Annotation:Ducks on the Millpond
{{TuneAnnotation
|f_tune_annotation_title= https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Ducks_on_the_Millpond >
|f_annotation=DUCKS ON THE MILLPOND. AKA and see "Deaf Woman's Courtship." American, Reel (cut or 2/4 time). USA; southwest Va. (Grayson County), Mt. Airy, N.C. D Major. ADae tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (Brody, Krassen, Phillips/Lundy, Spadaro): AA'BB' (Phillips/Sutphin, Hollow Rock String Band). Most modern versions are derived from the playing of Grayson County, southwest Virginia, fiddler Emmett Lundy [1] (1864-1953). Lundy, who learned his repertoire in the 19th century, cited his most influential source as a local fiddler named Greenbury (Green) Leonard, who was an elderly man when Lundy learned tunes from him in the 1880's and 1890's. Lundy's version has three parts, the last of which is a variant of the second strain.
Alan Lomax collected the tune from Galax, Va., musician Fields Ward in 1937, and thought the tune related to "[[Old Dan Tucker]." Later, in 1941, Lomax recorded Lundy playing "Ducks on the Millpond" for the Library of Congress (AAFS 4945 A3). "Ducks on the Millpond" is sometimes confused with the similarly-titled Appalachian tune "Ducks on the Pond."
Words are occasionally sung to the tune (although Lundy did not vocalize):
Ducks in the millpond, Geese in the ocean;
Hug them pretty girls, If I take a notion.
Cho:
Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum,
Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum.
Ducks in the millpond, Geese in the clover,
Jumped in the bed, And the bed turned over.
Ducks in the millpond, Geese in the clover,
Fell in the millpond, Wet all over. (Lomax)
Rain come and wet me, sun come and dry me,
Step back pretty girl, don't you come nigh me. (Tommy Jarrell)
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