Old-Time TOTW #205: Sally Ann (Tommy Jarrell) 5/29/22

This week's tune is Sally Ann from the playing of Thomas Jefferson "Tommy" Jarrell (1 March 1901--28 January 1985) of Surry Co., NC. He was the son of Benjamin "Ben" Franklin Jarrell (1880-1946) and Susan "Susie" Letitia Amburn (1882-1961). His ancestor John Jarrell (born c. 1630 in Northumberland, England) arrived in Virginia in 1654. Tommy Jarrell married Nina Frances Lowe (1904-1967) in 1923. (source: Ancestry, Find-a-Grave, and public documents)
There has been so much written about Tommy Jarrell that it would be very redundant (and impossible) for me to capture it all. I will give some highlights and include links to some further reading.
Jarrell's father was the fiddler for the string band Da Costa Woltz and His Southern Broadcasters. The band was put together by the mayor of Galax, VA, Da Costa Woltz, and they recorded nine double-sided 78 rpm records in a three-day long recording session in Richmond, IN, for Gennett in 1927. Member of that group were Frank Jenkins on banjo (and sometimes fiddle), Woltz on second banjo, Ben Jarrell on fiddle, and Price Goodson (who was 12 years old) on ukulele and harmonica.
At the age of eight, Tommy learned banjo from Baugie Cockerham, a hired hand who stayed at the Jarrell house for a year. In 1911 he began imitating others, including his father, on the fiddle. He purchased a fiddle in 1915 from money he won gambling. His father didn't push him to play fiddle, and he ended up surpassing his many siblings in musical ability.
The Jarrells played primarily in AEAE and ADAE (high bass) tuning. "Italian" tuning (standard GDAE) was less common for them.
By the time Tommy was 15, he excelled enough at fiddle to play for local dances. He often played with Charlie Lowe, who was around Ben Jarrell's age. Lowe was highly regarded as a banjo player, and he and Tommy often played duets sitting closely together. Rather than simply play each section of a tune twice, they would play each part as long as they desired, and signaled to each other with a push from their leg. Tommy would also raise his fiddle to indicate that he was moving on to the next section.
There is an anecdote related by Tommy about his proposal to his wife:
"Nina, we'll get married if you want to, but...I'll tell you right now, I make whiskey, I play poker, an' I go to dances, I make music...I don't know whether I'll ever quit that..." Nina's anwer was, "Well, I believe we can get along all right."
In the 1960s, Alan Jabbour (who was a director of the Library of Congress' American Folklife Division) visited and recorded Tommy. He then began going to national folk music festivals and more people became aware of him and his playing. Brad Leftwich also documented Tommy's life and music in his book, Old-Time Fiddle, Round Peak Style: History, Tips & Techniquies (published 2011).
Jarrell received many awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1982.
Jarrell's intricate bowing style has been come to be referred to as the "Round Peak" style. Though many of the bowing patterns were not exclusive to Jarrell, they have become synonymous with him and his playing.
The following is taken directly from Traditional Tune Archives:
"A very common Galax area tune, though Bill Hicks (1972) notes that there are many versions of it...Musician and folklorist Alice Gerrard tells this story: 'Back when I first got to Galax it seemed like everybody in the country could play an instrument. I remember going to one auction sale and this fellow was standing there--he had just walked over from across the street and was watching the sale going on, and Wade Ward handed him his fiddle and said, 'Here, play us a tune.' And the guy said, 'I don't know how to play.' Uncle Wade told him, 'Well, play Sally Ann--there's not a man alive that can't play Sally Ann.' So the fellow played 'Sally Ann', and it wasn't bad! To this day I don't know who the fellow was.' (Old Time Herald, vol. 3, No. 2, p. 30). Mt. Airy, N.C., fiddler Tommy Jarrell...recalled the tune he learned from his father, fiddler Ben Jarrell...an adaptation of the version he named "old-timey 'Sally Ann'. The newer version was rooted in the interplay between the ensemble playing of banjo and fiddle, rather than the more archaic solo fiddle style. Tommy learned the third part of the tune when he was about fourteen over the Virginia line, just north of where he lived in North Carolina, and brought it back to teach local musicians."
Joining me are friends Steve Blake, fiddle. and Paul Martin, guitar (London, England); Stephen Rapp on banjo (Kent, OH), and Dan Krise on bass (Wellsboro, PA).
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[@jeaniecreamer]

What a great group of bombastic musicians!

[@jeaniecreamer]

OK, it’s me again. I can’t love this enough! What a swingin’ version of that tune!😜😝😆

[@catherineread6673]

Love this tune! You guys are awesome! Vivi loved it too. She was smiling and laughing the whole time. 😍

[@nataliepinheiro3181]

I just saw Paul Brown play this tune with Adam Hurt and team at the Midwest banjo Camp. I am so lucky to have gotten a video of it and I play it obsessively. Did you all play this remotely from each other? I can't believe how good that works:) You all sound wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing.

[@PaulKirkFiddle]

Thanks, Natalie! We didn't play this together in real time. Steve and Paul sent me their video, and each one of us played along as we recorded ourselves. I then sync the videos. That can be tough sometimes. This one turned out very well. Glad you enjoyed it

[@CarolPearse-x7p]

Do you have a cord chart for this song?

[@PaulKirkFiddle]

the chords are just D, G, and A. Paul (the guitar player) is capoed and using C shapes, so his chord shapes are C, F, and G.