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“Raleigh and Spencer” is a traditional old-time song from the mountain country of western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. It is closely associated with the great Round Peak fiddler Tommy Jarrell, who learned it in the early 1920s and passed it on to generations of old-time musicians.
The song’s title and origins are uncertain. It is also known as “Riley and Spencer,” and the names have been variously explained — as towns, as old settler families, or as a long-vanished rail line. Like many old-time songs of the region, it appears to have been learned in part from Black musicians, and it carries the dark, brooding feeling common to the modal songs of that tradition.
“Raleigh and Spencer” has been kept alive by old-time and bluegrass players drawn to its haunting sound. The version heard here is by the Lonesome River Band, from their 2005 album “Head On Into Heartache.”
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