Annotation:Oh Yes Mammy Look at Sam

Back to Oh Yes Mammy Look at Sam

---

OH YES, MAMMY, LOOK AT SAM. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Mississippi. A Major. AEae tuning (fiddle). The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress (AFS 02974 A4) in 1939 by Herbert Halpert from the playing of Tishomingo County, Mississippi, fiddler W.E. (Ernest) Claunch (accompanied by and Mrs. Christeen Haygood on guitar). The pair were recorded in Guntown, Mississippi. Claunch sang this ditty of "floating" lines to the reel:

Oh yes, Mammy, look at Sam,
Eatin up his biscuit, ...?.
Never seen the like since I been born,
Old folks shuckin'...?...corn.

It is similar to lines collected from African-American sources, including this one, from ex-slave laborers:

Oh, Mammy, look at Sam,
Eating all the meat and sopping out the pan.

and the similar Union County, North Carolina, collected song "Holler Jimmy Hiley Ho" (a variant of "Johnny Come Down To Hilo"):

Never seen the like since I been born,
Holler Jimmy Riley Ho,
Sheeps in the meadow, cows in the corn.
Holler Jimmy Riley Ho,

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Hear Claunch's 1939 recording at SlipperyHill.com [1]

---