Sally Goodin

Eck Robertson was the first to record it, in 1922, playing in AEae tuning and working through about thirteen different strains. The record sold better than any other country record in 1923, and Texas contest fiddlers still play long variation sets built on his. Robertson liked to introduce it with a tale about two fiddlers competing for a girl named Sally, the winner being a man named Goodin.

Kentucky fiddler Hiram Stamper told another story: the tune was once "Boatin' Up Sandy," and John Hunt Morgan's Confederate raiders renamed it for a widow named Sally Goodin who let them camp and play music at her boarding house near the Big Sandy River. Vance Randolph said it was a favorite at Ozark play parties in the 1890s.