Billy in the Lowlands (5)
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BILLY IN THE LOWLANDS [5]. Old-Time, Breakdown. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). Allen Jabbour collected this tune from Glen Lyn, Virginia, fiddler Henry Reed who called it "the old Franklin County Billy in the Low Land," and distinguished it from the "Billy" tune played in the key of C (Reed played the latter tune, but called it "Shelving Rock"). Reed's family had originally lived in Franklin County in the 19th century before moving to Monroe County, as had some neighbors. The melody appears in Knauff's Virginia Reels (1839) as "Billy in the Low Grounds: A Virginia Reel," and Jabbour finds another Virginia/North Carolina regional set under the same title in Person's Collection of Popular Airs (1889). Jabbour characterizes the tune stylistically as having origins in Britain or similar-sounding American tunes from that tradition, but could not trace any direct antecedents. Jabbour also collected the tune from modern fiddlers Joe Anglin (Martinsville, Va.) and Malvin Artley (central West Virginia). Kerry Blech adds that Artley, who wrote a dissertation on regional traditional music, prepared a recording to illustrate his project that contained a version of "Billy in the Lowlands [5]" played by West Virginia fiddler Emery Bailey.
Recorded sources: Rounder 0024, "Hollow Rock String Band" (1974. Learned from Henry Reed, Glen Lyn, Va. as "Billy in the Low Land").
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