Annotation:North Carolina Breakdown

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NORTH CAROLINA BREAKDOWN. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Tenn. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Songer): AA'BB (Phillips). Composed by Tennessee's Fiddlin' Arthur Smith [] (). The tune is a current festival favorite among younger old-time fiddlers. Ernest Smith, Arthur's son, believes his father wrote "North Carolina Breakdown" around 1937, about the same time as "Smith's Breakdown," and that it was recorded by Nashville's Starday lable in 1962. See also the variant "Tarheel Breakdown" and the similar "Whistling Rufus."

Source for notated version: fiddler Judy Hyman (Ithica, N.Y.) [Phillips].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 166. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 148.

Recorded sources: HFM 1301, Hillbillies from Mars - "Hillbillies from Mars" (1993).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear versions on youtube.com [2] [3] See Seth Austin's transcription & MP3 [4]