“East Virginia Blues” is a traditional Appalachian love-and-loss song with deep and tangled roots. Folklorists trace some of its verses to older British balladry while others are “floating” lines shared with many songs, so no single author or birthplace can be assigned to it. The lyric is a lovesick lament — a man recalling a courtship in East Virginia and the woman he could not keep.
The song first reached records in 1927, when the Kentucky banjoist and singer Buell Kazee recorded a version titled simply “East Virginia.” Through the 1930s it was cut repeatedly by string bands; a brighter, major-key way of singing it spread under the names “East Virginia Blues” and “Greenback Dollar,” with versions by Clarence Ashley and the Carter Family among others.
From the old-time tradition the song passed easily into bluegrass, where its plain melody and modal flavor made it a standard.
