Liza Jane (Key of A)
This is an online fiddle lesson for the tune "Liza Jane." BluegrassDaddy.com is your best source for Bluegrass, Old Time, Celtic, Gospel, and Country fiddle lessons!
Genre: Old Time, Bluegrass
Skill Level: Beginner
Key of A
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Bonus: Here is the tablature for the ending that you hear at 1:36 in the above fiddle lesson video:
“Li’l Liza Jane”, also known as “Little Liza Jane” and “Liza Jane”, is a song dating back at least to the 1910s. It has become a perennial standard both as a song and an instrumental in traditional jazz, folk music, and bluegrass, and versions have repeatedly appeared in other genres including rock and roll. It is one of the standards of the New Orleansbrass band tradition. ”Li’l Liza Jane” was first published in 1916 by Sherman, Clay & Co of San Francisco, California as a composition by Countess Ada de Lachau. It was described as a “Southern dialect song”. The song’s origins, however, seem to go back even earlier. The tune’s similarity to the 1850 Stephen Foster standard “Camptown Races” has been observed. The name “Liza Jane” or “Eliza Jane” was a standard female character name in minstrel shows. A tune “Goodbye, Liza Jane” was published by Eddie Fox in 1871. Harry Von Tilzer published “Goodbye, Eliza Jane” in 1903, which has some similarity to the later “Li’l Liza Jane”. Natalie Curtis Burlin‘s book Negro Folk-Songs, published in 1918, documents a version said to be a Negro folk song with an associated dancing game. In the “Liza Jane” dance, couples would dance in a circle, with an extra man in the middle. The extra man would “steal partners” with one of the couples, and the odd man out would go into the center and do a solo dance, then cut in on another couple and the process would repeat. (wikipedia.org)
Lyrics to this song are all over the map. Here are some favorites:
I've got a girl who's good to me (Little Liza Jane)
She ain't no more than 5 foot 3 (Little Liza Jane)
Oh, Little Liza, Little Liza Jane! (4 times)
I've got a girl who loves me true (Little Liza Jane)
She ain't no more than 5 foot 2 (Little Liza Jane)
Oh, Little Liza, Little Liza Jane! (4 times)
I've got a girl who calls me 'Hun' (Little Liza Jane)
She ain't no more than 5 foot 1 (Little Liza Jane)
Oh, Little Liza, Little Liza Jane! (4 times)
I've got a girl who love me so (Little Liza Jane)
She ain't no more than 5 foot 0 (Little Liza Jane)
Oh, Little Liza, Little Liza Jane! (4 times)
I've got a girl and she's all mine (Little Liza Jane)
She ain't no more than 4 foot 9 (Little Liza Jane)
Oh, Little Liza, Little Liza Jane! (4 times)
I've got a girl who makes me wait (Little Liza Jane)
She ain't no more than 4 foot 8 (Little Liza Jane)
Oh, Little Liza, Little Liza Jane! (4 times)