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Alabama Gals
(See also: Alabama Gal Give The Fiddler A Dram/Alabama Gals/BUFFALO GALS "Give the Fiddler A Dram" and "Dance all Night")
Traditional Old-Time; Breakdown, Song. North Ga., central Ala.
ARTIST: Spence Moore (1919- ) Spence Moore plays guitar and sings with his cousin, Ray Nichols, on fiddle. This takes place in Mountain City, Tennessee, where they were raised. Spence now lives in Chilhowie, Virginia. Date 12/26/1974
Listen: Spence Moore- Alabama Gals
MP3: Listen Alabama Gal by J. E. Mainer
MP3: Listen To: Tanner/Puckett "Alabama Gal Give The Fiddler A Dram"
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes.
DATE: Buffalo Gals dates to Mid-1800’s. Used in the 1850’s at minstrel shows.
OTHER NAMES: (The “Buffalo” name can be changed to any city’s name, and was used as New York Gals etc.)"Round-Town Girls/Gals," “Buffalo Girls/Gals,” “Portsmouth Airs”;
RELATED MELODY: “Bear Creek Hop” "Dance All Night With a Bottle In Your Hand" "Give The Fiddler A Dram" "Alabama Gal/Gals"
RECORDING INFO: Alabama Gal
Seeger, Pete;, Mike Seeger, and Larry Eisenberg. American Playparties, Folkways FC 7604, LP (1959), trk# A.04
Alabama Gal 2
Rt - Dance All Night [with a Bottle in my Hand]
Hall, Kenny. Gray, Vykki M,; and Kenny Hall / Kenny Hall's Music Book, Mel Bay, Sof (1999), p 57
Alabama Gals [Me IV-D 3]
Us - Buffalo Gals/Gal
Alabama Girl
Kraus, Richard / Square Dances of Today, Barnes, Bk (1950), p107
Alabama Girl [Ain't You Comin' Out Tonight] [Me IV-D 3]
Us - Buffalo Gals/Gal
RECORDING INFO Buffalo Gals: Seeger, Pete;, Mike Seeger, and Larry Eisenberg. American Playparties/Play Parties, Folkways FC 7604, LP (1959), cut#A.04; Stoneking, Lee R.. Missouri Old Time Fiddling, Stoneking, LP (197?), cut#A.04 (Alabama Gals); Warren, Paul. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 12/1, p55 (Alabama Gals)
SOURCES: Lyrics from "Folk Song USA" John and Alan Lomax. Woodring and Neithammer (Pa.) [Kuntz]. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 323. Marimac Cassette, "Tuesday Nite Live." Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc.
NOTES: G Major; Irregular verses. Taken from Spence Moore, who plays guitar and sings with his cousin, Ray Nichols, on fiddle. This takes place in Mountain City, Tennessee, where they were raised. Spence now lives in Chilhowie, Virginia. Date 12/26/1974.
The first recorded version under this title (Alabama Gal/s) is the rollicking fiddle tune featuring the high falsetto lyrics and fast fiddling by Gid Tanner with Riley Puckett backing him up on the guitar. This version, recorded March 8, 1924 for Columbia in NYC shows the link between "Dance All Night With A Bottle in Your Hand" also known as "Give the Fiddler A Dram" and "Alabama Gals," a version of "Buffalo Gals."
One frequent name for “Buffalo Gals” in the south is Alabama Gals when played as a fiddle tune for dances. "G Major. Standard. AABB. This popular melody was in the repertoire of Fiddlin John Carson (north Ga., 1922) under this title. It was predicted (in the Chilton County {Ala.} News of June 1st, 1922) to "vie with the latest jazz nerve wreckers for first place" at a Chilton County convention (Cauthen, 1990). African-American fiddler Joe Thompson played this tune in GDGD tuning." Lyrics begin:
Alabama gals, won’t ya come out tonight,
Woncha come out tonight, won’t ya come out tonight?
Alabama gals, won’t ya come out tonight,
And dance by the light of the moon?
"Dance All Night With a Bottle in Your Hand" is usually in G Major. Standard. AABB (Brody, Christeson, Phillips) or AABAACCB (Kuntz, Brody). Guthrie Meade thinks the tune has some relation to "Buffalo Gals." Rosenbaum (1989) points out that the recording by Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers for Columbia was very influential, especially in Georgia (in fact, the melody is known as a north Georgia tune). His source, Georgian Lawrence Eller, learned the tune/song from family tradition and Rosenberg concludes (apparently on the strength of the floating verse about hanging Jefferson Davis) from this that the lyrics bespeak Unionist loyalties in parts of the southern Appalachians." Typical lyrics begin:
Dance all night with a bottle in your hand,
Bottle in your hand, with a bottle in your hand,
Dance all night with a bottle in your hand,
Put out the lights, give the fiddler a dram.
A fiddle tune under the title "Alabama Girls Give the Fiddler a Dram" was recorded by fiddler Henry Reed by Alan Jabbour in August 27, 1966 at Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Virginia (Giles County).
Reed's tune which resembles "West Virginia Highway" and "Ebenezer" is different than Gid Tanner's. Listen to Henry Reed; Here are some notes:
Notes: Henry Reed did not name this tune when he first played it, and the second time (AFS 13037a22) he called it "Alabama Girls Give the Fiddler a Dram." The tune is not widespread, but it has some distribution in Virginia and West Virginia. See for example the hillbilly record by Blue Ridge fiddler Kahle Brewer entitled "West Virginia Highway" (Victor 20237), and the set entitled "Ebenezer" played by West Virginian W. Franklin George on "31st Annual Old Fiddlers Convention, Galax, Virginia" (Justice JLP 1002, 1966). The tune has the feel of a country rag; note in the first strain the implied shift from tonic to dominant at the end of the second phrase, then back to tonic at the end of the fourth phrase. It shares some melodic elements with the late nineteenth-century popular tune "Climbing up the Golden Stairs."
Alabama Gals- Spence Moore
[Fiddle]
I've got girl, that's got a wart on her chin,
Mouth turned out, nose turned in
Sweet little girl for the shape she's in
And she's comin' out tonight.
[Fiddle]
I've got girl that's got a wooden leg,
Got a wooden leg, got a wooden leg
Guess that's the reason they call her, "Peg"
And she's comin' out tonight
[Fiddle]
I've got girl that lives up a hill.
Lives up a hill, lives up a hill
*She plumb tired me out but I love her still
And she's comin' out tonight
[Fiddle]
*Also sung here: She's a moonshiner's daughter but I love her still
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