Appalachian music. Sweet Sunny South [music transcription]. Note sheet.

Meter: 4/4
Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a performance by Henry Reed.
Key: A
Strains: 1 (8)
Rendition: 1-1
Phrase Structure: ABCD (abcdcbef)
Compass: 7
Related Tune(s): Hicks's Farewell
Handwritten: Played twice thru. 2nd time tr. Other bowing var.
"Sweet Sunny South" is a sentimental song about the South that seems to have struck the right chord with Southerners, for it has turned up often in the repertory of traditional singers in the twentieth century. Perhaps what made it compelling is the combination of the sentiments and the beautiful old folktune through which they are expressed. The tune is akin to the older "Hicks's Farewell" tune that appears in nineteenth-century shape-note hymnals. For twentieth-century sets, see Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, vol. 2, 262 (#186 "The Sunny South"), vol. 2, 142-143 (#122 "Hicks's Farewell"). A well-known hillbilly recording of the song and tune from the 1920s is by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, reissued on County 505.