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Shove that Pig's Foot a Little Bit Further into the Fire
Traditional Old-time Song and Breakdown;
ARTIST: Mike Seegar.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: Shove the/that Pig's Foot a Little Bit Further into the Fire
Curley, Clyde. Songer, Susan; & Clyde Curley (eds.) / Portland Collection. Contra..., Portland Collection, Fol (1997), p185
Mates, Tony. Silberberg, Gene (ed.) / Complete Fiddle Tunes I Either Did or Did Not., Silberberg, Fol (2005), p178
Molsky, Bruce; and Big Hoedown. Bruce Molsky and Big Hoedown, Rounder 0421, CD (1997), trk# 6
OTHER NAMES: Ruby With The Red Eyes That Sparkle;
SOURCES: fiddler and violin maker Armin Barnett and Jere Canote (Seattle, Washington) [Phillips, Songer]; Tony Mates [Silberberg]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 222. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 145. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 185. Rounder CD0421, Bruce Molsky - “Big Hoedown” (1997).
NOTES: A pig's foot is a blacksmith's tool that has a kind of cleft foot on the end of it, basically like a crowbar. A hunk of metal that needs to be worked on and shaped is also sometimes referred to as pig metal, or pig iron.
It was done in the movie "Cold Mountain" in the key of D as "Ruby With The Red Eyes That Sparkle".[Dirk] Powell related a story about his work on the soundtrack to the film Cold Mountain. He and Baugus recorded the tune "Shove That Pigs Foot A Little Further In The Fire" and the film makers changed the title to "Ruby With The Eyes That Sparkle." "That's what Hollywood can do for you", he deadpanned.
Ruby With the Eyes That Sparkle is also on the Blackford Fiddle Group's web site.
The Digital Library of Appalachia features a short recording of Marcus Martin playing Pig's Foot. Mike Iverson's awesome Clawhammer Tab & Instruction page has posted a banjo recording and corresponding tab for Pig's Foot.
Turns out that There's a great video on YouTube of Bruce Molsky playing Pig's Foot with Sharon Shannon, Aly Bain, and others. There's also a cool video of Anna Lindblad fiddling Pig's Foot with Nic Gareiss doing some great clogging.
Kuntz: SHOVE THAT PIG'S FOOT A LITTLE FARTHER IN THE FIRE. Old-Time, Breakdown. G Major. Standard tuning. AB (Silberberg): AABB (Phillips, Songer). The tune was originally recorded by western North Carolina fiddler Martin Marcus on an LP where he played it as a duet with his son Wayne. Marcus also recorded for the Library of Congress in the 1940's. Joel Shimberg (who says “Surely it’s a barbecue song”) learned the following verse to the (low part of the) tune from Mike Seeger:
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Shove that pig's foot into the fire,
Do it now, Miss Liza,
Shove that pig's foot into the fire,
Do it now, Miss Liza.
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