Annotation:Pretty Little Shoes (2)

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PRETTY LITTLE SHOES [2]. AKA – “Frank Santy's Tune.” Old-Time, Breakdown. A Mixolydian/Major. GDgd or AEae tuning (fiddle). From the playing of West Virginia fiddlers Ward Jarvis (1894-1982), Doc White and Lester McCumber. According to Kerry Blech, Jarvis called the tune “Frank Santy’s Tune,” after his source, and had no name for it. Doc White (Ivydale, W.Va.) played a similar, but not identical tune. Blech thinks the title was fiddler Jeff Goehring’s after Clay County, West Virginia, fiddler Wilson Douglas suggested to him that it resembled a tune Wilson knew by this title. However, as Kerry points out, “Wilson's tune “Pretty Little Shoes (1)” doesn't sound remotely similar to Ward's playing of the tune that got called that.”

Ward Jarvis



Fiddler Lee Triplett, of Clay in Clay County W.Va, said "I made that 'Pretty Little Dog' and 'Pretty Little Cat' because I never could play Doc White's 'Pretty Little Shoes'.

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Hear David Brose's field recording of Ward Jarvis playing the tune at Slippery Hill [1]




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