Annotation:Sweeping the Town
SWEEPING THE TOWN. AKA and see “Good One (The).” American, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (Johnson): AA'BB (Phillips). Phillips (1994) remarks this is a new name for an old tune (without naming the original), although the source and provenance remain obscure. "Sweeping the Town" is said to be a modern breakdown conversion of a c. 1701 Playford jig called “Queen's Jig (The),” but the resemblance is superficial rather than derivative and the tunes are not cognate. In any case, a more compelling case can be made for the reel as an adaption of the 19th century Irish jig "Kitty McGee." The reel has similar melodic material to "Goodbye Liza Jane" and Kirk Sutphin’s “Virginia Reel,” and some think it also bears resemblance in the beginning to “Spotted Pony.” Seattle fiddler Armin Barnet is credited with the title from an off-hand remark he made about the tune, something to the effect that “that tune sure has gotten popular all of a sudden. It’s sweeping the town.”
