Polly Put the Kettle On
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Polly Put the Kettle On", also known as "Molly Put the Kettle On", “Barney Leave the<br> Girls Alone” and "Jenny's Bawbee" is an American, English and Irish reel and Country Dance<br> in 2/4 time. It shows up in A Dorian, D Major or in some four part versions in both.<br> The collector John Glen (1891) finds an early printing of the tune in Dale's Variations<br> for the Pianoforte (1794) and remarked it became at that time "very popular with young ladies".<br> It appears in a number of early 19th century musicians' manuscript collections in England<br> and in America.<br> It is a popular nursery rhyme and has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7899.<br> The words usually associated with this are:<br> Polly put the kettle on,<br> Polly put the kettle on,<br> Polly put the kettle on,<br> We'll all have tea.<br> Sukey take it off again,<br> Sukey take it off again,<br> Sukey take it off again,<br> They've all gone away.<br> My family, who knew nothing of traditional fiddling, knew a version of the tune and the words<br> of the first verse.<br> One of the oddest appearances of the tune is on the barrel organ from the polar expedition of<br> Admiral Parry of 1819. In place of a ship’s fiddler (common in those days), Parry introduced a<br> barrel organ on board ship to provide entertainment and a vehicle to which the men could<br> exercise (i.e. by dancing). “Polly Put the Kettle On” was one of eight tunes on barrel no. 1.<br> The tune is well known among players around the Round Peak area of western North Carolina.<br> The banjo tablature is by John Letscher. His comment about Round Peak style banjo playing:<br> <br> my approach to Round Peak ... would be to play a fretted banjo like you play on a<br> fretless banjo. To me that means alternate string pull-offs, rolls, brushes and any<br> other technique to keep your left hand below the fifth fret and avoid long slides or<br> reaches that can do bad things to intonation. Also there's a tendency<br> to use the fifth string to give rhythm and accentuate a single note melody.<br> <br> It was printed in Carr's Carr's Pocket Companion (1800),<br> Hardings' All-Round Collection (1905),<br> Leftwich's Round Peak Style Clawhammer Banjo (1999),<br> Kennedy's Fiddlers Tune Book, vol. 1 (1951),<br> Krassen's Masters of Old Time Fiddling (1983),<br> Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984),<br> Silberberg's The Complete Fiddle Tunes I Either Did or Did Not Learn at the Tractor Tavern<br> (2007),<br> A.S. Bowman's J.W. Pepper Collection of Five Hundred Reels, Jigs, etc. (1908),<br> Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983),<br> Christeson's Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 2 (1984)(as "Jenny Put the Kettle On"),<br> Milliner & Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011) and<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994).<br> It was recorded by Tommy Jarrell,<br> Leake County Revelers (1928),<br> Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers (1932),<br> The Skillet Lickers on Old Time Tunes (reissue),<br> Leake County Revelers on Traditional Fiddle Music of Mississippi, vol. 2 (reissue),<br> New Lost City Ramblers on Vol. 4 (1962),<br> Joe and Odell Thompson on Old Time Music From the North Carolina Piedmont,<br> Glen Smith on Say Old Man (1990),<br> Dan Gellert & Brad Leftwich on A Moment in Time (1993)(Primarily Tommy Jarrell's version),<br> Allan Block & Ralph Lee Smith on Allan Block & Ralph Lee Smith (1971),<br> John Hartford on Wild Hog in the Red Brush (1996),<br> Red Clay Ramblers on Merchants Lunch (1977),<br> Calvin Cole (et al) on Far on the Mountain, Vols. 1&2 (2002),<br> Haywood Blevins on Old Originals, Vol. II (1978),<br> Wade Ward, Ernest Stoneman on Serenade in the Mountains.<br> <br>
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