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Sally Goodin

Traditional

Style
Bluegrass
Tradition
Upland South, Texas
Form
Breakdown
Key
A
Level
3
Played on
Fiddle

In the public domain. Source

Music

90bpm

Click any note to start from there

History

Eck Robertson was the first to record it, in 1922, playing in AEae tuning and working through about thirteen different strains. The record sold better than any other country record in 1923, and Texas contest fiddlers still play long variation sets built on his. Robertson liked to introduce it with a tale about two fiddlers competing for a girl named Sally, the winner being a man named Goodin.

Kentucky fiddler Hiram Stamper told another story: the tune was once "Boatin' Up Sandy," and John Hunt Morgan's Confederate raiders renamed it for a widow named Sally Goodin who let them camp and play music at her boarding house near the Big Sandy River. Vance Randolph said it was a favorite at Ozark play parties in the 1890s.

Had a piece of pie, had a piece of puddin', Give it all away to see Sally Goodin'. Looked up the road, seen Sally comin', Thought to my soul she'd break her neck a-runnin'.
Thede

Read more on the Traditional Tune Archive