Annotation:Dusty Miller (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
DUSTY MILLER [1]. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. D Mixolydian/Major [Brody, Phillips]: D Mixolydian/Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part) [Krassen]. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Georgia fiddler/entertainer John Carson linked the tune with the song "Hard Time a Comin'" (Molly Tenenbaum). Modern 'revival' fiddlers sourced the tune from Bluefield, West Virginia, fiddler Franklin George, who learned it from his mentor Jim Farthing. Farthing was a fiddler from Virginia near the North Carolina border who had moved to West Virginia for mining related jobs and who performed carpentry with George's father.
Source for notated version: Armin Barnett (Charlottesville, Va.) [Krassen]; Fuzzy Mountain String Band (N.C.), learned from Frank George [Brody]; Bill Christopherson [Phillips].
Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 96. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; p. 53. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; p. 78.
Recorded sources: Rounder 0035, Fuzzy Mountain String Band- "Summer Oaks and Porch" (1973. Learned from Franklin George, Princeton, W.Va.). Kicking Mule 206, Eric Thompson- "Kicking Mule's Flat Picking Guitar Festival." Roane Records, Franklin George - "Swope's Knobs" (reissue of original on Anachronistic Recrods)