Annotation:Going Down the River

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GOING DOWN THE RIVER. AKA - "Going up the River." AKA and see "Boatin' Up Sandy (4)," "Sandy River" (Western N.C. title), "Little Dog Trottin' Down The River," "Little Dutch Girl (1)" (Ozarks title), "Sailing Down the River," "Davy Davy." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Kentucky, N.C., Missouri. F Major (Dr. Smith's): A Major. AEae tuning (J.P. Fraley) (fiddle). AABB. "Going Down the River" was recorded for Victor Records in Memphis, Tenn., in September 1928 by the Arkansas group Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers, although it was not released by Victor until 1929. It featured the twin fiddling of Brian Lackey and Clark Duncan on the cut. However, the a very similar version had been recorded a year earlier by The Hill Billies (Tony Alderman & Charlie Bowman, fiddles) as "Boating Up Sandy (4)," one of many different tunes by that title. The following words are associated with the tune:

Oh, my little girl, if you don't do better,
Put you on a boat, gonna send you down the river.

Boat began to sink, my heart began to quiver,
Oh, my little girl, you're goin' down the river.

The four singers (Hubert Simmons, Odie Goatcher, Graydon Bone, Roosevelt Garner) in Dr. Smith's Hoss Hair Puller's sang the following on their recording:
I had a wife and she was a Quaker
She wouldn't work and the devil couldn't make her

I had a wife and she was a weaver
She wouldn't weave and I wouldn't either

Oh my little girl if you don't do me better
I'll build me a boat and I'll sail down the river

Source for notated version: fiddler J.P. Fraley (Rush, Ky.) [Brody, Phillips].

Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 121. Johnson (Kitchen Musician No. 2: Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes), 1982 (revised 1988, 2003); p. 5. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pp. 87-88. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 98.

Recorded sources: County 519, Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers- "Echoes of the Ozarks, vol. 2." Library of Congress AFS 4806-A-2, 1941, Western N.C. fiddlers Osey and Ernest Helton (as "Sandy River"). NLCR13, New Lost City Ramblers, "Going Down the River". Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley- "Wild Rose of the Mountain." Victor 21711 (78 RPM), Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers (1929)

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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