Annotation:Pretty Betty Martin (2)
X:1 T:Pretty Betty Martin [2] N:From the playing of Garry Harrison & The Mule Team, who had it N:from Robert Wilson of Dahlgren, Illinois, recorded 1949. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel Q:"Very Quick" D:http://www.pickaway.press/doi/clips/rpd/pretty_betty.mp3 D:Garry Harrison & The Mule Team - Red Prairie Dawn (2000) Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:A efed c2A2|efed c2A2|c2 Ad c2 Ac|1,3BABc B4:|2 BABc A4:|4 BABc A2|| |:fg|a2g2f2ec|{c}d2c2{A}B2A2|GABc defg|aag2 fefg| a2g2f2ec|{c}d2c2{A}B2A2|c2 Ad c2 Ac|1BABc A2:|2BABc A4||
PRETTY BETTY MARTIN [2]. American, Air and Reel (cut time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAAABB. The tune was collected in 1949 by D.S. McIntosh and John Allen from Robert Wilson of Dahlgren, Hamilton County, southeast Illinois. It is quite distanced from the usual "Betty Martin" tunes, but recognizable as a member of the family in the first measures of the first strain. Wilson (1876-1957) was an interesting character, the son of a Civil War veteran from Indiana, who was an authority on folk songs, most of which he learned from his mother, Martha Crunk Wilson (1849-1925). An autodidact, he attended public school only briefly, but was exceptionally literate and highly skilled in mathematics and algebra. He taught in various schools in Hamilton County, became Principal of a few, and rose to become County Superintendent of Schools (1938-1946).
