Tune Req: Sandy Boys

Subject: Sandy Boys
From: Gypsy
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 11:45 PM

Well, i googled, and founds tons of tab. Does anyone have the ABC, or even better, the dots for this one? Thanks all!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sandy Boys
From: GUEST,masato sakurai
Date: 20 Aug 02 - 03:56 AM

Info on printed music from: The Fiddler's Companion:

SANDY BOYS. Old-Time, Breakdown and Song. USA; West Virginia. A Mixolydian. AEAE. ABAB'A'BAB. This has been identified as a tune from Pocahontas County, West Virginia, fiddler Edden Hammons. The original, however, appears to be in the American minstrel show repertoire, for a similar version (though different in the 'B' part from Hammonds' tune) can be found in Phil Rice's Correct Method for the Banjo (1857), a period tutor, and also appears an 1844 minstrel songbook (reproduced by Harvard Theatre College Collection, Cambridge, Mass.). Gerry Milnes has found ribald words accompanying the tune in West Virginia. The modern "revival" or "festival" version may have stemmed from a mislearning of Hammon's tune by Bob Herring. See also Missouri fiddler Gene Goforth's related "The Quail is a Pretty Bird." Sources for notated versions: Burl Hammonds (Pocahontas County, West Virginia) [Krassen]; The Hurricane Ridge Runners (Armin Barnett, Mark Graham, Jerry Gallaher & Paul Kotapish) [Songer]. Krassen (Masters of Old Time Fiddling), 1983; pg. 78-79. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 173. Marimac 9038, Dan Gellert & Brad Leftwich - "A Moment in Time." Marimac 9054, The Ill-Mo Boys - "Fine as Frog Hair" (1995). Marimac 9040, The Heartbeats - "Living in Black and White" (1990).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sandy Boys
From: Gypsy
Date: 20 Aug 02 - 09:39 PM

Masato, you are a wonder. Thanks ever so much. Friends who want it already say that i would have the history..........if it weren't for you, i wouldn't! Thanks again!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sandy Boys
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Aug 02 - 10:41 PM

Krassen's Masters of Old-Time Fiddling (Oak) is, I believe, still available. I purchased it last year.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sandy Boys
From: John Minear
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 08:58 AM

Here's something in the same neck of the woods, a version of "Cindy" that I had never seen before. It comes from THE SINGIN' GATHERIN', by Jean Thomas and Joseph A. Leeder, published by Silver Burdett Co. in 1939 (Students' Edition), from the singing and playing of Fox Fraley in Lawrence County, Kentucky, June 1911.

When I was a little lad
About six inches high,
I used to court the pretty girls,
To hear the old folks cry;

Get along down, down Big Sandy,
Get along down, down Big Sandy,
Get along down, down Big Sandy,
That's the place for you.

The say:

"This is a lively tune used with the fiddle. The "Big Sandy" referred to is the river by that name which has inspired many tunes and ballads. It empties into the Ohio River at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, the latter made famous by "Show Boat." The Big Sandy region is the richest in coal and oil in the State of Kentucky, and long before the railroad connected it with the Ohio Valley region, mountain folk traveled it by flat boat, and before that time on "push" boats." (p.20)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sandy Boys
From: MMario
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 09:40 AM

There are midis of 'Sandy boys' at Tab archive for various instruments.

If you cannot convert midi to tadpoles feel free to PM me with an e-mail address and I can send you a graphic.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sandy Boys
From: Gypsy
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 11:35 AM

Thankee kindly, MMario. pm sent! TOM, what pretty lyrics. Thanks to all for the help on this one.