Long Journey Home (Two Dollar Bill)

 Photo credit: Paula Hunt


   One of the highlights of the Worley Gardner Music Festival was Ray Hicks leading the Percival Pickers in Long Journey Home (Two Dollar Bill).  It's a great song, and Ray is a great singer, and the Pickers are a great jamp group.  To me the best part of it was that Ray and the Pickers got the entire auditorium to sing along with this one.  That was a thrill, to have so many people involved with the song. 

     As described elsewhere in this blog, the Pickers are a group of Old Time music enthusiasts headquartered in Percival Hall at West Virginia University who have been playing every week for the past 35 years or so.  In fact, you can join them each and every Tuesday night around 730 or so.   Likewise, the Worley Gardner Winter Music Festival is held in Morgantown every year in February.  Y'all come now. 

     This song is a variant of the Carter Family's Worried Man Blues, and tells the story of a Depression era fellow who managed to lose all of his money except for a two dollar bill.  Two dollars was worth something in those days; nevertheless we should understand that this was an economic disaster.  But somehow the song remains upbeat, and maybe that's how we relate to the song.  One of the functions of music is to keep people moving forward even in the face of great misfortune, including deaths, romantic disappointments and financial reversals like this one.  People have a need to sing about their lives, both the good and the bad.  

 Video Credit:  Kathryn Madison.

The Stanley Brothers recorded an early version of this song. Also on youtube is a version by Bill Monroe and Doc Watson.  I really think that it works a little better the way Ray does it however.  Namely by slowing it down a tad, it allows the rhythm to give the song a little punch. 

Bill Monroe and Doc Watson. 

  

[G]Lost all my money but a two dollar bill
Two dollar bill boys, [C] two dollar [G] bill
Lost all my money but a two dollar bill
I'm [D] on my  long journey [G] home
 

Cloudy in the West and it looks like rain
Looks like rain, boys, looks like rain
Cloudy in the West and it looks like rain
I'm on my long journey home

It's dark and a raining and I want to go home
Want to go home, boys, want to go home
Its dark and a raining and I want to go home
I'm on my long journey home

Homesick and lonesome and I'm feeling kind of blue
Feeling kind of blue, boys, feeling kind of blue
Homesick and lonesome and I'm feeling kind of blue
I'm on my long journey home

There's black smoke a rising and it surely is a train
Surely is a train boys, surely is a train
There's black smoke a rising and it surely is a train
I'm on my long journey home

Greasy Coat

           Perhaps I spend too much time pondering the social significance of Old Time lyrics.  Nevertheless, from time to time I have wondered about the meaning of “Greasy Coat,” which is an Old Time tune popular in Morgantown, among other places.  I first heard this at the Brew Pub Jam, and you can hear a  polished version from the Stewed Mulligan band's Liv and Howl album, with Keith McManus, Bob Shank, Pat McIntyre and Theodor Stump.....

http://www.stewedmulligan.com/music/Greasy_Coat.mp3 


  It’s actually almost an instrumental, but there are some short verses that are sort of  thrown in:

             I don’t drink and I don’t smoke,

            and I don’t wear no greasy coat.  

            I don’t cuss and I don’t chew,

            and I don’t go out with the girls that do.

           

            I don't kiss and I don't tell

            And all you sinners gonna go to hell

Check out this jam, with fiddler Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Rebekah Weiler and Hilarie Burhans (banjo), Rory Mullennex (guitar), and dancers Becky Hill and Lou Maiuri.

            The verse about not going out with women who cuss and chew is intended  to be humorous, of course.   A young woman who chewed tobacco would be considered quire a catch, especially back in the day.  But what is to be made about the reference to a “greasy coat?”

            Some commentators have suggested that “greasy coat” refers to a condom.  Andrew Kuntz mentions this possibility in The Traditional Tune Archive (http://www.tunearch.org/wiki/TTA ), previously known as Fiddler’s Companion (http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/).  However, although this seems logical enough, I simply can’t find any pre-internet attestation to this possible link.  I don't think this is true at all.  

