Annotation:Pineywoods Gal

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PINEYWOODS GAL. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; southwestern Va., western N.C., Tennessee, Alabama. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB. The tune has been traced to seminal Galax, Virginia, fiddler Green Leonard via Emmett Lundy (b. 1864) via Luther Davis, successive generations of Grayson County, Va., fiddlers. A tune by this name was commonly played by Rock Ridge, Alabama, fiddlers in the 1920's (Bailey). See also related tune "Steamboat around the Bend." According to different accounts, Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell learned the tune in Nashville, Tennessee, or, he learned it in the 1920's when he played in a band with Frank Jenkins and Bryce Goodson (liner notes to Folkways FTS 31109 by Eric Davidson & Ellen Victoria). He noted the similarity of the tune to "Katie Hill" (which he thought was derived from "Piney Woods Gal") and "Sally Johnson" (which he thought was derived from "Katie Hill"): "There's three tunes played just about like that, right there" (from a 1982 interview with Peter Anick).

Source for notated version: Judy Hyman with the Tompkins County Horseflies (Ithica, N.Y.) [Phillips].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes vol. 1), 1994; p. 185.

Recorded sources: County Records 535, Emmett Lundy, from his 78 RPM recording for Okeh. County CD-CD-2711, Kirk Sutphin - "Old Roots and New Branches" (1994). Folkways FTS 31109, Frank Bode with Tommy Jarrell and Paul Brown - "Been Riding with Old Mosby" (1986). Mountain 310, Tommy Jarrell - "Joke on the Puppy" (1976. Learned from Frank Jenkins). Okeh Records 40405 (78 RPM), Emmett Lundy & Earnest Stoneman (1925. One of only two commercial recordings Lundy made). Rounder Records 0058, Luther Davis - "Old Originals, Vol 2" (1978). Rounder Records 0213, The Tompkins County Horseflies - "Chokers and Flies" (1985).