Annotation:Pateroller Song (The)

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PATEROLLER (SONG) [2], THE. AKA and see "Pateroller'll Catch You," "Run Boy Run," "Run Johnny Run," "Run Nigger Run," "Run Smoke Run." Old Time, Breakdown and Song Tune. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The song is reported to be about pre-Civil War times when plantation owners hired men to patrol for runaway slaves or slaves out after curfew without a pass. The tune was in the repertiore of the John Lusk Band, an African-American string band from Cumberland Plateau region of Ky./Tenn under the title "Pateroller'll Catch You." Hobart Smith's version is similar to "Salt River," and, a bit more distantly, to "Lonesome John." See also related tune "Rattlesnake Bit the Baby."

A Ride for Liberty: The Fugitive Slaves. Eastman Johnson, 1862.

Source for notated version: Pete Sutherland [Phillips].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 181.

Recorded sources: Tradition TLP 1007, Hobart Smith - "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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