The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee
The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee , often called The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee , is an American song that first became popular in vaudeville and became the standard track in old-time music and bluegrass after Charlie Poole's 1925 recording .
The song is about love and death. The singer reports on finally returning to his old home, the "Sunny Tennessee", and seeing his beloved Mary again. He remembers the happy times he spent in Tennessee, but when the train pulls into the station he only sees his relatives, not Mary. The piece ends with the mother telling the singer that Mary has died.
history
Emergence
There are various details about the origin of the song. All sources agree that 1899 was the year of origin. Many sources as well as the contemporary covers of the sheet music editions of the publisher Joe Stern Publishing name Harry Braisted (text) and Stanley Carter (melody) as authors, while Wayne Peas in his book Backpocket Bluegrass Song Book names Henry Berdan and Frederick J. Redcliff. The song was first recorded in the same year by Byron G. Harlan, who made a wax cylinder recording for Edison Records (Edison 5716), which was followed in 1900 by the Duo Sweet & Zimmerman for Edison . In 1901 Harlan played The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee with Frank Stanley again for Columbia Records . At the beginning of the century, the piece became popular in vaudeville through a singing comedian called "The Little Magnet". However, comparatively few recordings were made between 1899 and 1925.
Recordings by folk musicians
On July 27, 1925, the old-time musician Charlie Poole selected for his first session for Columbia, among others, The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee , that he recorded as The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee . He was accompanied by Posey Rorer on fiddle and Norman Woodlieff on guitar , known as the North Carolina Ramblers . The recording was released with I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World and sold 65,000 copies, giving The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee in particular a huge boost in popularity among rural southern musicians.
Countless old-time musicians recorded the piece between 1925 and 1939, including Ernest Stoneman (1927), Asa Martin and James Carson (née James Roberts) (1931), the Red Fox Chasers (1929), the Floyd County Ramblers , the Dixon Brothers (1936) and many more. The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee went through the many cover versions in the late 1930s, when traditional old-time music merged with bluegrass, into this same genre and became a bluegrass classic in the following years. To this day, the song is part of the repertoire of numerous bluegrass bands. In addition, a parody entitled Bulldog Down in Tennessee was created back in the 1920s . Also, Down on the Farm and I'll Be There, Mary Dear share similarities. The latter was also recorded by Charlie Poole.
Cover versions
Apart from the artists mentioned above, numerous other musicians and groups recorded the piece. Some of them are Jenks Carman , Rusty York , Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson , Wade Mainer , Bill Clifton or Norman Blake .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Folk Ballad Index
- ↑ Wayne Peas: Backpocket Bluegrass Song Book , p. 32
- ^ Tonny Russell: Country Music Records (2001), p. 699; Oxford University Press