I knew I would have a problem with the name when Floyd JAMs (Junior Appalachian Musicians Program) decided that this tune would be good to get our local kids playing. The other instructors called it Angeline the Baker and since it is a popular tune with folks in the bluegrass world as well, I went along with it until I found this rendition called Coon Dog. There are other completely different tunes called Coon Dog as well.
The Shelors of Patrick County seem pretty confident in the name that they have always heard it as. Listen carefully to the comments after the tune ends. So I now call it Angeline’s Coon Dog to keep it straight in my head. Call it what you will.
I will also include the tune from Carroll County called Angeline the Baker as played by Uncle Norman Edmond’s and his family group. This is about the same melody that I remember in the song version recorded by Alec Dunford. I heard the song version on one of Ralph Epperson’s WPAQ Blue Ridge Spotlight programs back in the 1980s. I was impressed, but never knew what collection if any it had been reissued on. I thought it was from Ernest Stoneman until I asked Harold Hausenfluck last winter about the song. He said Alec Dunford of the Galax area had recorded it.
Seems like a bit of Old-time mix up has happened. What do you think?