“SALLY ANN”

 

Frequently played in old-time fiddle sessions and common in bluegrass music, “Sally Ann” is a traditional fiddle tune and dance song, particularly popular in Surry County, North Carolina. Some have even referred to it as Surry County’s "national anthem".

 

Deeply rooted within African American and Southern Appalachian folk traditions, “Sally Ann” is an upbeat, commonly played square dance reel. Like many traditional old-time tunes, “Sally Ann” relies on floating verses; stanzas that shift between different songs. This allows dancers to focus more on the song’s rhythmic-momentum, rather than the lyrics themselves. 

 

“Sally Ann” exists in many variations and has been played in different keys and tunings. In 1918, the prominent English folklorist Cecil Sharp collected a variant titled, “Sally Anne”, gathered from Mrs. Delie Hughes of Cane River, Burnsville, North Carolina. Sharp categorized her version as a jig (see Figure 1).

 

On January 15, 1925, the first recording of "Sally Ann" was made for the Okeh Record Company in New York City by The Hill Billies, a pioneering radio and vaudeville act from North Carolina and Virginia (see Recommended Listening).

 

The version of “Sally Ann” being played today is modeled after a 1927 recording made in a small hotel in Atlanta. Sixteen-year-old fiddler Walter “Frank” Blevins from Ashe County, North Carolina, along with his older brother Edd (not a typo) and neighbor Fred Miller, visited the Columbia Phonograph Company’s makeshift studio and recorded one of the most exuberant performances in country music history (see Figure 2).

 

For this landmark recording, Blevins sang his own distinctive arrangement of the tune's traditional floating verses, demonstrating how old-time musicians dynamically mixed and matched stanzas to build rhythmic momentum (see Figure 3).

 

According to historical accounts of the recording session, Columbia A&R man (artist and repertoire) Frank B. Walker named the group “Frank Blevins and His Tar Heel Rattlers” and paid them $450 - roughly $8,500 today - for their travel and performance. As was standard for the era, most musicians were paid a flat session fee and did not receive ongoing royalty payments.

 

 

The following anecdote, adapted from a historical feature on the band in The Devil’s Box, takes place during their 1928 tour of West Virginia coal country:

sometime in January of 1928, while touring coal camps in West Virginia, the boys entered a music store in hopes of buying one of their records, which they had learned had become available. The lady proprietor was expecting a delivery.

Once the records arrived, the first one she played was one of Frank’s own compositions. While she praised the fiddling on the record, Frank indicated the performance was lacking. She then brought some instruments from the back room

for the boys, and Frank began fiddling and singing. When he finished the lady asked him how he learned the record so quickly. Frank replied, “Lady, I didn’t learn it - I made it”.

 

Blevins could fiddle, dance, and sing simultaneously—a talent he shared with his father, Avery, who also played the fiddle. He won several major fiddle and band contests, including the 1933 White Top Folk Festival. He fiddled his way to a tie for first prize, and won the band contest with his brother Edd and banjoist/furniture worker Jack Reedy (formerly of the Hill Billies and Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers). He was awarded cash and blue ribbons by festival attendee, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt was so impressed with the musicians that she invited them to Washington.

 

Paramount News filmed the Blevins boys at the foot of Mrs. Roosevelt’s cabin door while playing "Cluck Old Hen" and “Flop Eared Mule”. This footage was unfortunately lost. After the festival, the group gained in popularity and continued performing at shows and on the radio, as the Southern Buccaneers. The band augmented its lineup in 1934 by including guitarist Corwin Matthews from Radford, Virginia who had also attended the festival. The group played in towns in Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio. Blevins and company also performed at the Virginia State Choral Festival in 1928 (see Photo Gallery) and in 1931 (see Figure 4).

 

Eventually, the Blevins brothers joined up with guitarists Glen Roy and Dock Jones; and bassist Charles Sapp to form the Southern Mountaineers, with Frank as manager/fiddle player, and Edd on banjo (see Figure 5).

 

Though it has been reported that Blevins withdrew from the professional music circuit in 1944 due to the loss of both his brother and friend Jack Reedy, reports in old newspapers reveal he made guest appearances the following year. One such event occurred at the Kiwanis Club in Marion, Virginia, where Blevins and guitarist Ed Surface entertained the club’s members.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1. Cecil Sharpe’s transcription of a variant of “Sally Ann” from   

Mrs. Delie Hughes at Cane River, Burnsville, N.C., Oct. 9, 1918

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2. “Sally Aim” – Frank Blevins and his Tar Heel Rattlers –

Columbia 78rpm 15765-D; recorded in Atlanta, November 8, 1927

 

  • Photograph: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum
  • Hatch Show Print: Reproduction courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum / Hatch Show Print

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRANK BLEVINS’ LYRICS TO “SALLY ANN”

 

Shake that little foot Sally Ann

Goin’ to the weddin’ Sally Ann (Whoo!)

 

Down the corner, playin’ in the sand,

All night long with Sally Ann (Whoo!)

 

Shake that little foot Sally Ann

I’m a-goin’ home with Sally Ann. (Whoo!)

