Скачать или смотреть Old-Time TOTW #60: Jenny Get Around (John Salyer) 8/18/19

This week's tune is Jennie Get Around, from the playing of John Morgan Salyer (20 January 1882--18 November 1952) from Magoffin Co., KY. His ancestor, Benjamin K. Salyer (b. 1670 in France), supposedly a Huguenot with the name "DeSalier" or "Desalier," was listed as a "land owner" in Charleston, SC, 1690-1700. (source: Jana Buck Hanks and George Stokes)

John Salyer was heavily influenced by his close neighbor, and later musical partner, Willie Fletcher (b. 1871). He learned many of his tunes from Fletcher and said him to be "the sweetest and smoothest fiddler I ever heard." His son Grover recalled "He [John Salyer] played for a lot of dances...I've seen him...playing for a hoedown dance and he'd jump up and dance and play the fiddle at the same time." Another fiddler friend of John's was William Hamilton Stepp (1875-1957). Several tunes that Stepp and Salyer played in common are remarkably similar, and it's very possible that they learned some tunes from each other. Salyer's son Glen said of Stepp, "I liked to hear him play. He was considered a good fiddler, and he was. He loved to entertain people...more than Dad did." There were fiddle contests now and then in the Magoffin area, but Salyer rarely participated in them.

Salyer never recorded on any record labels, as he felt they did not share enough of the profits with the fiddlers. Glen and Grover convinced him to record many of his tunes at home in 1941-42. He was reluctant, but his sons convinced him to do it. At one point, in frustration over not recalling part of a tune, he threw his fiddle down on the bed and refused to record any more, but Glen and Grover convinced him to continue (source for all the above: Bruce Greene)

Salyer often played in cross tuning ("wildcat keys" as they were called), and employed the use of what he called "wild notes" (these days people call them "neutral thirds.") He is probably best known for his interesting crooked tunes. Jennie Get Around is no exception. People generally spell the name "Jenny," but on the handwritten record label of the home recording, the name is spelled "Jennie."

Jeff Titon (2001) says the tune is related to one of the “Liza Jane” melodies, and points out similarities between the ‘A’ part of Jenny Get Around and the ‘B’ part of Clyde Davenport’s Liza Jane. Titon calls it a regional eastern Kentucky tunes and finds it listed twice on the Berea, Kentucky, tune lists of 1915. (source: Fiddler's Companion). The part Salyer begins with on the home recording is what people generally now play as the 'B' part. In our recording here, we played the parts in the order in which Salyer played them on said recording.

Jennie Get Around is traditionally played in the key of A in cross A tuning (AEAE), but we took it down a few steps to the key of F for this recording (FCFC fiddle tuning). Joining me is Sean Fen on guitar (Marion, OH).

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