Annotation:Nancy Rowland (1)
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NANCY ROWLAND [1]. AKA - "Nancy Rollin," "Nancy Roland." AKA and see "Little Nancy Rowland." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (Brody, Kaufman, Phillips). Charles Wolfe (in his notes for "Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers - Kickapoo Medecine Show") states that this tune was apparently well-known in the Atlanta area during the 1920's but that its popularity has since considerably dwindled. He believes a more archaic solo fiddle rendition was played by John Carson on a mid-1920's OKeh recording (#40238). It was also in the repertoire of fiddler Tommy Magness (1911-1972), born in north Georgia near the southeastern Tennessee border. The title appears (as "Nancy Rowland" and "Nancy Rollins") in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. The following (floating) ditties are sometimes sung to the tune:
Had a little dog, his name was Rover,
When he died, he died all over.
I had a wife and she was a Quaker,
She wouldn't work and I wouldn't make her.
I had a wife and she was a weaver,
She wouldn't work, so I had to leave her.
Sources for notated versions: Highwoods String Band (N.Y.) [Brody]; Carter Brothers [Phillips]; Bruce Reid [Silberberg].
Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 201. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; p. 56. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 162. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 104.
Recorded sources: County 520, Carter Brothers and Son- "Echoes of the Ozarks, vol. 3." County 528, The Carter Brothers- "Traditional Fiddle Music of Mississippi." June Appal 007, Thomas Hunter- "Deep in Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, James W. Hunter, Madison County, N.C.). Marimac 9038, Dan Gellert & Brad Leftwich - "A Moment in Time." Rounder 0023, Highwoods String Band- "Fire on the Mountain." Rounder 1023, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers- "Kickapoo Medicine Show."
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear the Carter Brothers and Son recording on youtube.com [2]