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Going Down The River
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. Kentucky, N.C., Missouri.
ARTIST: Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers- Victor 21711-October 1928
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: (Boatin' Up Sandy) Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters (1927) Br 182; (Goin' Down the River) Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers-1928; (County 519, Dr. Smith's Hoss Hair Pullers- "Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 2." Library of Congress AFS 4806-A-2, 1941, Western N.C. fiddlers Osey and Ernest Helton (as "Sandy River"). Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley- "Wild Rose of the Mountain;" Desert String Band. Deseret String Band, Shanachie 79041, LP (1984), cut# 12; New Lost City Ramblers. Rural Delivery No. 1, Verve/Folkways DW-90705, LP (197?), cut# 1; Old Scratch Band. Old Scratch Band, California Condor CCLP-2, LP (197?), cut# 6; Plank Road String Band. Plank Road String Band, Carryon, LP (1976), cut#B.03; Smith, Dr;'s (Champion) Hoss Hair Pullers. Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 2, County 519, LP (1970), cut# 9; (Boating Up the Sandy) Fiddlers Convention in Mountain City, Tennessee, County 525 (1972), cut # 4; Hill Billies /Al Hopkins & Buckle Busters Vol 2, Document DOCD-8040, track # 22
OTHER NAMES: "Sandy River" (Western N.C. title; Osey and Earnest Helton- 1941), "Little Dutch Girl" (Ozark title), "Sailing Down the River," "Molly Baker (Thede)"; "Davy, Davy," “Boating Up the Sandy;” "Little Girl Goin' Down the River;" "Walking in the Parlor"
SOURCES: [Brody, Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 121. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pgs. 87-88. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 98. Fraley, J. P.. Beginning Old-time Fiddle, Oak, sof (1977), p87
NOTES: "A Major, AEAE tuning, AABB." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). Categorized by Meade as "Boatin' Up Sandy" it's usually know as "Goin' Up/Down the River." It was first recorded as Boatin' Up Sandy" by Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters in 1927 on Br 182. Another title in this collection is “Davy, Davy.” Here are the lyrics from Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers, one of the earliest recorded sources:
I had a wife and she was a weaver
She wouldn’t weave and I wouldn’t either.
I had a wife and she was a Quaker,
She wouldn’t work and the Devil couldn’t make her.
Oh little girl, if you don't do better,
Put you on a boat, gonna send you down the river.
Boat began to rock and my heart began to quiver,
Oh little girl, I’m goin' down the river.
Goodbye wife and goodbye Katie,
Goodbye biscuits sopped in gravy.
Gonna get a way, write a old letter,
I’ll come back when I get a little better.
Coon Creek’s high and Coon Creek’s muddy
I’m so drunk I can’t stand steady.
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