Annotation:Yellow Gals

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YELLOW GAL(S). Old Time, Breakdown. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Yellow is a term applied to light-skinned African Americans or those with mulatto coloring. There is apparently a tune by this name (not printed in Phillips) that is cognate with "Buffalo Gals (1)," popularized by Eugene Edwards. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. It is perhaps the “Yeller Gal” tune that was in the repertoire of fiddler and Confederate veteran Arnold A. Parrish (Willow Springs, Wake County, N.C.), as recorded by the old Raleigh News and Observer. Parrish was a contestant at fiddler’s conventions held in Raleigh prior to World War I.

Source for notated version: Pete Sutherland (VT) [Phillips].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 262.

Recorded sources: Marimac 9054, The Ill-Mo Boys - "Fine As Frog Hair" (1995). Silver Circle 002, Doug Phillips & Hilary Dirlam - "Wagoner."

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