Annotation:Old Time Cinda

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X:1 T:Old Time Cinda S:Alonzo Elvis "Tony" Alderman (1900-1983, western Virginia, with the Hill Billies) M:C| L:1/8 D:OKeh 40294 (78 RPM), The Hill Billies (1925) F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/old-time-cinda Z:Andrew Kuntz K:D f2-|fga2 a3f|a2f2- fed2|eddd d2d2|(ef2)g fef2-| fga2 a3f|a2f2- fed2|ed2d ef e2|1d6:|2 [M:3/2] d6 (3ABcd2d2|| |:[M:C|]B3c B2A2|BABc d2dB|A3B A2F2-|F2A2d2d2| B3c B2A2|BABc d2d2|1f2e2 d4-|d2 (3ABc d2d2:|2 [M:2/4]f2e2|[M:C|]d6||

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L to R: Al Hopkins, Joe Hopkins, Alonzo Elvis Alderman, John Rector, Uncle Am Stuart, and Fiddlin' John Carson, at the Mountain City, Tenn., fiddler's convention, May, 1925, a few months after The Hill Billies recorded in New York City. Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library Special Collections, UNC.

OLD TIME CINDA. American, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'. "Old Time Cinda" is a dance-tempo version of the song "Cindy (1)," slightly altered and 'crooked' (irregular measures at the cadences of both parts). Bascom Lamar Lunsford called "Old Time Cinda" "a crakerjack party tune" . It was recorded in January, 1925, by the group The Hill Billies (known also at various times as Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters and Al Hopkins' Original Hill Billies). The word 'hill billy' had been used before in songs, but, as Tony Russell remarks, "'Silly Bill' and 'Old Time Cinda' can claim to be are the first recordings by musicians who called themselves hillbillies."

Although some members of the group changed over time, the personnel on the "Old Time Cinda" recording were bothers Al and Joe Hopkins (piano and guitar), John Rector (banjo) and Alonzo Elvis "Tony" Alderman. The Hopkins brothers (with the addition of brothers Elmer and John) had formed a quartet group that played regularly in Washington D.C.'s majestic theater, and John Rector had recorded previously, and all hailed from northwestern North Carolina (Wautauga County) and southwestern Virginia (Grayson & Carroll Counties). The brothers often vacationed at the family farm in Gap Creek, North Carolina, and the eldest brother, Jacob, a surgeon and musician, ran a rural hospital/clinic in Galax. In the spring of 1924, while visiting Jacob, Joe met journeyman barber Tony Alderman in his shop in Galax and the two of them became a trio with brother Al. Galax storeowner John Rector joined them soon after. Their first recording session, in New York in 1924, was not successful due to problems with the recording technology, but their January, 1925, session, which produced "Old Time Cinda," "Silly Bill" and other numbers was more successful.