 

Long as you can catch em’, put ‘em in the pan

Always supper with Sally Ann. (Whoo!)

 

Shake that little foot Sally Ann

I’m a-goin’ home with Sally Ann. (Whoo!)

 

Shake that little foot Sally Ann

I’m a-goin’ home with Sally Ann. (Whoo!)

 

Figure 3. Lyrics to "Sally Ann" (transcribed by Mark Farrell at slow speed from the original 1927 Columbia 78rpm recording by Frank Blevins and his Tar Heel Rattlers).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4a. Official Program, Virginia State Choral Festival 1931 (Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, albemarlehistory.org).

 

Figure 4b. 1931 Virginia State Choral Festival program, showing Part IV, including Frank and Ed Blevins (Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, albemarlehistory.org).

 

 

 

Figure 5. The Skyland Post, West Jefferson, N.C., April 25, 1940 (courtesy of Newspapers.com).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTO GALLERY

 

 

 

Frank Blevins and Brother Edd, Marion Virginia, 1930

(photo courtesy of Marshall Wyatt – Old Hat Records).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Frank Blevins 1930 (photo courtesy of Marshall Wyatt –

 Old Hat Records).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White Top Folk Festival with Eleanor Roosevelt (top center), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (guitar), and six-year-old mandolin sensation Muriel Dockery, August 12, 1933 (photo from the Library of Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White Top Folk Festival with Eleanor Roosevelt (upper center), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), and six-year-old mandolinist Muriel Dockery, August 12, 1933 (photo from the Library of Virginia).    

 

 

 

White Top Folk Festival, Grayson County, Virginia, August 12, 1933. Seated (L to R): Fred Roe (fiddle), Frank Blevins (seated with fiddle behind Roe), Henry Roe (banjo), and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (seated right-center) with festival attendees. Photo published in Music Clubs Magazine, Vol. XIII, Number 1, Page 25, September – October 1933.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                

 

 

 

 

D: 04189

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to right: Corwin Matthews (resonator guitar), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), White Top Folk Festival (see Archival Update). Every effort was made to contact the heirs of Corwin Matthews regarding this photograph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1931 White Top Folk Festival: Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), and a guitarist from Delaware who could not leave there until he had learned all their tunes. Photo published in Musical Courier, April 23, 1932; in the Annabel Morris Buchanan papers #4020, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

Frank Blevins (fourth from left), possibly John Cruise (far right). White Top Folk Festival, White Top Mountain, Southwest Virginia, August 12th and 13th, 1932; image from 1932 festival broadside (Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            “FIDDLE FINALS - ADDITIONAL FINAL CONTEST”, August 18, 1934,

Frank Blevins, Marion, VA, “Arkansas Traveler” - The John A. Blakemore

Papers (04189), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, The

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

 

 

 

Frank Blevins with fiddle. A night photograph presumably taken at White Top Mountain (photo courtesy of Jackson Cunningham, Cunningham Homemade Instruments, Grant, Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frank Blevins with fiddle. A night photograph presumably taken at White Top Mountain (courtesy of Jackson Cunningham, Homemade Instruments, Grant, Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Group of fiddle contestants, including Frank Blevins (standing, second row, fourth from left). Photo originally from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce; in the Annabel Morris Buchanan papers #4020, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White Top Folk Festival with Eleanor Roosevelt (upper center), Frank Blevins (fiddle)

Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), and six-year-old mandolinist Muriel Dockery, August 12, 1933 (photo courtesy of the Grayson County Historical Society, Independence, Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White Top Folk Festival, August, 1933. Bottom row, crouched (left to right): Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), Frank Blevins (fiddle), unknown, Jack Reedy (banjo). Photo published in Norfolk and Western Magazine, Vol. 11, Page 316, Sept. 1933; in the Annabel Morris Buchanan papers #4020, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White Top Folk Festival, August, 1933. Bottom row, crouched (left to right): Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), Frank Blevins (fiddle), unknown, Jack Reedy (banjo). Photo published in Norfolk and Western Magazine, Vol. 11, Page 316, Sept. 1933.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White Top Folk Festival with Eleanor Roosevelt (top center), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), and six-year-old mandolin sensation Muriel Dockery, August 12, 1933 (photo believed to be from the Library of Virginia collection).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winners at the 1933 White Top Folk Festival. Left to right: C. B. Wholford, Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), Jack Reedy (banjo), Frank Blevins (fiddle). Photo appeared in Norfolk and Western Magazine, Roanoke, Virginia; in the Annabel Morris Buchanan papers #4020, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McIntyre Amphitheatre, University of Virginia. Virginia Choral Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia (April 14, 1928). Left to right: likely Ben Reedy (resonator guitar), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar), C.B Wholford (banjo). (Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia - VCC negative number: 3092-2, LVA accession number: 57305. Courtesy of the Library of Virginia.

 

 

 

McIntyre Amphitheatre, University of Virginia. Virginia Choral Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia (April 14, 1928). Standing (left to right), likely Ben Reedy (resonator guitar), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Jack Reedy (banjo), Edd Blevins (guitar), C. B. Wholford (banjo). In foreground, newsreel crew—likely Paramount News—filming the event. (Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia - VCC negative number: 3092-1, LVA accession number: 57298, Courtesy of the Library of Virginia).

