“Birchfield’s Sally Ann” is a version of the traditional Appalachian tune “Sally Ann,” shaped by the East Tennessee fiddler Joe Birchfield. Birchfield, of the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, played a distinctive solo-fiddle setting of the old reel that came to carry his name.
“Sally Ann” is an old breakdown and play-party tune of the upland South, related to “Sail Away Ladies” and thought to date to the mid-nineteenth century. Birchfield’s version keeps the rough, archaic feel of the old-time tradition rather than the smoother bluegrass treatment.
The tune is a favorite among old-time fiddlers, who prize Birchfield’s setting in particular.
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