banjo player [Titon].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994; p. 148. Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 98, p. 127.

Recorded sources: Leatherwood (cassette), Bruce Greene - "Vintage Fiddle Tunes" (1987). Rounder 0376, George Hawkins - "Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky, vol. 1; Up the Ohio and Licking Rivers (1997). Rounder 0380, Roger Cooper - "Goin' Back to Kentucky" (1997).

See also listing at:
Hear George Hawkins play the tune at Slippery Hill [1]

Back to Maggie Grey