Piney Woods Gal: A Song History

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"Piney Woods Gal," also written "Pineywoods Gal," is a reel in G that the Traditional Tune Archive places in southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama; in the 1920s a tune of that name was a common one among fiddlers around Rock Ridge, Alabama.[1] In Grayson County, Virginia, its lineage is traced from Galax fiddler Green Leonard through Emmett Lundy, born in 1864, to Luther Davis.[1] When Alan Lomax interviewed Galax musicians in 1959, Charlie Higgins called it "One of the first ones I ever heard" and recalled that Eck Dunford knew who had made it and where; Lomax sensed a story behind the title, but the musicians did not supply one.[1]

A drypoint of tall, windswept pine trees lining a rural road with wooden houses behind them.

Mortimer Borne, The Pines, drypoint, 1935–43. Pines along a country road, shown for the title; it has no connection to the tune.

Lundy recorded it in New York on May 27, 1925, with Ernest V. Stoneman, and OKeh issued it on 40405; the discography lists the label title as "Piney Woods Girl" and credits Stoneman with vocal, harmonica and autoharp.[2] The Archive counts it as one of only two commercial recordings Lundy ever made.[1] Alan and Elizabeth Lomax recorded Lundy playing it again at Galax in August 1941 for the Library of Congress, and that performance later appeared on the 1977 LP Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia.[3] Tommy Jarrell of Mount Airy, North Carolina, also kept it in his repertoire, though accounts differ on where he learned it, and he likened it to "Katy Hill" and "Sally Johnson"; Luther Davis and the Tompkins County Horseflies are among the later players who recorded it.[1]

For the Galax dulcimer, Phyllis Gaskins includes it with the G tunes in Pig In A Pen (And Other Fiddle Ditties For Galax Dulcimer), a Fingers Of Steel book on Galax dulcimer playing that she also illustrated, written for all strings tuned to D, with instructions for DAD tuning as well.[4]

Our book that contains the song "Piney Woods Gal"

Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Pineywoods Gal".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix S-73377. Piney woods girl / Emmet Lundy ; Ernest V. Stoneman".
  3. Mainly Norfolk: "Emmett W. Lundy: Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia".
  4. Fingers Of Steel: "Phyllis Gaskins, Pig In A Pen (And Other Fiddle Ditties For Galax Dulcimer)".
  5. Image: Mortimer Borne, The Pines, drypoint, 1935–43. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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