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Yellow Gal
Old-Time Breakdown
ARTIST: Fiddle tune preformed by Hiram Stamper in key of A. Fiddle tuned aeae. Recorded in Knott County, Kentucky by Bruce Greene on March 20, 1977.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
EARLIEST DATE: porbably 1800s; 1928 recording Cousin Sally Brown
RECORDING INFO: Yeller Gal/Yellow Gals
Benford, Mac. Backwoods Banjo, Rounder 0115, LP (1979), trk# 9 (Cousin Sally Brown)
Hughey, Ron. Old Time Herald, Old Time Herald, Ser, 6/3, p37a(1998) [1965ca]
Hughey, Ron. Country Fiddlin' Ozark Style, American Heritage AH 401-511, LP (1974), trk# B.01
Ill-Mo Boys. Fine As Frog's Hair, Marimac 9054, Cas (1992), trk# 20b
Last Straw String Band. Last Straw String Band, Jack Rabbit 001, LP (197?), trk# B.03
Rustical Quality String Band. Rustical Quality String Band, Red Dog RD 8312, LP (1983), trk# A.05a
Slaughter, Matokie; and the Back Creek Buddies. Saro, Marimac 9028, Cas (1990), trk# 3 (Cousin Sally Brown)
Stecher, Jody; and Krishna Bhatt. Rasa, Rooster Rstr-115, LP (1982), trk# 5
Stecher, Jody. Snake Baked A Hoecake: Jody Stecher and Friends, Bay 203, LP (1974), trk# 8
Wagner, Pop; and Bob Bovee. Pop Wagner & Bob Bovee, Train on the Island TI 1, LP (1977), trk# A.08a
SOURCES: Folk Index; Kuntz: Pete Sutherland (VT) [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 262. Marimac 9054, The Ill-Mo Boys - "Fine As Frog Hair" (1995). Silver Circle 002, Doug Phillips & Hilary Dirlam - "Wagoner."
NOTES: Fiddle tune preformed by Hiram Stamper in key of A. Fiddle tuned aeae. Recorded in Knott County, Kentucky by Bruce Greene on March 20, 1977.
This is possibly the only time Stamper ever played this tune on the fiddle. He normally played it on the banjo, but was asked to try it out on the fiddle for this occasion. He sang a verse:
"Went to see my yellow gal
Went last Saturday night,
I asked her to marry me, she fell and broke her pipe.
Fell and broke her pipe, oh Lord, fell and broke her pipe."
It was also played on the banjo by Sanford Kelly. There is a relationship with "Yonder Comes my Love" by Jim Couch of Kentucky
Notes by Kuntz: A Mixolydian. Standard tuning. AABB. Yellow is a term applied to light-skinned African Americans or those with mulatto coloring. There is apparently a tune by this name (not printed in Phillips) that is cognate with "Buffalo Gals," popularized by Eugene Edwards. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. It is perhaps the “Yeller Gal” tune that was in the repertoire of fiddler and Confederate veteran Arnold A. Parrish (Willow Springs, Wake County, N.C.), as recorded by the old Raleigh News and Observer. Parrish was a contestant at fiddler’s conventions held in Raleigh prior to World War I.
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