Annotation:Little Peg n' Awl
X:1 T:Little Peg n' Awl N:From the playing of fiddler Melvin Wine (1909-2003, Copen, Braxton County, N:central West Virginia) on a Berea College performance video. N:Wine plays with a pronounced backbeat. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel Q:"Fast" D:https://soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/7671 Z:Andrew Kuntz K:Ador [Ae]B|{B}cBA(B cB)AB|cAE[G,G]- [G,2G2][G,2D2]-|[G,G]ABG ABAG|EDEJ[AA]- [A2A2]AB| cBA(B cB)AB|cAE[G,G]- [G,2G2][G,D][G,D]|[G,G]ABG ABAG|EDE[AA]-[A2A2]|| |:[A2A2]-|[AA]B-cd efgf|edBd- d2ef-|gfgA Bded|EF(G[AA])- [A2A2]:|
LITTLE PEG N' AWL. AKA - "Peg n' Awl," "Peggin Awl." AKA and see "Jenny on the Railroad," "Route (The)." American, Reel (cut time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB. The pegging awl was a tool of the a cordwainer's trade, used to make holes for wooden pegs. The Carolina Tar Heels recorded a (musically unrelated) song called "Peg and Awl" ((Victor V-40007) in 1928, about the rejoicing of a shoemaker when a machine is invented that reduces the toil of wielding the implements to make shoes. The song[1] was also in the repertory of North Carolina musicians J.E. Mainer and his Mountaineers, Hobart Smith and Clarence Ashley, Pete Seegar, and, more recently, Bruce Molsky.
Musically, the tune is closely related--probably cognate--with southwest Virginia fiddler Henry Reed's "Route (The)" and "Jenny on the Railroad." See also Bruce Greene's "Colonel Crocket (1). " Texas Confederate Capt. M.J. Bonner's "Gal on the Log (2)", recorded in 1925, may also prove to be of this tune family.
- ↑ There is also an traditional English song called "Pegging Awl" which dates the machines arrival in the very early 19th century (“In the year of Eighteen and one…”), but it is unrelated to American songs/tunes of that title.