Annotation:Carve dat Possum (1)

X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x

CARVE DAT POSSUM [1]. See "'Possum Pie" and "Bile Them Cabbage Down." Old-Time, Song. USA; Tennessee, Oklahaoma. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Charles Wolfe (1991) identifies this as a piece written and performed by black minstrel Sam Lucas about 1870, that appears in a few collections of minstrel songs. Thede printed the following stanza with the tune, collected from Oklahoma fiddlers:

Carve dat 'possum Hannah,
Carve dat 'possum soon;
For de pan am ready,
An here am de spoon.

African-American collector Thomas Talley, in his book Negro Folk Rhymes (reprinted in 1991, edited by Charles Wolfe), gave the title as "An Opossum Hunt" and printed the text:

Possum meat is good an' sweet
Carve him to de heart,
I always finds it good to eat,
Carve him to de heart
Cho:
Charve dat possum!
Charve dat possum!
Charve dat possum!
Oh charve 'im to de heart!

My dog tree, I went to see Carve him to de heart,
A great big possum up dat tree Carve him to de heart,
I retch up an' pull him in, Carve him to de heart,
Dat ol' possum 'gin to grin, Carve him to de heart,

I tuck him home an' dressed him off Carve him to de heart,
Dat night I laind him in de' fros', Carve him to de heart,
De way I cooked dat possum sound, Carve him to de heart,
I fust parboiled, den baked him brown Carve him to de heart,
I put sweet taters in de pan, Carve him to de heart,
'Twas de bigges' eatin' in de lan' Carve him to de heart.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; p. 69.

Recorded sources: - Vocalion 5151 (78 RPM), Uncle Dave Macon (1927).

Back to Carve dat Possum (1)