Annotation:Dolly
X:1 T:Dolly S:W.H. "Fiddling Bill" Stepp (1875-1947, Lakeville, Magoffin County, Ky.) M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel Q:"Fast" N:Stepp bounces the bow in the first strain. D:Library of Congress AFS 01568 B01, W.H. Stepp (1937) F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/dolly Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G V:1 clef=treble name="1." [V:1] [G2B2]AG E2Ee|dBAG EG[GB]A|[G2B2]AG E2 eB|dBAF G2[EA]F| [G2B2][GA]G E2eB| dBAG EG[GB]A|[G2B2][GA]G E2 eB|dBAF G2 || |:ef|g2ef g2eg|fefg afdd|g2 ef g2dc|BGAG EGGB| g2 ef gfeg|fefg afdf |bgaf g2ed|BGAG EGG:|
DOLLY. AKA and see - Stumptown Dolly, Stumptailed Dolly. American, Reel. USA; Magoffin County, Ky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB. "Dolly" is generally considered a regional eastern Kentucky tune. Jeff Titon (2001) says John Salyer (1882-1952) recorded a similar version of this local tune as "Stumptailed Dolly." John lived not far from the home of Titon/Phillip's source, William Hamilton Stepp (1875-1947), and the two played together frequently, sharing some of their respective repertoires. Stepp was recorded for the Library of Congress by the Lomax's in October, 1937, and his version can be heard on AFS 568. The original title of "Dolly" may or may not have been "Stumptailed Dog," named so by Salyer's father Morgan, who had a bob-tailed dog named Dolly (according to former Magoffin County fiddler Glen Fannin, who played a version for collector Bruce Greene). Other Kentucky fiddlers simply knew the tune as "Dolly." Fiddler George Hawkins (1904-1991) also had a version of "Dolly," according to collector John Harrod. Stump Tailed Dolly has another meaning--it is the slang name for the poss stick, or paddle, and dolly tub employed when washing clothes the old-fashioned way. It could well be that the several names ("Dolly", "Stump-Tailed Dolly," "Stumptown Dolly," "Stumptailed Dog") have simultaneous meanings, or, a perhaps a the result of deliberate pun or association (as with Morgan Salyer's dog). Whether or not this is true, the tune name "Stump-tailed Dolly" predates all of the above named sources. A tune by this name was briefly mentioned in the Reminiscences of General Basil W. Duke C.S.A.[1], where he talks about the mustering of Kentucky men at the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861. They gathered at a place called Camp Boone, where local man, Mr. Scott, went to view them. Basil wrote:
There were about seven hundred men there, armed with one hundred and fifty flint-lock muskets. The largest body of soldiers Scott had ever previously seen was the Clarksville guards. On the 4th of July last past he had witnessed that gallant corps--sixty-five strong, not counting the captain--march down the streets of Clarksville in serried column, with two drummers and a bandy-legged fifer playing alternately "Stump-tailed Dolly" and the "Girl I Left Behind Me."
Modesto, Illinois, fiddler Howard Sims (1896-1977) also played a tune he called "Stumptailed Dog" but it is a different tune than the "Dolly" melody discussed here.
