Annotation:Going Down the River
X:1 T:Going down the River S:Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers M:C| L:1/8 D:Victor 21711 (78 RPM), 1929 F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/going-down-river-1 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:F A2A2A3G|FGAF GF2G|AGAG F2FD|CDFA GF2G| AGAG ABAG|FGAF GF2G|AGAG F2FD|CDFA GF2G|| |:A2cdc3A|cdcA GF3 |c2AG FGFD|CDFA GF2G:|
GOING DOWN THE RIVER. AKA - "Going up the River." AKA and see "Boating 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 (Fraley). Standard or 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 biography: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
In some parts of North Carolina and Tennessee the tune is called "Sandy River," as played by the Osey and Ernest Helton, and George and Lloyd Payne, for example.
