Pig In A Pen: A Song History
"Pig in a Pen" is an old-time breakdown that also carries sung verses, and the Traditional Tune Archive notes that it went on to become a favorite in bluegrass.[1] It is also known as "Pig in the Pen" and "Pig at Home in a Pen."[1] The Tennessee fiddler Fiddlin' Arthur Smith claimed to have made it up and played it often on the radio, though the collector Mike Yates judged some of its verses to be older than Smith.[1] The verses are changeable and sometimes improvised, and Yates also saw a connection to Charlie Woods's "Pretty Girl Down the Road."[1]
Karel Dujardin, Three Swine Lying in Front of a Sty, etching, 1652. Pigs in front of their sty, shown for the title; the Dutch etching has no connection to the tune.
Smith recorded it as "Pig at Home in the Pen" in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 17, 1937, singing as well as fiddling, with Alton Delmore on guitar and Rabon Delmore on tenor guitar; Bluebird released it as B-7043 under the name Arthur Smith Trio.[2] The Archive also lists it on the Musical Traditions anthology Far in the Mountains (2002), credited to Sam Connor, Dent Wimmer and others, and points to a recording by fiddler Joe Birchfield with the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers at the Digital Library of Appalachia.[1]
Phyllis Gaskins gave the tune top billing in Pig In A Pen (And Other Fiddle Ditties For Galax Dulcimer), a Fingers Of Steel book that follows her first, A Job Of Journey Work; there it sits among the G tunes, with "Do" at the third fret on a dulcimer whose strings are all tuned to D, and it is written in her own adaptation of notation for the Galax playing style.[3]
Sources
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Pig in a Pen".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-07124. Pig at home in the pen / Arthur Smith Trio".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Phyllis Gaskins, Pig In A Pen (And Other Fiddle Ditties For Galax Dulcimer)".
- Image: Karel Dujardin, Three Swine Lying in Front of a Sty, etching, 1652. The Cleveland Museum of Art.