The Pedigree of a "Western" Song
by Louise Pound
Modern Language Notes, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan., 1914), pp. 30-31
[We know now that "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" was written in dialect by Will S. Hays in 1871 for the minstrel trade. The song was the "first" country hit in 1923 when it was recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson. It has spawned an number of parodies besides the ones mentioned by Pound in her article. I included it in my 2006 book, Bluegrass Picker's Tunebook. Matteson 2011]
THE PEDIGREE OF A "WESTERN" SONG [1]
To the Editors of Mod. Lang. Notes.
SIRS:-The song The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim has, or has had, no little currency in the Middle West. It is printed among Mr. J. A. Lomax's Cowboy Songs,' and is included among the folk songs known in Missouri which have been listed by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society. Copies of it have been secured by the present writer from Nebraska and from Wyoming. It is marked by higher poetical quality than are the majority of pieces "preserved by ear rather than by eye," alongside which it ex- ists in Western popular song.
The hinges are of leather and the windows have no glass,
While the board roof lets the howling blizzards in,
And I hear the hungry cayote as he slinks up through the grass
Round the little old sod shanty on my claim.
In view of the conspicuousness of The Little Old Sod Shanty among collections of Western lyrics, and of the somewhat special quality evinced by the text, it is of interest to trace- so far as may be-its history. Like so many " Western " songs when their genealogy is followed out, it is not an indigenous piece, but is an adaptation of an older song having great popularity in its day, namely, The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, [2] a negro melody of the type familiarized by Stephen C. Fosters' "My Old Kentucky Home," or by "The Swanee River."
De hinges dey got rusted, an' de door has tumbled down,
An' de roof lets in de sunshine an' de rain,
An' de only friend I've got now is dis good old dog of mine,
In de little old log cabin in de lane.
According to Mr. A. J. Leach, secretary and historian of the Antelope County (Nebraska) pioneers, and others of his community, The Little Old Sod Shanty was printed in many Nebraska newspapers about thirty or thirty-five years ago with the statement that it could be sung to the tune of The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane. Mr. Leach says that he "has somewhere a photograph of The Little Old Sod Shanty, and on the reverse side of the card are printed the words of the song. "These cards" were printed and sold in Nebraska about thirty or thirty-five years ago." [3]
The parody adapting the negro song to Western conditions was written, Mr. Leach thinks, by someone in Nebraska. Next-to continue the history of the song-C. W. Fry wrote a religious lyric entitled The Lily of the Valley and Ira D. Sankey adapted to it the melody of The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane.
To the same tune is sung also I Have Found a Friend in Jesus. In Hymn No. 102 of the familiar, or once familiar, Gospel Hymns No. 6 is to be found the music which serves for the four songs, the negro melody, the "Western" piece, and the two religious songs. Most of Mr. Lomax's versions of The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim, he assures the present writer, come from Nebraska and the Dakotas, and this circumstance supports a Mid-West origin for the adaptation, which was then, in all probability, given currency in the manner sketched by Mr. Leach.
LOUISE POUND.
University of Nebraska.
1. New York, 1910.
2. Printed in A Treasury of Song, New York and Boston, 1882, vol. I, as "by permission," and doubt less accessible in many other old-fashioned popular collections.
3. Some residents of Lancaster County give testimony to the same effect.