Annotation:My Dog Dies
Back to My Dog Dies
MY DOG DIES. AKA and see "James Lee's Favorite Jig." American, Dance Tune. The composition is credited to Zeke Backus in Ryan's Mammoth/Cole's 1000. Backus has been called a New England bandleader and tune composer, although this cannot be substantiated at this time. Some say that Backus was (also?) a minstrel performer, and apparently spent at least some time in San Francisco. However, according to Rice's comprehensive Monarchs of Minstrelsy (1908), only a Charles Backus was listed in the annals of minstrel performers. It was Charles who was a minstrel in California, and well as the east coast, and he even toured Australia several times. It is not known what, if any, connection he may have had with 'Zeke'.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 6. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 166.
Recorded sources: