View source for Annotation:Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine

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{{TuneAnnotation
|f_tune_annotation_title=     https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Grasshopper_Sitting_on_a_Sweet_Potato_Vine >
|f_annotation='''GRASSHOPPER SITTING ON A SWEET POTATO VINE'''. American, Reel (2/4 or cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (most versions). Galax, Grayson County, Virginia, area fiddler Luther Davis (1887-1986) is usually credited as the source for most versions of this tune. African-American collector Thomas Talley printed a song by this title in his 1922 work '''Negro Folk Rhymes''' (reprinted in 1991, edited by Charles Wolfe). His lyric (which seems to scan with the abc tune below) goes:
<blockquote>
''Grasshopper a settin' on a sweet tater vine,''<br>
'''Long come a Blackbird an' nab him up behind.''<br>
<br>
''Blackbird a-settin' in a sour apple tree,''<br>
''Hawk grab him up behind; he "Chee! Chee! Chee!"''<br>
<br>
''Big hawk a-settin' in de top of dat oak,''<br>
''Start to eat dat Blackbird an' he git choke.''<br>
</blockquote>
Some see similarities to the Irish melody "[[Comhra Donn (An)]]" (The Brown Box/Casket/Coffin). Also melodic similarities in parts of some versions to the song "[[Battle Hymn of the Republic (The)]]/[[John Brown's Body]]" and its derivative "[[Pass around the Bottle]]."   
|f_source_for_notated_version=Luther Davis (Galax, Va.) [Kuntz, Milliner & Koken]; Jere Canote [Phillips]; Greg Canote (Seattle) [Songer]; Stephanie Prausnitz [Silberberg]. 
|f_printed_sources=Johnson ('''The Kitchen Musician No. 2: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.'''), 1982 (revised 1988 & 2003); p. 14. Clare Milliner & Walt Koken ('''The Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes'''), 2011; p. 258.  Phillips ('''Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1'''), 1994; p. 102. Silberberg ('''Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern'''), 2002; p. 55. Songer ('''Portland Collection'''), 1997; p. 88.
|f_recorded_sources=Dean Street Music 101, Grand Picnic - "Grand Picnic." Heritage/Galax LP 070, Luther Davis - "Old Time Way" (1986). Marimac 9009, Liz Slade - "Old Time Friends" (1987).
|f_see_also_listing=Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/g08.htm#Grasiona]<br>
Hear Luther Davis's field recording at Slippery Hill [https://www.slippery-hill.com/content/grasshopper-sitting-sweet-potatoe-vine]<br>
}}
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