I grew up playing and singing “Pretty Polly”… I was really proud to have learned a unique version of it in the “overhand” banjo style from my grandfather in Kentucky. One evening I was singing it during a soundcheck and heard the words “he stabbed her through the heart and her heart’s blood did flow” coming out of my mouth… and I just stopped cold in the middle of the verse. I thought about my grandmother, my mother, my daughters. I thought about pervasive violence against women and the way men are given the bulk of the story in songs like these, and often some kind of twisted romantic glory or sympathy… and I said to myself, “I’m never singing this song again.” I will not give any more energy to the stories of men who hurt, abuse, and kill women. Period. For some people, there are complexities — some say the songs are a needed warning to young people, or just dramatic tales, or that tradition trumps looking at them this way. But, for me... I’m just never singing them again. I’m done. I’ve seen the looks of hurt and confusion on my daughters' faces when violent words like these are accepted or brushed aside. And I've seen fear in my grandmother's eyes as she gave warnings to my sisters about men. Instead, I choose to sing, as I do here, about women like my Aunt Myrtle and men like my Uncle Clyde, who were together from the 1930s to the 2000s. Their relationship was full of love and sweetness and gratitude and respect. Those are the stories I actually know, from my own life, and those are the stories I’m going to tell.
lyrics
I Ain’t Playing Pretty Polly
When I was a young boy, my papaw played me songs
He’d sing that Pretty Polly, and I’d listen all night long
Those sounds went straight into my soul, sitting on his cabin floor
But I ain’t playing Pretty Polly anymore
When Granny was a young girl, she had to hold her own
She told my little sister, don’t get with a man alone
Down in the Willow Garden, wasn’t some old metaphor
So I ain’t playing Willow Garden anymore
Chorus:
I ain’t playing Pretty Polly or Rosalie McFall
I ain’t playing Knoxville Girl, no, none of them at all
No more tales of women killed by drunken violent men
They don’t deserve their stories told, I won’t raise my voice again
I ain’t playing Pretty Polly anymore
Cause I know some stories, men like my Uncle Clyde
He spent seven decades at my Aunt Myrtle’s side
Kentucky teens who fell in love in 1934
They had to leave the mountains to find work in Baltimore
She tended their young family while he fought for them in the war
And she still holds his picture and looks for him at the door
Though she just turned 100 and he passed 12 years before
So I ain’t playing Pretty Polly anymore
Dirk Powell is a musician with deep roots in several rural American styles, including the Appalachian heritage of his
Kentucky grandfather, from whom he learned banjo and fiddle, and the strong Cajun traditions of the Balfa family, into which he married at a young age. His most recent collaborations include Americana great Buddy Miller and MacArthur fellow Rhiannon Giddens....more
supported by 10 fans who also own “I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly”
Powerful collection rooted in the stories that must be re-told. Played by some of the most generous community music people I’ve met during my foray into Old Time music.
This CD is a keeper! Ellen B. (Elly) Marshall
supported by 9 fans who also own “I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly”
So pleased to see your second album on its way. I’ve just about worn a hole in your first CD because I love it so much. Cannae wait due the whole thing to appear on 4th May. The taster track is AWESOME!! 🙏 floradouglas
A concept album where meteorology is a metaphor for anxiety, the new one from timing is artful indie at its finest. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 13, 2023
The latest from Jim Lauderdale is exclusive to Bandcamp, its songs drawing on bluegrass, country, and classic American music. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 28, 2020
supported by 9 fans who also own “I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly”
Thanks for the beautiful music Karine and Dave. it's been a while since I've felt so emotional listening to a new album. Every lyric is so beautifully supported by the piano parts. Laura-Beth Salter