"Bill Brown" is an American reel or breakdown in cut time and A Major. It is played in AEac# fiddle tuning. The parts are played AABB. It is a crooked tune (the 'A' part has eight measures repeated, the 'B' part four measures repeated) and is therefore more of a breakdown than a reel. It can be accompanied with an A chord throughout. It was in the repertoire of Kentucky fiddler John Salyer (Salyersville, Magoffin County, Ky.). It may have been named for the fiddler from whom he learned the tune. However, Jeff Titon (2001) suggests it might have been named after William H. "Bill" Brown, who was executed by hanging for the murder of Irish peddler Morris Hagerty in Morgan County, Ky. in 1855. Bruce Greene likened the tune to "Sugar in the Gourd" according to Bruce Molsky. It was printed in Titon's Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (2001). It was recorded by Berea College Appalachian Center on John Salyer: Home Recordings 1941-1942 (1993) and Bruce Molsky on Lost Boy (1996).