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My Little Dony (see Liza Jane/Goodbye Liza Jane)
Old-Time, Breakdown & Song Air- Mississippi.
ARTIST: Charles Long from "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" Southern Culture AH002, LP (1985), cut# 38.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Charles Long - "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" Southern Culture AH002, LP (1985), cut# 38.
OTHER NAMES: "Oh, My Little Darling"
RELATED TO: "Goodbye Liza Jane;" "Liza Jane;" “Run Mollie Run”
SOURCES: Library of Congress
NOTES: A Major. AEAE. The tune belongs to the "Liza Jane" family of tunes, but was recorded elsewhere in Mississippi as "Oh My Little Darling" on the same 1939 collecting trip for the Library of Congress that Charles Long's version was recorded. The tune has the same fine phrase as "Goodbye Liza Jane" as recorded by Georgia musician Fiddling John Carson.
The first verse of “My Little Dony” also appears in 'Run Mollie Run' was recorded on October 7, 1927 in Chicago and issued as Vocalion 1141 by Henry Thomas. For the 'cherry' stanza in Thomas' song, a reference is a Virginian song in Dorothy Scarborough's 'On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs':
Lips jes' like a cherry
Cheeks jes' like a rose
How I love dat yaller gal
Lord Almighty knows! (Dorothy Scarborough's 'On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs')
Cherry, cherry
Cherry like a rose
I love that pretty yellow gal
God Almighty knows ('Run Mollie Run' by Henry Thomas 1927)
Here are the lyrics to “My Little Dony” from Charles Long:
Eyes just like a cherry, cheeks just like a rose,
How I love my Dony, Got in Heaven knows.
Fair you well my Dony, Fair you well I say,
Fair you well my Dony, Come another day.
You can ride the old grey mare, I will ride the roan,
When you go a-courtin', Let my Dony alone.
Preacher in the pulpit, Bible in his hand,
Said he wouldn't preach no more, Till he got another dram.
Wish I had a band box, Put my Dony in,
Take her out and kiss her, Put her back again.
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