Suzanna Gal: A Song History

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"Suzanna Gal" (also spelled "Susanna" or "Susannah Gal") is an old-time fiddle tune associated with the country around Galax, in Grayson County, Virginia, and Mount Airy, North Carolina. The Traditional Tune Archive calls it a Galax standby, a dance tune of that region known in several variants and under a number of titles, among them "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," "Blue Eyed Girl," and "Western Country."[1] The sources consulted here draw no link between it and Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna."

1920 photograph of two automobiles on a ferry crossing the New River in Grayson County, Virginia

Crossing the New River, Grayson Co. Va., American National Red Cross photograph, 1920. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. Grayson County is home to Galax, where the tune was a standby; the photograph itself has no link to the tune.

An early recording came out of the 1927 Bristol sessions. On August 3 of that year, in Bristol, Tennessee, Victor recorded the tune by a family band of Shelors and Blackards from Meadows of Dan in Patrick County, Virginia. Victor issued it on record 21130 as by Dad Blackard's Moonshiners, while two of the four sides the group cut that day were credited to the Shelor Family.[2][3] In August 1941 Alan and Elizabeth Lomax recorded Grayson County fiddler Emmett Lundy (1864–1953) playing it at Galax for the Library of Congress, a recording later reissued on the 1977 LP Fiddle Tunes from Grayson County, Virginia.[4][5] The Tune Archive, citing Tom Carter and Barry Poss, groups Lundy's version with the Patrick County form of the tune, whose high part is nearer to "Sally Ann" than the Grayson and Surry county versions, which made him unusual among Grayson County players.[5]

The Tune Archive also lists recordings of it on County Records by Tommy Jarrell (1901–1985) of Mount Airy, both solo and with Fred Cockerham; Jarrell was known for keeping alive the fiddle styles and repertory his region had played before 1925.[1][6] It has also served as dance music: at a 2011 Southern Appalachian square-dance workshop at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, it accompanied the figure "Thread the Needle."[7]

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Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Susannah Gal (1)".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-39762. Suzanna gal / Dad Blackard's Moonshiners".
  3. Cardinal News: "Shelor family keeps Bristol Sessions heritage alive".
  4. Mainly Norfolk: "Emmett W. Lundy: Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia".
  5. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Susannah Gal (2)".
  6. NCpedia: "Jarrell, Thomas Jefferson".
  7. Square Dance History Project: "Southern Appalachian squares: Thread the Needle".