      This  possbility was debated in the Banjo Hangout forum, where some banjo players were concerned that this song might be inappropriate for children due to this possible link.  

http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/184458 .  
 I shouldn't laugh, but I actually thought some of the discussion was pretty entertaining. 

            In any case, I was able to locate what I believe is a definitive early source for  the metaphor “greasy coat.”   A book with the annotated title “The Life and Adventures of Henry Smith, the Celebrated Razor Strop Man, (Embracing a Complete Collection of his Original Songs, Queer Speeches, Humorous Letters and Odd, Droll Strange and Whimisical Sayings, Now Published for the First Time, with an Accurate Portrait to which is added).  The book was published by White & Potter Printers in Boston in 1849, and contains a humorous poem, entitled Soap Ditty No. 1.  It tells the story of a handsome and virtuous fellow who is unable to find a wife because of his bad hygiene and failure to use soap.     

     Hence, his coat really is a greasy coat, and it is not until the end of the ditty that he discovers soap and is able to wash his coat and finally marry the lady of his dreams.
  

Come gentlemen and list to me,

     While a story I relate--

‘Tis all about a fine young man

     That lived in the old Bay State.

His eyes were brown his cheeks were red

     And free from tan or bloat--

His heart was brave and bold and true,

     But he wore a greasy coat.

          Oh unhappy, unhappy man was he,

          He knew not how to clean his coat

          For he’d never heard of me.  

Now this young man he loved a maid

     And tried her heart to win

But though he was a handsome man

     He could not quite come in.

 ‘Tis true he wore a black moustache

     With whiskers round his throat

And dark and curling hair to match.

     But he wore a greasy coat

          Oh unhappy, unhappy man was he,

          He knew not how to clean his coat

          For he’d never heard of me.  

“Oh lovely maid,” this young man said

     “If you will marry me,

Myself and all that I possess

     I’1l freely give to thee.

I’ve houses lands and money too

I’ll give thee every groat--

I ll give thee all, I can no more,

Myself and greasy coat.”

          Oh unhappy, unhappy man was he,

          He knew not how to clean his coat

          For he’d never heard of me.  

The maiden heard his plaintive tale,

     Then laughed right in his face,

And said:  “to marry such a man

Would bring me to disgrace.

‘Tis true you are good looking, sir,

     And are called a man of note--

But you’ll never do to marry me

     For you wear a greasy coat

          Oh unhappy, unhappy man was he,

          He knew not how to clean his coat

          For he’d never heard of me.  

“Oh cruel maid” the young man said,

     “The words that you have spoken,

Like thunderbolts have pierced my soul--

     My heart of hearts is broken.

Henceforth. I’ll live in some lone cave,

     From busy life remote;”

He heaved a sigh, then wiped his eye

     Upon his greasy coat.

          Oh unhappy, unhappy man was he,

          He knew not how to clean his coat

          For he’d never heard of me.  

Now it chanced as I was journeying

     One pleasant summer day,

I met this young man in the woods

     Of Penn-syl-va-ni-a

His eyes were sunk his cheeks were pate

     He seemed bereft of hope;

I took him by the button hole,

And sold him a cake of soap

          Oh he was happy a happy man was he

          For he could clean his greasy coat

          With the soap he bought of me.

With coat brushed up as good as new,

      He hied him home again;

Again he sought his lady love,

     Nor did he sigh in vain.

He asked her if she’d marry him,

     Then exposed his coat to view--

She looked and blushing gently sighed

     “I don t care if I do.”

          Oh he was happy a happy man was he

          For he could clean his greasy coat

          With the soap he bought of me.

            The meaning here is clear.  The young fellow is a laughing stock because of his bad hygiene, and saves his romance when he learns how to use soap for the very first time to wash his greasy coat.  The “greasy coat” is to be taken literally, and thus in our Old Time song, the term no doubt would have reminded audiences of the late 19th or early 20th Century  of a humorous buffoon that does not know how to wash himself or his clothing with soap.  

