I know of two callers who recorded “Lady Around the Lady” to the tune of “Eleven More Months and Ten More Days,” both in the 1950s. I believe Floyd “Woody” Woodhull of Elmira, NY was the first; he and his band, the Old Time Masters, made both called and instrumental 78s on the Folkraft label. (The called version was later reissued on Folkraft LP-7 along with several other Woodhull squares.) Bob Treyz of Acton, MA called it on an LP that has turned up on several “supermarket” labels, sometimes with a fictitious caller’s name; no instrumental version was released.

In recent years, many Folkraft singles were reissued on CD under the general title “Let’s Dance.” Each CD had a strange mix of square, contra, and international folk dances, rather than grouping like with like. I believe that both the called and instrumental versions of Woodhull’s “Lady Around the Lady” were part of this series. The Folk Arts Center of New England and the Anglo-American Dance Service in Belgium used to carry these CDs, but I think they’re out of print.

Regarding the timing of the dance when called to that tune: If memory serves, the directions packed with the Folkraft recording said that “circle around the lady” was a separate and distinct movement from “the lady go ’round the lady”. In other words, the active couple passed through the inactive couple, then both active people went around the inactive lady before going into the “lady ’round the lady, gent around the gent” movement. In addition, I think “pass right through” may have meant “split the inactive couple”: the meaning of calls was not at all standardized in the 1950s, especially in non-MWSD communities.

Tony Parkes

Billerica, Mass.