Old-Time TOTW

Old-Time TOTW #376 is a version of Sally Gooden found in Old-Time Fiddlers Favorite Barn Dance Tunes ©1928 by E. F. Adam. Ernst Frederick “E. F.” Adam (24 March 1891—16 December 1949) was born in Rolla, Phelps County, MO, to Johann “John” Baptista Atam Jr. (c. 1840-1929) and Paulina Franz (1846-1904). He married Lena Brown (1894-1961) on 17 August 1912. The Atam/Adam family emigrated to Missouri c. 1862 from Wirshweiler, Rhineland, Prussia, now a part of Germany. Ernst came from a long line of luthiers on his father’s side. His grandfather, Johann Baptista Atam (1800-1865) and great-grandfather, Johannes Atam (1761-1823) were noted violin makers in Prussia. His mother’s family was musical as well. (sources: Ancestry, Family Search, and public records)

A 1943 newspaper article in the St. Louis Globe Democrat states that her father, George R. Brown (1850-1921) was a professor of music in Europe. Ernst began playing violin at age nine, and shortly after began to study the making of violins. By the time he was twelve, he had begun to make and repair violins. His violin shop was eventually part of his home in St. Louis. He preferred Stradivari and Guarneri models and used only “very old wood.” The varnish on his violins varied from light yellow to red and dark brown. Ernst would work on his violins until 1am or 2am. Mr. Adam studied violin at the Colorado School of Mines and received a bachelor’s degree in music from the Chicago University Extension Conservatory. He had learned to read music from a traveling singing instructor who came through Phelps County, MO, on a tour of the US. This itinerant musician would gather about 20 people together and give them 10-12 lessons at $1/lesson. After teaching them, he would go on his way. Ernst started teaching violin when he was about 19 years old. Shortly after WWI, c. 1919, he had about 70 violin students per week, sometimes teaching 22 on Saturdays. He did repair work in the morning, taught young students in the afternoon, and adults in the evening. He gave up his studio, turned his students over to another music teacher and took a course at Hadley Vocational School to train for 4 weeks to be a bench machinist during WWII.

Old Time Fiddlers’ Favorite Barn Dance Tunes contains 74 tunes and was ©1928 by “E. F. Adam.” The copyright was assigned to Hunleth Music Company of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1938. The retail price was .75 in 1938, and piano accompaniment was available and retailed for $1.25. These prices might seem very meager, but during the latter years of the American Great Depression, 75c had the purchasing power of nearly $17 in today’s money, and $1.25 was equivalent to approximately $28 in today’s money. (source: US Inflation Calculator). I went to the Library of Congress in early February 2025 to do some research on Adam’s book. LOC has the piano accompaniment which gives more information than the book with only the fiddle part. The cover is stamped “©ciE pub.” , presumably the publisher of the original edition. The inside cover is stamped “Jan 10 1931.” Unfortunately, Adam does not site his source fiddlers other than a few noted “as played by Blind John” and a few he wrote himself. Adam gives no indication from where he got the tunes nor when he collected or compiled them, though some are noted as being Ozark tunes. Many of them are dances found in early 19th century collections, whereas others are tunes from the old-time tradition. Some of the tunes are clearly from the British Isles. One of the earliest traceable tunes in the book, “Augustin Waltz,” appears as “Buy a Broom” (Thomas Sands, Lincolnshire, 1810) in the key of G instead of D. It was also published in Companion to the Ball Room (Thomas Wilson, London, 1816, p. 141) as “L’ Augustin Waltz” as well as by others. I am planning to record and research more tunes from this collection in the near future. Some might not see much value in a notated collection of tunes with no sources cited, but it appears that most of them are quite old and have been lost from the old-time tradition.

At one time, “Sally Gooden” was a favorite tune of fiddlers, but it doesn’t seem to be as popular as it once was. There are many versions of the tune. The A parts seem to be more related than the B parts. Traditional Tune Archive states:

"Sally Goodin is a widely known breakdown and play-party tune/song in parts of the upland South, Mid-West and Southwest (but not universally known throughout the country)...Texas fiddler Eck Robertson was the first person to record the tune in 1922."

Some common lyrics:

Had a piece of pie
Had a piece of puddin'
Give it all away
To see Sally Gooden.

I love pie
I love puddin',
Crazy 'bout the gal
They call Sally Gooden

Joining me is friend Morgan Sieg on fiddlesticks.

Order my book, Marion Thede and the Fiddlers of Oklahoma: The Fiddle Book, the Musicians and Their Tunes: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/ma...