"Boating Up Sandy" (From Estill Bingham) - Old-Time Fiddle

Knott County, KY fiddler Hiram Stamper (b. 1893) used to say that the tune "Sally Gooden" used to be formerly known as "Boating Up Sandy," and back in the Civil War days, a group of Confederate soldiers where camped by the Sandy River and stayed in a boarding house which was ran by a widow nicknamed Sally Gooden. The soldiers were good to her and she fed them, and they renamed this tune after her. There are many versions of this tune, this one in particular comes from Estill Bingham (1899 - 1990) of Bell County, Kentucky.

Tuning is GDGD

Estill Bingham was the youngest of thirteen children, he started playing the fiddle at age seven, learning most of his tunes from his father, Noah Bingham (B. 1850). His mother was afraid that he'd become rowdy, so she made sure that his first tunes were gospel hymns. In his nineties, when he was recorded in Bell county by Bruce Greene and Bob Butler, He played gospel hymns, dance tunes, and slower pieces that he learned from his father and neighboring musicians. He was a treasure trove of unusual tunes, and he played well-developed and somewhat unusual settings for well-known tunes. He died at age ninety-one in a car accident, only a few years after being recorded.

"It's a gift, I always thought. Everybody couldn't learn to play a musical instrument," He told Bruce Greene.

Here's a link to hear Estill Bingham play this tune
https://www.slippery-hill.com/content...

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