Annotation:Take Your Foot Out of the Mud

Back to Take Your Foot Out of the Mud

TAKE YOUR FOOT OUT OF THE MUD (AND PUT IT IN THE SAND). American, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Take your foot out of the mud (and put it in the sand)" was first recorded in a raucous, blazingly fast version by Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters in Atlanta, Ga., in March, 1928, featuring calls for a square dance. A more sedate version, with a singing break, was recorded two years later by McLaughlin's Old Time Melody Makers in Memphis. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from the playing of Ozarks Mountains fiddlers in the early 1940's. The Barney Rude sang on the McLaughlin's group recording:

Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand,
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand;
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand,
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand.

I'm as happy as a cricket, happy as can be,
I'm as happy as a baby on its mother's knee;
I'm as happy as a cricket, happy as can be,
I'm as happy as a baby on its mother's knee.

The group consisted of fiddle, piano, guitar, banjo and double bass, and McLaughlin was the name of the group's banjo player, although little more is known of the band.

Additional notes

Recorded sources : - Brunswick 243 (78 RPM), Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters (Nashville, Tenn.). Victor V-40117-B (78 RPM), McLaughlin's Old Time Melody-Makers (1930). (B/w whistling Rufus. Recorded in Memphis, Tenn.).

See also listing at :
Hear the Possum Hunter's recording at youtube.com [1]

Back to Take Your Foot Out of the Mud

0.00

(0 votes)