Billy in the Lowground

Its likely ancestor is the Scottish "Braes of Auchtertyre," and Samuel Bayard traced the family further back to a slow song tune from about 1710. Under the Billy name it was printed in George Knauff's Virginia Reels in Baltimore in 1839. Historian Bell Irvin Wiley counted it among the favorite tunes of Confederate fiddlers.

Kentucky musician Dick Burnett had his own explanation of the title: a man named Billy fell into a sinkhole while crossing a field, and with no way out he sat down and played this tune on his fiddle. Eck Robertson recorded it for Victor in 1923 in a medley with "Sallie Johnson," and Fiddlin' John Carson recorded it the same year.