"Sandy River" is an American reel in cut time and A major. This tune comes from North Carolina fiddler Marcus Martin (1881-1974), recorded in 1946 by Margot Mayo, Stu Jamieson, and Freyda Simon, for the Library of Congress. Marcus played the tune in a variation of the open "Cross Tuning" with the first string lowered to C# (AEac#), generally called Calico Tuning, after another tune where Marcus utilizes the unusual tuning. In his youth, Martin often played unaccompanied for square dances in Macon and Cherokee Counties. A favorite fiddler of Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Martin played for many years at Lunsford’s Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville, opening the festival with the tune "Gray Eagle". With Lunsford he performed as far away as Renfro Valley, Kentucky, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Martin is a source for unusual tunes that are played by old-time fiddlers today, including "Lady Hamilton" and "Jenny Run Away in the Mud in the Night". Best remembered for his masterful fiddling, Martin was a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the banjo, harmonica and dulcimer. He was also an accomplished traditional ballad singer. Martin learned to play the fiddle from his father, Nathaniel “Rowan” Martin, who was half Cherokee. This tune is not related to "Sandy River Belle". The banjo tablature is by John Letscher.