North Carolina fiddler Marcus Martin (1881-1974) played a number of tunes - Calico, Sandy River, Citico - in cross tuning one and one-half or two steps below modern pitch. In 1959 he said to Joan Moser, well-known musicologist and collector as well as daughter of field recorder Artus Moser, that he learned most of his cross tunes from his father, presumably in the lower tuning, as he states in particular about Calico. Since “Jenny Run Away…” fits this description, it may have been one of his father's tunes. The first verse comes from Mr. Martin, while the second is our creation. (When I Get My New House Done notes) It actually refers to an old English lyric, “Jenny ran away in the middle of the night,” which is found in a popular British folk song “Jockey to the Fair.” (Blech)