 

 

 

McIntyre Amphitheatre, University of Virginia. Virginia Choral Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia (April 14, 1928). Left to right: Edd Blevins (guitar), Jack Reedy (banjo), Frank Blevins (fiddle), likely Ben Reedy (resonator guitar), C. B. Wholford (banjo). (Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia - VCC negative number: 3092, LVA accession number: 57306, Courtesy of the Library of Virginia). Note: This image is laterally reversed (flipped horizontally), making right-handed musicians appear left-handed.

 

 

McIntyre Amphitheatre, University of Virginia. Virginia Choral Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia (April 14, 1928). Standing left to right: C.B. Wholford (banjo), likely Ben Reedy (resonator guitar), Jack Reedy (banjo), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar). (Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia - VCC negative number: 3092-8, LVA accession number: 57299, Courtesy of the Library of Virginia).

 

McIntyre Amphitheatre, University of Virginia. Virginia Choral Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia (April 14, 1928). Seated on the platform (left to right): C. B. Wholford (banjo), likely Ben Reedy (resonator guitar), Jack Reedy (banjo), Frank Blevins (fiddle), Edd Blevins (resonator guitar). (Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia - VCC negative number: 3092-3, LVA accession number: 57304. Courtesy of the Library of Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McIntyre Amphitheatre, University of Virginia. Virginia Choral Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia (April 14, 1928). Person standing in center of performance platform believed to be Frank Blevins, with fiddle.  (Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia - VCC negative number: 3092-4, LVA accession number: 57303. Courtesy of the Library of Virginia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Southern Buccaneers (1935/36). Left to right: Edd Blevins (banjo), Corwin Matthews

(guitar), Roberta Stephenson (resonator guitar), and Frank Blevins (fiddle). Photo courtesy

of Blue Ridge Heritage Archive of Ferrum College.

 

 

The Southern Buccaneers (1935/36) “playing” each other’s instruments. Left to right:

Corwin Matthews (resonator guitar), Edd Blevins (banjo), and Frank Blevins (fiddle).

Photo courtesy of Blue Ridge Heritage Archive of Ferrum College.

 

 

 

 

Frank Blevins – 1986 – Greenville, Tennessee (photo courtesy of Blue Ridge Heritage Archive of Ferrum College).

 

 

Printed Sources:

 

Lornell, Kip. “A Talk With Walter Franklin Blevins.” The Devil’s Box, vol 21, no 1 (1987): 3-12.

 

Powell, John, April 23, 1932, “Virginia Finds Her Folk-Music,” Musical Courier (Internet Archive).

 

Seeger, Mike, June 19, 1962, Frank Buckley Walker – “Seeger-Walker Interview”, http://www.stateoffranklin.net/johnsons/oldtime/frankwalker_interview1.pdf

 

 

Spencer, Martha, 2/19/2013; “Speedy Tolliver, Whitetop Folk Festival & more”; Mountain Music Magazine,

https://mountainmusicmagazine.weebly.com/mountain-music-podcast.html

 

Wyatt, Marshall. “I Ain’t Never Heared Such A Rattlin’ Bunch!”: The Story of Frank Blevins and His Tar Heel Rattlers.” The Old-Time Herald, vol 2, no 7 (Spring 1991): 14-20.

 

 

Note on Visual Materials: The photograph on page [Number]—depicting Edd Blevins, Frank Blevins, Corwin Matthews, and Jack Reedy at the White Top Folk Festival—is part of the Charles “Bucky” Gilbert and Anne Gilbert Collection (AC-2021-001) at Appalachian State University. This material incorporates the former Anne Gilbert Collection (AC-2022-019) and was preserved by the late Alice Anne Gilbert of Glade Spring, Virginia. Because the collection is currently undergoing active archival processing to prepare it for public access, a formal permanent citation is pending completion by the Special Collections Research Center.

 

Recommended Listening:

 

Listen to “Sally Ann”, as sung by 16-year-old Frank Blevins on YouTube. Search for “Frank Blevins & His Tar Heel Rattlers-Sally Aim”. And NO, that’s not a typo. Columbia got the name wrong on the record label.

 

The Hillbillies’ 1926 recording of “Sally Ann” can be heard on YouTube. Search for “Sally Ann ~ The Hillbillies ~1926”.

 

Blevins’ fiddling with the Southern Buccaneers can be heard on YouTube. Search for “Frank Blevins plays Ida Red home recordings.” The Buccaneers on the recording were simply announced as “Frankie B” (lead fiddle), “Odell Tolliver” (2nd fiddle-shuffling), and “the Sapp Brothers” (‘Junior’ on guitar) and Blevins’ brother-in -law, Charles, a bass player whose performance cannot be verified on the recording. Recorded April 6, 1949 by Odell “Speedy” Toliver in Damascus, VA.

 

*Photos with captions have been updated for educational purposes.

 

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