Goodbye, Girls, I’m Going to Boston

A traditional Old Time breakdown in A major/A mixolydian, played in AEae tuning and associated with Hindman, Knott County, Kentucky, where Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles collected a version in 1917. A play-party and song tradition surrounds the tune — Jean Ritchie recalled singing it as a girl in nearby Viper, Kentucky — and the second strain bears resemblance to “Drunken Sailor.” Art Stamper of Knott County, who learned it from his father Hiram, made the definitive recorded version on Goodbye Girls I’m Going to Boston (County CO-CD-2729, 2000).