Annotation:Going Down the River
Tune properties and standard notation
GOING DOWN THE RIVER. AKA and see "Boatin' Up Sandy," "Sandy River" (Western N.C. title), "Little Dutch Girl (1)" (Ozark title), "Sailing Down the River," "Davy Davy." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Kentucky, N.C., Missouri. A Major. AEae tuning (J.P. Fraley) (fiddle). AABB. 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.
Dr. Smith's Hoss Hair Puller's (with fiddlers Bryan Lackey and Clark Duncan) 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 (1928)
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]