"Nancy Rollins", also known as "Nancy Rollin", "Nancy Rowlin", "Nancy Roland" or "Little Nancy Rowland" is an old-time breakdown in G Major. The parts are played AABB. It is a wide-spread and popular old-time dance tune, particularly in the South. Charles Wolfe (in his notes for "Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers - Kickapoo Medecine Show") states that this tune was apparently well-known in the Atlanta area during the 1920's but that its popularity has since considerably dwindled. He believes a more archaic solo fiddle rendition was played by Fiddlin' John Carson on a mid-1920's OKeh recording (#40238, as "Nancy Rollin"), but Carson's version may also be classified as a separate tune. The north Georgia band the Skillet Lickers recorded the tune (as "Nancy Rollin") in Atlanta for Columbia Records in October, 1928. Their changing lineup consisted, at the time, of banjo player Fate Norris, guitarist Riley Puckett with Clayton McMichen, Gid Tanner and (possibly) Lowe Stokes on fiddle. McMichen, probably the most talented musician in the band, asserted himself, and the billing on the record label was changed from Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett to Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett and Clayton McMichen. A much-anthologized recording by the Mississippi string band Carter Brothers and Son was originally recorded in November, 1928, for Brunswick Records (released on the Vocalion label). The group was a family band from Monroe County, headed by scion George Carter, lead fiddler, who was near aged sixty at the time. He was accompanied on second fiddle by his brother Andrew.
Some of the following floating verses are sometimes sung to the tune:
Had a little dog, his name was Rover,
When he died, he died all over.

I had a wife and she was a Quaker,
She wouldn't work and I wouldn't make her.

I had a wife and she was a weaver,
She wouldn't work, so I had to leave her.

It was printed in Brody's The Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) Kaufman's Beginning Old Time Fiddle (1977), Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old Time Fiddle Tunes (2021), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994) and Silberburg's Fiddle Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002).
It was recorded by Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett and Clayton McMichen (1928), The Carter Brothers and Son on Echoes of the Ozarks, vol. 3, The Carter Brothers on Traditional Fiddle Music of Mississippi, The Carter Brothers and Son on Mississippi String Bands, vol. 1, Thomas Hunter on Deep in Tradition (1976), Dan Gellert & Brad Leftwich on A Moment in Time (1993), Highwoods String Band on Fire on the Mountain, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers on Kickapoo Medicine Show and Roger Cooper on Essence of Old Kentucky.