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 Simpson County, Mississippi, fiddler Enos Canoy and the Canoy Band. 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. Thorton Spencer also played a tune called “Pickin’ Out the Devil’s Eyes.”

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:

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