Julie Ann Johnson: A Song History

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The best-documented source of "Julie Ann Johnson" is Emmett Lundy (1864–1953), a fiddler from the Galax area of southwest Virginia.[1] In August 1941, when he was 77, a Library of Congress recording team that included Alan Lomax recorded him at his home in Galax, with two of his sons backing him on guitar and banjo.[1][2] Much of what Lundy played came from Greenberry "Green" Leonard, a Grayson County fiddler of an earlier generation, born before the Civil War, whom Lundy heard as a young man.[1][2] His "Julie Ann Johnson" is a D-major reel, and he pointed out one feature of it himself: it "has no 'G' chord in it."[1] In 1977 String Records issued a selection of the 1941 tunes and conversations as Fiddle Tunes from Grayson County, Virginia, which opens with this tune.[2][3]

1937 photograph of Galax musician Wade Ward seated with his banjo

“Wade Ward of Bog Trotters Band, with banjo, Galax, Virginia,” photograph, 1937. Lomax Collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

The title covers more than one melody. The Fiddler's Companion separates Lundy's tune from another D-major Virginia reel of the same name, and notes a third, coastal North Carolina breakdown that is only a distant variant of that reel.[4] That second version has been printed in fiddle collections such as Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1994) and The Portland Collection (1997), and recorded by Ray Bierl and by Gerry Milnes with others.[4][5] Separately, a Library of Congress catalog card documents a "Julie Ann Johnson" sung with guitar by Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly), recorded by John A. Lomax at the state prison farm in Angola, Louisiana, in July 1934; the sources consulted here do not connect that song to the fiddle tunes.[6] "Julie Ann Johnson" is included in Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer collection Join the Jam II.[7]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Julianne Johnson (2)".
  2. Slippery-Hill: "Emmett Lundy".
  3. AllMusic: "Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia".
  4. The Fiddler's Companion (Andrew Kuntz): "JR - JZ".
  5. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Julianne Johnson (1)".
  6. Library of Congress: "Julie Ann Johnson" (Archive of Folk Culture card catalog).
  7. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam II".