Annotation:Wish I Stayed in the Wagon Yard

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X:1 T:Wish I had Stayed in the Wagon Yard N:From the playing of fiddler Lowe Stokes (). M:C| L:1/8 N:AEae tuning (fiddle) R:Reel D:Document DOCD 8045, "Lowe Stokes vol. 1" D:Columbia 15557-D (78 RPM), Lowe Stokes and His North Georgians (1929) D:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/wish-i-had-stayed-wagon-yard Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:A ed|c2 cB cBcc|efed cBAc|B2cc B2FF|+slide+[A3c3][Ac]+slide+[A2c2]AB| cBcB cBcd|efed cdcc|[B3e3][Be]- [Be]BBc|d2 de e2ed| cc-cB cBcd|efed c2cc|[Be][ce]-[ce]c BAF2|[A6c6] [Ac][Ac]| [B2e2][Ae][Be]- [Be][Ae][Be]c|cBce efed|(c[Ac]-[Ac])d BGBA-|A2A2A2z2||

WISH I STAYED IN THE WAGON YARD. AKA - "Stay in the Wagon Yard." American; Air and Reel (cut time). A Major. AEae tuning (fiddle). One part. This song with instrumental breaks was recorded by Lowe Stokes and His North Georgians in Atlanta, Georgia, at the beginning of November, 1929. Stokes' group consisted of various Skillet Licker personnel and included Stokes and Clayton McMichen on fiddles, Arthur Tanner on banjo/mandolin and either Claude Davis or Hoke Rice on guitar. However, their recording was predated by a solo guitar/voice version for Victor Records (V-40008-A) by "Peg" Moreland in July, 1928 (released in January, 1929). The first three stanzas he sang went:

Oh, I’m a jolly farmer, last night I came to town
To bring a bale of cotton I’d worked the whole year round;
Put my team in the wagon yard and got me a bottle of gin,
And went out to see the ‘lectric lights and to watch the cars come in.

I met a dude out on the street, the clock was strikin’ nine.
He said, “Come on old hayseed, and have a drink, it’s mine;”
I must have bought a dozen drinks, it hit my pocketbook hard,
I wish I’d bought a half-pint and stayed in the wagon yard.

Now listen to me farmers, I’m here to talk with sense,
If you want to see them ‘lectric lights, just look right over the fence;
Don’t monkey with them city ducks, you’ll find they’re slick as lard,
Just go get a half-pint and stay in the wagon yard.

The authorship of the song has yet to be definitively ascertained. Art Rosenbaum was told by Skillet Lickers' member Gordon Tanner (fiddler Gid Tanner's son) that he thought it was written by his uncle, Arthur Hugh Tanner (Gid Tanner's younger brother, a house-painter and a member of the Lowe Stokes/North Georgians iteration who recorded in 1929)^[1]. How Peg Moreland might have obtained the song a year earlier is unknown.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Clare Milliner & Walt Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes), 2011; p. 732. Art Rosenbaum (Folk Visions and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in North Georgia), 1983; pp. 108-109. Sing Out, vol. 21, No. 1, 1971; p. 19.

Recorded sources : - Columbia 15557-D, Lowe Stokes and his North Georgians (1929). County 504, Lowe Stokes - "A Collection of Mountain Songs" (1968). Document DOCD 8045, "Lowe Stokes vol. 1". Folkways FTS 31089, Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson - "Down Yonder: Old-Time String Band Music from Georgia" (1982). OKeh 45528 (78 RPM), Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers (1931). "Hogslop String Band, vol. 2: The Butcher Shop Sessions." Grandpa Jones - "Family Gathering" (1981).

See also listing at :
Hear Lowe Stokes and His North Georgian's 1929 recording at Slippery Hill [<a href="https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/wish-i-had-stayed-wagon-yard]
">https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/wish-i-had-stayed-wagon-yard]
</a>

Hear Grandpa Jones version at youtube.com [1]

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↑ Art Rosenbaum, liner notes to Folkways FTS 31089, 1982.

[1] Art Rosenbaum, liner notes to Folkways FTS 31089, 1982.

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