A 1961 recording by the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers.

Pretty Little Indian

First published in 1917 -  It was described as a "Southern dialect song". The tune was featured in the 1916-1917 show "Come Out of the Kitchen".

Little Liza Jane

traditional Appalachian dance tune - hammer dulcimer and fiddle

.Marmaduke`s Hornpipe

Traditional reel from the Va and WV area of the Appalachians. The original dance tune was much slower than this version because the reel is not a fancy-step dance. With the advent of phonograph recordings and radio, early 20th Century performers made this a much faster tune to keep the audience energized.

.Paddy On The Turnpike.

A fast variation on an American folk song you've known since grade school. This is a simple square dance version of the song in which  everything happens in multiples of 4 (think: the sides of a square.) 

Since the entire song is only 8 measures long, it can get boring as a dance tune without variations, but variations that won't throw off the rhythm of the dancers. This fiddle version shifts key up and down between every 2 runs of the song (16 measures.)

That system keeps this tune fresh to the dancers, and lets them know how far away they are from the end of the tune by counting the key shifts.  These little tunes are more complicated than you thought.

.American square dance fiddle tune - Skip To My Lou

This Tennessee hills story song has it all: robbers, bravery, sloth, lost love, murder, and death. About the only thing missing is a train, mamma, and getting out of prison. This was a listening song and not a dancing song because the story in the lyrics is so important.

redpiano1