Fanny Hill

A bluegrass/Dawg-style instrumental composed by mandolinist David Grisman, dating to his earliest period as a composer in the mid-1960s and first recorded in 1966 (released later on the 1980 Sugar Hill compilation Early Dawg). The form is unusual for a bluegrass tune — AAB rather than the standard AABB, with an eight-bar A part and a ten-bar B part — and the melody moves through a modally ambiguous tonality characteristic of Grisman’s later “Dawg music” writing. The best-known studio version is on Grisman’s 1981 Warner Bros. album Mondo Mando, with the David Grisman Quintet (Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Rob Wasserman, with Tony Rice on guitar); the Early Dawg version features Del McCoury, Jerry McCoury, and Bill Keith. Grisman published the tune in his Dawg Grass Music Book and has used it as teaching material in his “Dawg Mandolin” instructional series.

At least two unrelated old-time fiddle tunes also called “Fanny Hill” exist (a Galax, Virginia tune and a separate Kentucky tune); Peghead Nation explicitly flags the distinction. This David Grisman version is sourced from the Real Bluegrass Book.