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Little Betty Ann/Betty Ann/Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Traditional Old-Time Breakdown and Song; North Carolina, US;
ARTIST: Sung by Mike Seeger
Listen: "Little Betty Ann" Mike Seeger
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (dates back to 1800s through Fly Around)
RECORDING INFO: Seeger, Mike. Music From the True Vine, Mercury SRMI-627, LP (1972), cut# 10; Sovine, Melanie. Appalachian Folk Music, Sovine WHA-0142LP, LP (197?), cut#A.01; Ashby, John; and the Free State Ramblers. Fiddling by the Hearth, County 773, LP (1979), cut# 12; Ashby, John. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 18/4, p49; Ashlock, Jesse. Texas Sand; Anthology of Western Swing, Rambler 101, LP (198?), cut# 13; Chapman, Owen "Snake". Fiddle Ditty, June Appal JA 0061C, Cas (1990), cut# 8;
OTHER NAMES: “Betty Ann” "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss," ‘Western Country,” "Polly Ann." “Blue-Eyed Girl,” "Susannah Gal," "Blue Eyed Miss," “Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink”
RELATED TO: "Shady Grove," “Liza Jane” “Weevily Wheat" (floating lyrics); "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)" (floating lyrics); "Up and Down the Railroad Track" (floating lyrics); "Missus in the Big House" (meter). “Say, Darling, Say;” “Where Are You Going;” “Washing Mama's Dishes;” “Black Jack Davy” (Tune); “Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees,”
SOURCES: From English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians, Sharp, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 78 (Betty Ann); From “Far in the Mountains” web-site;
NOTES: "Betty Anne" is one of the earliest collected Appalachian versions of "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss." Cecil Sharp collected one set of Little Betty Ann from Ellie Johnson of Hot Springs, Madison County, NC, in 1916. The 1916 date precedes Samantha Bumgarner's 1924 recording entitled "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss," by eight years. There are many floater fiddle tune lyrics with "Shady Grove," "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss," and "Polly Ann" in this fiddle-tune family.
“As Inez (see version 2) explained to me, the song really comprises a collection of 'floating' verses which are often used as mnemonics for fiddle-tunes. Inez Chandler's final verse is more often associated with the song Liza Jane.” (Mike Yeats)
LITTLE BETTY ANN- Mike Seeger
Listen: "Little Betty Ann" Mike Seeger
[Banjo]
Little Betty Ann is a pretty little girl
Neither black or brown
Just looks like a thuderhead,
Before the rain comes down.
Step light my little Betty Ann,
Step light I say.
Step light my little Betty Ann,
I'm bound to go my way.
[banjo]
Going away, comin' back again,
If I go ten thousand miles.
Going away, comin' back again
If I don't get sick and die.
[banjo]
If you was to take sick my love
And die so far from home.
Through it all your aching head
Or hear your pitiful morn.
If I was to take sick my love
And die so far from home
I'd lay my head all under a rock,
So I could hear my horn.
[banjo]
Step light my little Betty Ann,
Step light I say.
Step light my little Betty Ann,
I'm bound to go my way.
[banjo]
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