Annotation:Run Johnny Run (1)

Back to Run Johnny Run (1)

X:1 T:Run, Boy, Run S:Eck Robertson (Texas) M:C| L:1/8 D: Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G [D2d2]-|[Dd]edB G3G|AGAc B2[D2d2]-|[Dd]edB G3G|BG A2 G2[D2d2]-|| [Dd]edB G3G|AGAc B2[D2d2]-|[Dd]edB G3G|1 BG A2 G2:|2 BG A2 G3B|| d2e2g2ga|b2b2g3a|bb a2g2d2|edBA B2d2| dde2g2ga|bb b2g3a|b2a2g2d2|edBA B2||

RUN, JOHNNY, RUN [1]. AKA - "Run, N....r, Run," "Run Smoke Run," "Run Boy Run." Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown. USA; Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB; AA'BB (Phillips). The song has been dated by some to pre-Civil War times when patrols were formed in nearly every Southern county with a sizable slave population to ensure the slaves stayed on the plantation and did not "wander;" this was especially so after the scare of the slave insurrections of the 1820's and 1830's. Bruce Hutton is of the opinion that it goes back to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 when frontiersmen revolted against government regulation. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.

Johnny came down to the moonshine still in the bottom of the holler at the foot of the hill; He woke up about the break of day and he thought he heard his grandpa say:
Refrain:
Run, Johnny, Run, the Federals'll get you,
Run, Johnny, Run, you'd better get away.

Johnny stopped at the top of the hill and he saw them Federals around his still;
They busted his coil and his boiler too, started drinking his mountain dew.

The Feds caught Johnny makin' a run and they took him up to Washington;
Set him to work for the government makin' moonshine for the President.

Johnny got rich at the government stills and he run away to his home in the hills;
Now the Federals are on his tracks, he still owes a dollar on the whiskey tax. ...... (Kuntz)

Additional notes

Sources for notated versions: - Kenny Baker [Brody]; Bruce Hutton [Kuntz]; Tommy Jackson [Phillips].

Printed sources : - Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; p. 238. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pp. 203-204. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 204. Silberberg (93 Fiddle Tunes I Didn’t Learn at the Tractor Tavern), 2004; p. 37.

Recorded sources: - Cassette C-7625, Wilson Douglas - "Back Porch Symphony." Folkways 2402, Bruce Hutton - "Old Time Music...It's All Around." County 750, Kenny Baker - "Grassy Fiddle Blues." Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley - "Wild Rose of the Mountain." Rounder 1005, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers - "Hear These New Fiddle and Guitar Records" (appears as "Run, N….r, Run").

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