Ahhh, Sally Goodin. A beautiful tune that every good fiddler should know. Iffen he don't....well, that jest ain't right. This is true, all old-time musicians should know of this song, but do they really know the history behind it?
It all started in the summer of 1922. A fiddler from Amarillo Texas, Eck Robertson by name, traveled to Richmond Virginia for the Annual Old Confederate Soldier's Reunion. Here he met a man named Henry C. Gilliland, fiddler and ex-Indian fighter. They both got the notion of traveling to New York in hopes of making records.
So they traveled past the mason-dixon and waltzed into Victor records---Eck in full Confederate uniform and Gilliland in cowboy garb. Of course, Victor really had no choice in the matter, so he recorded the duo. Out of the six songs recorded, Sally Goodin was one of them.
This song is credited for being on the first comercially-released record of country music.
The version recorded in 1922 was a solo by Eck, but here are some of the lyrics to this great song (Artus Moser's version)
I walked that road '
til the road got muddy.
I hugged Sally Goodin'
'til she couldn't stand steady.
Possum in the stump,
Rabbit in the Hollow,
Pretty Girl at our house,
As fat as she can swallow.
Cain't fool a coon,
Cain't fool a possum,
Cain't fool a coon
On a huckleberry blossom.
I looked down the road,
Saw Sally comin',
I thought to my soul,
I'd kill myself a-runnin'.
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