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Nancy Rowland
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- Mississippi; Arkansas; Southeast;
ARTIST: From Carter Brothers & Son- Carter Brothers & Son. Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 3, County 520, LP (1970), cut# 1.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: Early 1900’s.
RECORDING INFO: Carson, Fiddlin’ John, (S-72-022-B) 1923; Forrester, Howdy. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 17/3, p32 . Carter Brothers & Son. Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 3, County 520, LP (1970), cut# 1. Carter Brothers & Son. Traditional Fiddle Music of Mississippi, Vol. 1, County 528, LP (1975), cut# 8. Robic, A; and the Exertions. Old Time Music Dance Party, Flying Fish FF-415, LP (1987), cut# 4b . June Appal 007, Thomas Hunter- "Deep in Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, James W. Hunter, Madison County, N.C.). Marimac 9038, Dan Gellert & Brad Leftwich - "A Moment in Time." Rounder 0023, Highwoods String Band- "Fire on the Mountain." Rounder 1023, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers- "Kickapoo Medicine Show."
Sugar Barrel- Ross County Farmers. Farmer's Frolic, Marimac 9013, Cas (1987), cut# 17; Seymour, Lonnie. Seems Like Romance to Me. Traditional Fiddle Tunes from Ohio, Gambier GFS 901, LP (1985), cut#A.07; Pretty Little Girl with the Blue Dress On- Summers, John W. (Dick). Indiana Fiddler, Rounder 0194, LP (1984), cut# 10
RELATED TO: Sugar Barrel; Pretty Little Girl With the Blue Dress On;
OTHER NAMES: Nancy Roland; Little Nancy Rowland; Nancy Rollins;
SOURCES: Kaufman, Alan. Beginning Old-time Fiddle, Oak, sof (1977), p56. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 201. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 162.
NOTES: Standard AABB form. Charles Wolfe (in his notes for "Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers - Kickapoo Medecine Show") states that this tune was apparently well-known in the Atlanta area during the 1920's but that its popularity has since considerably dwindled. He believes a more archaic solo fiddle rendition was rendered by John Carson on a mid-1920's OKeh recording (#40238). It was also in the repertoire of fiddler Tommy Magness (1911-1972), born in north Georgia near the southeastern Tennessee border. The title appears (as "Nancy Rowland" and "Nancy Rollins") in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
The tune is also a traditional mountain banjo tune in the repertoire of Odell Thompson, Doc Watson, and Elizabeth Cotton. Most versions are instrumentals but here are some lyrics from the Carter Brothers:
Had a little dog his name was Rover
When he died he died all over
I had wife and she was a quaker
She wouldn't work and I wouldn't make her
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