Very much a “free association” kind of thing, and likely too tangential to mean anything, but “strip” in the context of a hoedown, which is essentially an American ceilidh, made me think of “strip the willow”, which is a particular dance in a ceilidh. I don’t know if hoedowns even have names for the steps, or may have done in the past. Maybe. It’s just something that immediately popped to mind when reading it.