PEAS IN THE POT. AKA and see "Piece in the Pot," "Peas in the Pod." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B. Davenport knew this ditty, sung to the tune (although he played it as an instrumental):
Clyde Davenport
Peas in the pot, hoecake a-bakin', Step girls step, the day’s a breakin'.
A similar rhyme appears in Newman Ivey White's American Negro Folk-Songs (1928, p. 304), collected in Durham, N.C., in 1919 from a manuscript of Walter J. Miller, who remarked it was "Heard several years ago":
Peas in the pot, hoecake a bakin', Sally in the kitchen with her shift-tail a shakin'.
The first line is a 'floater' and turns up in other songs as well. Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter [1], 1888-1949) sang a song called “Green Corn, Come along Charlie” with the line: “Wake snake, day’s a-breaking/Peas in the pot and the hoe cake’s a-baking.”
Source for notated version: Clyde Davenport (Monticello, Wayne County, Ky.) [Phillips], learned from his father.
Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 182.
Recorded sources: Field Recorders Collective FRC-104, "Clyde Davenport, vol. 2." Clyde Davenport - "Puncheon Camps" (1992).
See also listing at:
Hear John Harrod's 1981 field recording of Clyde Davenport playing the tune at Berea Digital Archives [2], and at the Digital Library of Appalachia [3]
See Dave Bartlett's 1986 photograph of Clyde with banjo, front-porch picking [4]
