"Dinah", also known as "Go to Sleep John Dinny" is an old-time breakdown in A Major.
The parts are played AB (Silberberg) or AABB (Krassen).
A member of a large and widespread tune family that includes "Heel Flies", "Rock
Along John to Kansas", "Seneca Square Dance", "Old Raccoon", "Coon Dog" and others.
The A part resembles the A part of "John Ryan's Polka" in the Irish section.
Samuel Bayard collected a vocal version of the tune in southwestern Pa.
(see Bayard, Dance to the Fiddle, 1981; Appendix No. 25, pp. 582-583), but said it
was known also as a dance tune. The alternate title comes from a ditty sung to the
tune:
It’s go to sleep, John Dinny,It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981), Krassen's Appalachian Fiddle (1973) and Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002). It was recorded by Dave Holt on Music of North Carolina (1978). |