Devil in the Strawstack

A traditional American old-time fiddle tune popularized by North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell (1901-1985), who learned it from Zack Payne, a Civil War veteran and fiddler from near Lambsburg, Virginia. Jarrell called this one of the “Civil War tunes” he learned from Payne, who died around 1930. Jarrell recorded it for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1937. The tune appears in various collections, typically played in G major or G minor, and is one of the few tunes Jarrell rendered in standard tuning. The tune is also known in Irish traditional music circles.