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Shear Em/Shear Um/ Share Em/ Cotton Bagging/ Take Me Back To Tulsa
Old-Time and Bluegrass Breakdown; Southern US; Florida Texas. Used by Bob Wills for his song- Take Me Back To Tulsa
ARTIST: T. C. Fertic Kissamee FL, Folksongs From Florida 1950
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1800s; 1941 recording by Wills
RECORDING INFO: Take Me Back to Tulsa [Me IV-E 18] - Wills, Bob/Duncan, Tommy
Rm - Sam Taylor's Tune; Smoke Behind the Clouds; Going Down to Memphis; Old Hat (Leake County Reveler's)
Sm - Shear 'Em/Share Em; Walkin' Georgia Rose
Flat Mountain Girls. Flat Mountain Girls, Flat Mountain --, CD (2003), trk# 6
Hazel And Alice. Who's That Knocking, Verve/Folkways FVS-900, LP (1966), trk# 8
Jenkins, Snuffy; and Pappy Sherrill. Crazy Water Barn Dance, Rounder 0059, LP (1976), trk# 2 (Sharon)
Kizzar, Tim. In an Arizona Town, AFF AFF 33-3, LP (197?), trk# 4 [1960s?]
Knopf, Bill. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1984/06,p34
Mitchum, Johnny. Johnny Mitchum, Sircy 7304, LP (1972), trk# A.05
Ryan, Buck. Fiddler on the Rocks, Rebel REB 1529, LP (1974), trk# 6
Texas Playboys. Texas Music, Heritage (Galax) 066, LP (1986), trk# A.04a
Wills, Bob; and the Texas Playboys. Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 2. Best of the Tiffanys., Edsel ED 322, LP (1984), trk# A.01
RELATED TO: Sam Taylor's Tune; Smoke Behind the Clouds; Going Down to Memphis; Old Hat (Leake County Reveler's)
OTHER NAMES: “Shear Um;“ "Cotton Bagging," " Sharon," "Walkin' Georgia Rose,”
SOURCES: Kuntz; The Carter Brothers and Son via the New Lost City Ramblers [Kuntz, Phillips]. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 351-352. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 206. Flying Fish 102, New Lost City Ramblers - "20 Years/Concert Performances" (1978). Folkways 2492, New Lost City Ramblers- "String Band Instrumentals" (1964). OKeh 45202 (78 kkRPM), The Carter Brothers and Son.
NOTES: Fiddler George Custer from Salt Springs comes from a family of fiddler's, his Uncle was Slim Rutland. Rutland called "Shear Em" by the name "Cotton Bagging." Richard Seaman learned the tune as Shear Em in Kissamme Park, FL. Chubby Wise knew the tunes as "Sharon," and also knew it by "Cotton Bagging."
The lyrics to Shear Em appear the the song, Steamboat, by Charles L. Long, from Quitman, Mississippi and also in Folksongs of Florida p. 184.
Kerry Belch: I did a presentation on this tune family a number of years ago at the
Florida State Fiddlers Association convention. It seems to me that nearly everyone knows it. Here in Florida, they call it Share 'Em. Coastal Carolina fiddlers call it Share Around Ladies. Tink Queer, in western Pennsylvania called it Old Sharon. Robert Russell Wise recorded it for the Library of Congress in Madison, FL, as "Tiny Wise" and was mistitled. The LC lists it as "Sharon", but Chubby actually called it Share 'Em. Also found as Shear the Sheep, Bobbie. Lloyd Baldwin told me that most of the older Florida fiddlers he knew played it as "Share 'Em".
"The tune 'Take Me Back To Tulsa' was part of an old folk tune handed down from my grandfather," explained Wills. Will's says the song "had many verses" and Meade says the verses are found in the song Steamboat, but I have found the lyrics yet. There might more info in books about Wills regard Take Me Back to Tulsa and how Wills came up with the melody. Walking Georgia Rose, an instrumental has the same melody.
NOTES on Take Me Back To Tulsa: A Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys western swing hit whose title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. The Wills title surely came from the cameo Wills and his band made in the Tex Ritter movie, Take Me Back to Oklahoma in 1940.
The verse lyrics by Tommy Duncan appear in other songs and could be considered arranging traditional material. The tune played by Wills is also based on an existing melody and is listed under "Shear Em" by Meade with earlier recordings by the Scottsdale string band (Share Em- 1928); and the Pelican Wildcats (Walkin' Georgia Rose- 1931). Fiddler Chubby Wise confirmed the tune was "Shear Em" in the book, A Florida fiddler: the life and times of Richard Seaman By Gregory Hansen, Richard Seaman.
TAKE ME BACK TULSA- Bob Wills 1941
Music by Bob Wills; Words by Tommy Duncan
Where's that girl with the red dress on, some folks call her Dinah.
Stole my heart away from me way down in Louisiana.
Take me back to Tulsa, I'm too young to marry.
Take me back to Tulsa, I'm too young to wed.
The little bee sucks the blossom, the big bee gets the honey.
Little man raises cotton, the big man gets the money.
Oh walking, talking, Susie, oh walking, talking, Susie.
Oh walking, talking, Susie, oh walking, talking, Susie.
I always wear a great big smile, I never do look sour.
Travel all around the country, playing by the hour.
Shear Um From T. C. Fertic Kissamee FL, Folksongs From Florida 1950
Makes no difference how you shear 'um
Makes no difference how or when
Makes no difference how You shear 'um
Just so you shear 'um clean.
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