Little Betty Ann: A Song History

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"Little Betty Ann" is an American song and breakdown closely tied to "Shady Grove": the Traditional Tune Archive cross-references it to that song and calls its melody a near relative of it.[1] The Traditional Ballad Index likewise files a "Little Betty Ann" recording under "Shady Grove," a song it describes as having no real plot.[2] Its verses are largely floaters borrowed from other songs, and Madison County, North Carolina, singer Inez Chandler told collector Mike Yates that the song is really a gathering of such verses, which often help players remember fiddle tunes.[1][3]

A homemade-looking 19th-century banjo with a skin head and plain wooden neck

Banjo, United States, wood and various materials, 1850s. An American banjo of the 1850s, shown for the old-time music the breakdown belongs to; it has no connection to the tune.

Cecil Sharp noted a version in 1916 from Ellie Johnson of Hot Springs, in Madison County.[1][3] The Ballad Index reports that Sharp's printed "Betty Anne," in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, mixes lines from "Shady Grove," "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" and "Going Across the Sea."[2] Madison County kept the song: Yates recorded both Dellie Norton, at Sodom Laurel, and Inez Chandler, at Marshall, singing it in August 1980, and Musical Traditions issued the recordings in 2002 on Far in the Mountains.[3] The Archive also lists a recording by Mike Seeger on Music from the True Vine (1972), and Sheila Kay Adams sings it to her own banjo on the cassette A Spring in the Burton Cove.[1][4]

Don Pedi gives it in DAC tuning in Simply Old Time Dulcimer, his 63-page tablature book of traditional old-time repertoire, sold with MP3 audio for all 29 tunes.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Little Betty Ann"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Little Betty Ann".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Shady Grove".
  3. Musical Traditions: "Far in the Mountains: Volumes 3 & 4".
  4. Musical Traditions: "Sheila Kay Adams: A Spring in the Burton Cove" (review).
  5. Don Pedi: "Simply Old Time Dulcimer".
  6. Image: Banjo, United States, wood and various materials, 1850s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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