Annotation:Maxwell Girl

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MAXWELL GIRL. Old-Time. The tune was recorded by the Booker Brothers, African-American musicians from Jessamine County, Kentucky with the group Taylor's Kentucky Boys. They were one of the few bands with both white and black musicians; Jim Booker, a fiddler, was born around 1872, and played with Marion Underwood on banjo and Willie Young on guitar, and, on some sides, Aulton Ray on vocals. "Maxwell Girl" is a variant of an old ballad, variously known as "The Wexford Girl, The Oxford Girl, The Lexington Girl, or Knoxville Girl; also as "The Cruel Miller" and other titles [see Laws P35], seen earliest in broadsides dating to the 18th century.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Challenge 335A (78 RPM), Taylor's Kentucky Boys. Document 5167, The Booker Brothers. Yazoo Records 2200, Taylor's Kentucky Boys - "Kentucky Mountain Music."

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