Annotation:Old Aunt Jenny with Her Night-Cap On (1)
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OLD AUNT JENNY WITH HER NIGHT-CAP ON. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; West Virginia, Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Bruce Greene learned the tune from Estill Bingham (1899-1990) of the Hensley Settlement, Pineville, Bell County, Kentucky, near the Cumberland Gap (where Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia abut one-another). He played it in G Major, although an 'A' major cross-tuned version was played by Kentucky fiddler Lella Todd [1] (1891-1978). Titon (2001) points out that several different tunes go by this title. He recorded Indiana fiddler Clyde Davenport playing a G tune, unrelated to Bingham's Kentucky tune, that he calls "Old Lank Jenny with Her Nightcap On." Bingham was the youngest of thirteen children, and took up the fiddle at age seven.
Sometimes this ditty (in part a common floating verse) is sung to the tunes (see also Ira Ford's "Old Aunt Jenny"):
Who's been here since I been gone?
Old Aunt Jenny with her nightcap on.
The second strain of Bingham's tune is 'crooked', in that the cadence of each phrase of the strain has an extra two beats in measure.
Source for notated version: Estill Bingham (Pineville, Bell County, Ky., c.1986) [Tition]. According to fiddler Bruce Greene, Bingham learned the tune from an itinerant preacher by the name of Columbus "Lum" Green, who would circuit to the remote area every few months to conduct services, after which he would play the fiddle.
Printed sources: Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 111, p. 140.
Recorded sources: Wilson Douglas - "Fiddle Tunes from Central West Virginia." Shanachie Records 6040, Gerry Milnes & Lorraine Lee Hammond - "Hell Up Coal Holler" (1999. Learned from "old Tom Dillon" of Webster County, W.Va.).
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear Bingham playing the tune at the Berea Digital Archives, recorded by Bob Butler c. 1986 [3], at Slippery Hill [4], and at the Digital Library of Appalachia [5]
Hear Bruce Greene, Don Pedi & John Hermann playing the tune at Berea Digital Archives [6]
See/hear a version of Bingham's tune played on youtube.com [7]