Dinah: A Song History

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More than one piece of music answers to the name "Dinah." Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index lists two different traditional tunes by that title, separately from the popular song "Dinah," which it credits to Sam Lewis, Joe Young and a third composer.[1] The Traditional Tune Archive describes the old-time "Dinah" as an American reel in A major, played in standard fiddle tuning, also known as "Go to Sleep John Dinny," and places it in a family of tunes that includes "Heel Flies" and "Seneca Square Dance."[2] The folklorist Samuel Bayard found a sung version in southwestern Pennsylvania and noted that it served as a dance tune as well, and Miles Krassen printed the fiddle tune in his 1973 collection Appalachian Fiddle.[2]

Photograph of an Appalachian dulcimer with a long, waisted body and dark red finish

Charles Napoleon Prichard, Appalachian Dulcimer, wood, metal, late 19th century. Shown for its subject, the mountain dulcimer; it has no connection to the song.

Keefer's index links one "Dinah" to "Bowling Green," with a 1968 recording by the Hollow Rock String Band, and the other to "Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe?" and "Cindy," with a 1972 recording of Aunt Jenny Wilson and a David Holt album on the Heritage label.[1] The two indexes do not group the recordings the same way: the Tune Archive lists that Holt album under its single "Dinah," alongside Krassen's printed version.[1][2] The Tune Archive also suggests that "Dineo," the name used in Franklin and Floyd counties of southwestern Virginia, may be a variant of "Dinah"; Herbert Halpern recorded it for the Library of Congress in 1939 from the Houston Bald Knob String Band of Franklin County, playing for a dance.[3]

Phyllis Gaskins includes "Dinah" among the A-key tunes in Galax Dulcimer: A Job Of Journey Work, a book of 42 tunes in the Galax style of mountain dulcimer playing, with all strings tuned to D, published by Fingers Of Steel.[4] The sources consulted here do not say which of these "Dinah" tunes her setting follows.[1][2][4]

Our book that contains the song "Dinah"

Sources

  1. Jane Keefer, Folk Music Index: "Dinah".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Dinah".
  3. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Dineo".
  4. Fingers Of Steel: "Phyllis Gaskins, Galax Dulcimer: A Job Of Journey Work".
  5. Image: Charles Napoleon Prichard, Appalachian Dulcimer, wood, metal, late 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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