Oh, Miss Liza, Poor Gal: A Song History
"Oh, Miss Liza, Poor Gal" belongs to the large family of "Liza Jane" tunes; the Traditional Tune Archive files the Tenneva Ramblers' "Miss Liza Poor Gal" under "Goodbye Liza Jane," a reel in 2/4 time most often played in A.[1] Dan Gutstein's book Poor Gal: The Cultural History of Little Liza Jane follows the whole song family, which its publisher says probably began among enslaved people on Southern plantations.[2] That description adds that some variants passed to soldiers in the Civil War and to the blackface minstrel stage, and that sheet music, radio, film and recordings later spread the family further.[2]
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., A-4 Mandolin, spruce, birch, mahogany, ivoroid, mother-of-pearl and nickel silver, 1917. A mandolin of the string-band era, shown for the instrument heard on the 1927 recording; it has no connection to that record.
The Tenneva Ramblers recorded "Miss 'Liza, Poor Gal" for Victor in Bristol, Tennessee, on August 4, 1927, in a session supervised by Ralph Peer.[3] Jack Pierce played fiddle, Jack Grant mandolin and Claude Slagle banjo, while Claude Grant sang, played guitar and took the arranger's credit on Victor 21141.[3] Citing Charles Wolfe, the Tune Archive pairs this record with the Hill Billies' 1926 "Mountaineers Love Song" as two influential records that widened the tune's popularity among early country musicians.[1] The Tune Archive also reports that Bob Wills said the first piece he learned on fiddle was "Goodbye, Miss Liza Jane."[1] Other recordings listed there include ones by Kyle Creed, Bobby Hicks, and Reno and Smiley.[1]
Phyllis Gaskins prints it in Pig In A Pen (And Other Fiddle Ditties For Galax Dulcimer), a Fingers Of Steel book written in her own adapted notation for the Galax style; it falls among the A tunes, where she suggests a partial capo on the drone strings at the first fret, and the book also explains how to play its songs in DAD tuning.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Goodbye Liza Jane (1)".
- University Press of Mississippi: "Poor Gal: The Cultural History of Little Liza Jane".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-39772. Miss 'Liza, poor gal / Tenneva Ramblers".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Phyllis Gaskins, Pig In A Pen (And Other Fiddle Ditties For Galax Dulcimer)".
- Image: Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., A-4 Mandolin, spruce, birch, mahogany, ivoroid, mother-of-pearl and nickel silver, 1917. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.