Annotation:Put Your Little Foot
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PUT YOUR LITTLE FOOT (RIGHT OUT/THERE). AKA and see "Varsovienne (4)." Old-Time, Waltz or Varsovienne (3/4 time). USA; New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas. G Major (Christeson): D Major (Phillips). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Christeson): AABB (Phillips). The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozarks Mountains fiddlers in the early 1940's, including Lon Jordan (Farmington, Ark.) in 1941 [AFS 05376 B02]. R.P. Christeson remarked, "This dance [the Varsovienne] was popular at Las Cruces, New Mexico, dances in the late 1940's." Words are sometimes sung to the tune (also set to other Varsovienne tunes):
Put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right there;
Put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right there.
Take a step to the right, take a step to the left,
Take a step to the rear but forever stay near.
In Ireland a dance called “Shoe the Donkey” is performed to the tune.
Source for notated version: Forest Delk (Grant County, New Mexico) [Christeson]; Bob Wills (Texas) [Phillips].
Printed sources: R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 2), 1984; No. 193, p. 150. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2), 1995; p. 297.
Recorded sources: Vocalion 05425 (78 RPM), Louise Massey
and The Westerners
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]