Annotation:Going Down the River
Tune properties and standard notation
GOING DOWN THE RIVER. AKA and see "Boatin' Up the 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.
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 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"). Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley- "Wild Rose of the Mountain."