Bangum and the Wild Boar- S. Hammons c.1970
[I've established no date for this yet but it surely is much older than c. 1970. This ballad is rare in West Virginia tradition -- Cox finding no versions in his Folk Songs from the South (made up almost entirely of West Virginia folk songs).
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
Marshall Library - Special Collections: Sherman Hammons was born 9/9/1903 and died 9/3/1988 six days short of being age 85. In my travels in Pocahontas County the name of the Hammons family was frequently mentioned, particular, for their folk music performances. I happened upon Mr. Hammons outside his abode along the William River road. It was morning. If I ever met a more interesting person I don’t remember it. He had a character hard to describe—a twinkle of the eye, a glance off as to capture a thought or more of your attention, countenance, the appearance of lackluster, yet one could tell that he could entrap you with coyness, capturing your imagination and then tie you to his every word. He appeared to be just a common man, but he was everything but common. His works and his family works in folklore and music appear and are available from the Recorded Sound Section, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540, Card number 73-750550. Other CD recordings can be purchased from outlets in Pocahontas County at a store in Hillsboro, W.V. Several current Bluegrass and folk music players spent time with him on the Williams River road learning to play his music. Mr. Hammons’ grave can be found in the upper left hand section of the Cockran cemetery on the Edray to Woodrow road.
Hammons Family by Alan Jabbour
The Hammons family of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, is a family of traditionalists whose knowledge of music, storytelling, and woods lore have made them cultural guides and mentors since the late 19th century. A century-old account describes patriarch Jesse Hammons and his sons as expert woodsmen, and his son, Edden, as a talented fiddler. A short story in G. D. McNeill’s 1940 book, The Last Forest, features a character inspired by Edden, and his fiddling was recorded by West Virginia University folklorist Louis Chappell in 1947.
A broader study of the family in the early 1970s focused on Jesse Hammons’s grandchildren, Maggie Hammons Parker, Sherman Hammons, and Burl Hammons. The study led in 1973 to a Library of Congress double recording and a Rounder Records release. Both contain instrumental tunes, ballads, songs, stories, and lore; both accompanying booklets include early and modern photographs, and the Library of Congress booklet includes a family history constructed from documentary sources and the Hammonses’ own narration.
The family’s instrumental music includes a distinctive regional repertory of fiddle tunes forged on the early Appalachian frontier, as well as a banjo repertory (both picked and downstroked) of later vintage. Their singing tradition ranges from ancient British ballads through hundreds of American ballads and songs. All their music reflects a striking cultural synthesis, combining the artful irregularity and treble tension of the ancient British solo style with other Appalachian elements of Northern European, African-American, and possibly American Indian origin. Their storytelling is equally striking, featuring a distinctive rhetorical style and reflecting a fascination with the mysterious combined with skepticism about supernatural causes. Since the family subsisted on hunting, logging, trapping, and ginseng gathering for nearly two centuries, their woods lore was encyclopedic.
The fact that the Hammonses evoke the wilderness of the early Appalachian frontier fueled a growing interest in the family during the late 20th century. Thanks to documentary dissemination and a stream of visitors, they became symbols and resources for the next generation to tap. Their traditions have attracted many people from beyond their community and state, while influencing West Virginians such as Pocahontas County native Dwight Diller, who contributed to the Library of Congress publication, produced additional recordings, and learned and taught many Hammons family traditions. Many West Virginians feel an admiration for and connectedness to the Hammonses, perhaps because the family maintained in such full measure and with such grace cultural traditions that others have preserved but sketchily.
BANGUM AND THE WILD BOAR- from Michael and Carrie Kline who learned it from Currence Hammonds and Sherman Hammons in West Virginia
There are a wild boar in these woods,
dillo di, dillo dey,
There are a wild boar in these woods,
dillo di,
There are a wild boar in these woods,
He'll eat your meat and suck your blood,
Come away, quaddle down, quanzio.
Bangum made him a wooden gun
to shoot that wild boar as he run.
Then Bangum got him a butcher knife
he swore to take that wild boar's life.
He tracked that wild boar to his den
where he found the bones of a thousand men.
He raised his horn up to his mouth
first he blowed it East, then West and South.
That wild boar come with such a dash
it splintered hickory, oak and ash.
Then Bangum raised his wooden gun
and he shot that wild boar as he run.
Then Bangum raised his butcher knife
right there he took that wild boar's life.