Sourwood Mountain- Earl Keaton 1939
[This is a popular dance and fiddle tune with nonsense lyrics. There are two Sourwood Mountains in the Appalachian region-- one in Virginia and the other in Tennessee. it's been widely collected and there area number of early country recordings.
R. Matteson 2014]
SOURWOOD MOUNTAIN
1. Way down yonder on Sourwood Mountain,
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
So many pretty girls I can't count 'em,
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
My true love lives over the river;
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
Few more jumps and I'll be with her ;
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
Big dogs bark and little dogs bite 'em
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
Big girls court and little girls fight 'em,
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
My true love lives up a holler;
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
She won't come and I won't foller
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
Say, old man, I want your daughter
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
To cook my bread and fetch me water,
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
My true love's a blue-eyed daisy,
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
If I don't get her I'll go crazy,
Hay de inktummy diddle eye day!
Written in 1939 by Earl Keaton, of Smithville, Tennessee, R.F.D.5. He does not know where he learned it, but has known it all his life. His writing of the nonsense jingle used as a refrain was "Hay de inktummy dlddle eye day!" This was compared to the above by Miss Eurnice Beckwith, who verified all the other words. Elzie McBride also verified these words as common to the section represented by Smithville, Tennessee .