Sally Johnson: A Song History

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"Sally Johnson" is a G-major breakdown known across a broad stretch of the United States; the Traditional Tune Archive lists versions from Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia west to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa.[1][2] Marion Thede's The Fiddle Book (1967) tells of a fiddler who learned it in 1884 from a seventy-year-old man, who in turn had picked it up at about age ten.[1] The Texas fiddler Eck Robertson, credited with the first country recording session, recorded it for Victor in the early 1920s as a medley with "Billy in the Low Ground," later issued as Victor 19372.[3][4][1] Despite the similar name, "Sally Ann Johnson" is a separate tune.[2]

Color photograph of a fiddler and a young woman with a guitar playing for a square dance

Russell Lee, “Orchestra at square dance in McIntosh County, Oklahoma,” color slide, 1939 or 1940. Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

In most modern playing "Sally Johnson" is all but identical to "Katy Hill," yet the two were not always so close.[1] Mark Wilson, writing in the notes to Dwight Lamb's 2005 Rounder album, says older versions resembled each other only loosely in the second strain and started out as distinct tunes. He traces the merger to Grand Ole Opry fiddlers, who used "Sally Johnson" as a showpiece for ever-faster playing once the hoedown had drifted away from the dance floor.[1] The North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell, interviewed in 1982, saw three closely related tunes: he believed "Katy Hill" came from "Piney Woods Gal," and "Sally Johnson" from "Katy Hill."[5] Drew Beisswenger has also pointed out likenesses to "Lady on a Steamboat."[1] Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer collection Join the Jam II includes both "Sally Johnson" and "Katy Hill."[6]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Sally Johnson (1)".
  2. The Fiddler's Companion (ibiblio.org): "Sally Ann [1]" (tune entries Sally to Salv).
  3. Bluegrass Today: "Eck Robertson at the Crossroads of American Fiddling".
  4. Wikipedia: "Eck Robertson".
  5. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Katy Hill (1)".
  6. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam II".