PINEYWOODS GAL. American, Reel (cut time). 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 [citation needed], 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 "Katy Hill (3)/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). Alan Lomax interviewed Bob Carpenter, Charlie Higgins and Wade Ward in Galax, Virginia, in 1959 [1]. Higgins said it was "One of the first ones I ever heard", and that "Old Eck Dunford, back then, he could tell 'em just exactly who made that and where at. He met a girl back in the piney woods somewhere." Lomax promts: 'There sounds like a story behind that', but no further explanation is forthcoming from the informants.
Galax fiddler Emmett Lundy recorded the tune in New York City in May, 1925, accompanied by E.V. Stoneman on harmonica.
Emmett Lundy 1864-1953. He recorded it again for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress, in Galax, Va., in 1941, accompanied by his son, Kelly Lundy, on guitar.
Additional notes
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. Songer (Portland Collection, vol. 2), 2005; p. 159.
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). Field Recorders Collective FRC 501, "Uncle Charlie Higgins, Wade Ward & Dale Poe: Recordings from the collection of Peter Hoover" (2015. Appears as "Katy Hill"). 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). Rounder Records, Charlie Higgins & Wade Ward - "Southern Journey V. 2: Ballads and Breakdowns -- Songs from the Southern Mountains" (1997. Various artists). Smithsonian Folkways SFW40193, Tommy Jarrell with Frank Bode - "Classic Old-Time Fiddle from Smithsonian Folkways: (2007. Various artists). Yazoo 2029, Lundy & Stoneman - "Times Ain't Like They Used To Be, Vol. 2: Early American Rural Music Classic Recordings from the 1920s and 30s."
Matt Brown & Greg Reish - "Speed of the Plow" (2015).
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear Lundy & Stoneman's 1925 recording on youtube.com [3], and a clearer recording at Slippery Hill [4][5]
