Cindy (1)

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Theme code Index	3555 5333
Also known as	Cindy in the Summertime, Cindy in the Meadows, Get Along Home Cindy, Get Along Home Miss Cindy, Git Along, Git Along Cindy, J'etais au Bal, Old Time Cinda, Run Along Home Cindy, Whoop 'Em Up Cindy
Composer/Core Source
Region	United States
Genre/Style	Old-Time
Meter/Rhythm	Reel (single/double)
Key/Tonic of	A
Accidental	3 sharps
Mode	Ionian (Major)
Time signature	4/4
History	USA(Upland South), USA(Piedmont), USA(Southeast), USA(Ozarks/Western Tenn)
Structure	AB
Editor/Compiler	Biography:Thomas & Leeder
Book/Manuscript title	Book:Singin' Gathering (The)
Tune and/or Page number	p. 23
Year of publication/Date of MS	1939
Artist	Biography:Hill Billies (The)
Title of recording	Old Time Cinda
Record label/Catalogue nr.	OKeh 40294 (78 RPM)
Year recorded	1925
Media
Score ()

CINDY [1]. AKA and see "Cindy in the Summertime," "Cindy in the Meadows," "Get Along Home Cindy," "Git Along Cindy," "J'etais au Bal," "Old Time Cinda," "Run Along Home Cindy," "Whoop 'Em Up Cindy," Old-Time, Song and Breakdown. USA; Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi. D Major (most versions): G Major (John Brown). Standard or ADae tuning (fiddle). AB (Brody): AABB (Phillips/1989 {the 'B' part is 'crooked' in Phillip's version}): AA'BB (Phillips, 1994). A widely known frolic tune, appearing in many folk music collections and even old elementary school songbooks. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954, and was recorded for the Library of Congress in 1939 by Mississippi fiddler John A. Brown. A very popular Cajun version of the tune, probably borrowed from the American song, is "J'etais au Bal" (I Went to the Dance Last Night). Verses set to the tune are many, including several "floaters":

Cindy in the summertime,
Cindy in the fall,
Can't have Cindy all the time,
Don't want Cindy at all.
Chorus Get along home,
Get along home,
Get along home,
Cindy, fare you well.

You ought to see my Cindy,
She lives way down South,
She's so sweet the honey bees
All swarm around her mouth.

Wish I had a needle
As fine as it could sew,
I'd sew that gal to my coat-tail,
And down the road I'd go.

Went upon the mountain,
To give my horn a blow,
Hollered back to Cindy,
Oh yander she go. (Rosenbaum)

When I was a little lad,
About six inches high,
I used to court the pretty girls
To hear the old folks cry;
Get a-long down, down Big Sandy,
Get a-long down, down Big Sandy,
Get a-long down, down Big Sandy,
That's the place for you. (Thomas & Leeder)

The Big Sandy River, referred to in Thomas & Leeder's lyric, forms the border between Kentucky and West Virginia and flows into the Ohio River at Catlettsburg, Ky. It was a flat-boat trade route before the advent of the railroads. See also similar stanzas printed by African-American collector Thomas Talley in Negro Folk Rhymes (1922) under the title "She Hugged Me and Kissed Me." A song derived from the well-known "Cindy", is a "Cindy" from the singing of Dan Tate (b. 1896), of Fancy Gap, Carroll County, Va.. It goes:

Railroad, a plank road,
A river and canal;
If it hadn't have been for Doctor Grey,
There never would have been any hell.

Cho:
Get along home Cindy,
Get along home I say;
Get along home Cindy girl,
For I am a-going away.

A railroad, a plank road,
A river and canoe;
If it hadn't have been for old John Jones,
They never would a-killed old Jude.

Tate said that Jude was a slave of a Doctor Gray, who abused her when she became pregnant and would not tell who the father of her child was.

Sources for notated versions: New Lost City Ramblers [Brody]; Alan Block [Phillips]; Fox Fraley (Lawrence County, Ky., 1911) [Thomas & Leeder].

Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 69. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; p. 10. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; p. 53. Rosenbaum (Folk Visions and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in North Georgia), 1989; pp. 12-13. Thomas and Leeder (The Singin' Gathering), 1939; p. 23.

Recorded sources: Bluebird 5488B, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers (North Ga.) {1934. As "Git Along"}. County 405, "The Hill-Billies." County 518, Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers- "Echoes of the Ozarks, vol. I" (appears as "Get Along Home Miss Cindy"). County 544, Clayton McMichen- "Georgia Fiddle Bands, Vol. 2." Document 8039, "The Hill Billies/Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 1" (reissue. Appears as "Cinda"). Folk Legacy Records FSA-17, Hobart Smith - "America's Greatest Folk Instrumentalist" (appears as 1st tune of "Banjo Group #2"). Folkways FA 2399, New Lost City Ramblers- "vol. 4." Musical Traditions MTCD321-2, Dan Tate (et al) - "Far in the Mountains, volumes 1 & 2" (2002). See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1].

X:1
T:Cindy [1]
M:C|
L:1/8
R:Reel
S:Brad Leftwich
N:AEae tuning
N:From a transcription by John Lamancusa, by permission. See http://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/tunes.htm
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:A
(AB |: c2)e2 e3f | e2c4 (cB | A2) A2B2A2 | c3(d c2) (AB | c2) (ef) e3f | 
e2 c4 (cB | A2) A2 (cA) B2 |1 A3 (B A2) AB :|2 A3B A2 (A2 || 
|: A)(cBA) F3E | F2A4 (A2 | A)(BAF) E3E | C2E4 (A2 | A)(cBA) F3E | 
F2A4 (A2 | A)(ABA) c2B2 |1 A3 (BA2) (A2 :|2 A3) (BA2) ||