I GET MY WHISKEY FROM ROCKINGHAM. AKA and see "Rockingham Cindy," "Rocky Road Cindy," "Way Down in Rockingham." Old-Time, Breakdown. D Major (Tommy Jarrell): G Major (Silberberg, Songer). Standard or ADae (Tommy Jarrell) tuning (fiddle). AABC. "I get My Whiskey from Rockingham" was a breakdown/song originally recorded by Georgia fiddler Earl Johnson [1](1886-1965), born in Gwinnett County. He was a contemporary of Gid Tanner and John Carson. Johnson's lyrics begin:
Earl Johnson
Where'd you get your whiskey, where'd you get your dram? I got it from a little girl way down in Rockingham.
Refrain Rocky Road Cindy, rocky road to town, Rocky Road Cindy, way down in Rockingham.
I went down to Rockingham, I did not go to stay, I fell in love with a pretty girl and I could not get away.
Lips as red as a red rose, her hair was huckleberry brown, The sweetest girl I ever saw, way down in Rockingham.
The Ballad Index lists the tune among a loose family of tunes, often fragmentary, under the title "Jinny Go Round and Around," recognized by the "Where did you get your whiskey" stanza.
Source for notated version: Source for notated version: Greg Canote (Seattle), who learned it from Tom Sauber [Silberberg, Songer].
Printed sources: Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 132 (as "Rockingham Cindy"). Songer (The Portland Collection, vol. 3), 2015; p. 102.
Recorded sources: County 507, Earl Johnson & His Clodhoppers - "Old-Time Fiddle Classics" (1965). County 543, Earl Johnson and His Clodhoppers - "Red Hot Breakdown." Okeh 45183 (78 RPM), Earl Johnson & His Clodhoppers (1927).
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear Earl Johnson & His Clodhopper's 1927 recording on youtube.com [3][4]
