An old-time tune probably from West Virginia, usually in A Mixolydian, played here in D.
An early recording by Edden Hammons:
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In a jam context by some Philadelphia-area players:
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In concert, by a group emphasizing the African American heritage of the music:
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In concert, by a Maine high school group featuring some cellos:
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From the Fiddler's Companion: "this has been identified as a tune from Pocahontas County, West Virginia, fiddler Edden Hammons. The original, however, appears to be in the American minstrel show repertoire, for a similar version (though different in the 'B' part from Hammonds' tune) can be found in Phil Rice's Correct Method for the Banjo (1857), a period tutor, and also appears an 1844 minstrel songbook (reproduced by Harvard Theatre College Collection, Cambridge, Mass.). Gerry Milnes has found ribald words accompanying the tune in West Virginia. The modern 'revival' or 'festival' version may have stemmed from a mislearning of Hammon's tune by Bob Herring. See also Missouri fiddler Gene Goforth's related 'The Quail is a Pretty Bird.'"
Sara Gray writes: "the Sandy Boys were the fellows who had worked in the logging camps of Virginia through the winter and who lived and farmed along the Sandy River in the summer months. The song is really strange ... Apparently the story goes that one of the Sandy Boys fell in love with the daughter of a logging baron and was too shy to court her himself so he got one of his friends to do it for him dressed up as a bugaboo (a bugaboo is a black dialect word for a ghost). I can't imagine the poor girl's reaction when wooed by a bugaboo, she probably ran a mile! Guess who lost out on that idea!"
Sara Gray writes: "the Sandy Boys were the fellows who had worked in the logging camps of Virginia through the winter and who lived and farmed along the Sandy River in the summer months. The song is really strange ... Apparently the story goes that one of the Sandy Boys fell in love with the daughter of a logging baron and was too shy to court her himself so he got one of his friends to do it for him dressed up as a bugaboo (a bugaboo is a black dialect word for a ghost). I can't imagine the poor girl's reaction when wooed by a bugaboo, she probably ran a mile! Guess who lost out on that idea!"