Sandy River Belle: A Song History

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Several different fiddle tunes share the name "Sandy River Belle." The one discussed here is a breakdown in G (some play it in A) tied to the Blue Ridge of southern Virginia.[1] Ken Perlman placed its home around the small town of Meadows of Dan in Patrick County, and Tom Carter and Blanton Owen (1976) found it so widely played in that county that it might fairly be called the area's old-time anthem; they also traced its popularity north through Franklin and Floyd Counties and on into West Virginia, while Krassen (1973) described it as fairly common around Galax.[1] Other tunes with the same title include one in D, recorded for the Library of Congress from Osey and Ernest Helton in 1941 and also recorded by Clark Kessinger,[2] and a separate version that Charley La Prade's Blue Ridge Highballers recorded for Columbia in 1926.[3] None of these should be confused with "Sandy Boys," a modal West Virginia tune in A.[4]

Abbott H. Thayer painting of a young woman in a white dress, about 1898

Abbott H. Thayer, Young Woman, oil on canvas, about 1898. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A young woman of the period; the painting is not connected to the tune.

The familiar version comes down from a Patrick County family band. During Ralph Peer's recording sessions for Victor in Bristol, Tennessee, in August 1927, the group, also known as the Shelor Family, recorded it with banjo player J. B. "Dad" Blackard, two Shelor fiddlers, one of them Jesse Shelor, and pianist Clarice Blackard Shelor.[1][5] The record was issued on Victor 21130 under Dad Blackard's name.[1] According to Clarice Blackard Shelor's later account, the family had played the tune without words until the Victor staff wanted a vocal, since singing records sold better, and Dad Blackard produced lyrics more or less there in the studio.[1][5]

Later in the century the tune reached revival musicians through print and reissues. It was notated in Krassen's 1973 collection from the playing of Frank George and Henry Reed, and later appeared in books such as Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) and The Portland Collection (1997); County Records reissued the 1927 band's recording.[1] Among mountain dulcimer players, it appears in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam, a collection of popular tunes from the dulcimer jam tradition.[6]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Sandy River Belle (2)".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Sandy River Belle (1)".
  3. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Sandy River Belle (3)".
  4. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Sandy Boys".
  5. Encyclopedia Virginia: "Bristol Sessions (1927), The" by Gregg D. Kimball.
  6. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam DAD Tuning".