            For me, that’s it, case closed, end of story.  The Greasy Coat is just a reference from 19th century vaudeville, and not a reference to a condom at all.  So you moralists can go ahead and teach this  song to youngsters without fear of corrupting them (just make sure that they wash up afterwards!).

            One of the oldest recorded versions that I could find is from Edden Hammons of Webster County, West Virginia from 1947.  You can find that one on youtube.com.  Other versions that I like are from a 2008 Augusta jam at the top of this article, as well as a cut  from Rachel Eddy's cd, Hand on the Plow:

http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=20785699&ac=now 

There is also a really fine version as an extra cut on her cd, Track 13, which is from the Morgantown jam or perhaps Clifftop.  In any case, there is an incredible blending between Bob Shank on Hammer Dulcimer and I. B. Browning on trumpet.  

    I was also impressed by this very unorthodox but very good arrangement performed on clawhammeer ukelele by Aaron Keim:

 

Gospel Plow

            My new favorite song is by Rachel Eddy, the Gospel Plow.  I've been trying to get a copy of her CD album for a while, and finally snagged a few copies from Rachel herself at a New Year's party in Morgantown WV (no doubt, I am hanging out with a fast crowd these days!).  Rachel was born and raised in Morgantown, but a few years ago she was kidnapped by Vikings and now lives in Stockholm Sweden, with her husband, Kristian Herner.  You can hear it from her myspace.com link here: 

Gospel Plow 

  
You can also check out the other songs on the album (in abbreviated fashion) from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PECX9G/ref=dm_sp_alb 
 

            Although Rachel is known as an Old Time musician, her repertoire also encompasses folk and blues and much more.  Gospel plow is  a blues gospel song once performed by Mahalia Jackson (under the title Keep Your Hand to the Plow).  Bob Dylan, amazingly enough, recorded a much different version with a totally different sound.  Frankly, Dylan’s version doesn’t do much for me, yet Dylan’s version may have inspired the Old Crow Medicine Show, who cut a version a while back.  The Woodticks (with Rachel on fiddle, Keith McManus on banjo, Bob Shank on hammer dulcimer and Karen Wade on guitar) also have a version on youtube.  I didn’t know there was such a thing as hammer dulcimer blues, but I guess there is now.  

            If you want to play along, I’ve transcribed the lyrics and included some chords that kind of fit, although I’m by no means sure that they are the same ones used by Rachel.  

           

E                      A                       E

Mary wore three links of chain

E              A                      E
Every link was Jesus name

                 b7                 A                    E
Had her hand on that plow, hold right on

A                       G

Hold right on, hold right on

                   A                G                       E

Put your hand on the plow hold right on.

Mathew, Mark, Luke and John
All my  prophets holdin’ on
Got their  hand on the plow, hold right on

Hold right on, hold right on

Put your hand on the plow hold right on.

Hold right on, hold right on

Put your hand on the plow hold right on.

All the streets are paved with in gold,

In heaven I am told

Put your hand on the plow hold right on.

Hold right on, hold right on

Put your hand on the plow hold right on.

Cause there’s no gamblers  jokers, thieves

No liars and no cheats

Got their hands on the plow hold right on

Hold right on, hold right on

Put your hand on the plow hold right on.

When I get to the glory land,

I’m going to play in their band

Got my hand on the plow, hold right on

I’ve got my hand on the gospel plow,

and I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey  now.

Got my hand on the plow hold right on.

Hold right on, hold right on

Got my hand on the plow hold right on.

Hold right on, hold right on

Mississippi Sawyer

  What in the world is a Mississippi Sawyer?  There are a few different theories.  Literally, it is a person who saws wood for a living.  Another possbility is that it is a partially uprooted tree that posed a hazard to barges going up and down the Mississippi River.  It's also possible that it is simply a fiddler, or someone who "saws" away at the fiddle. 
    In a book called Southern Mountain Dulcimer, Wayne Erbson cites Ira Ford, in Traditional Music of America (1940), with the story that the name comes from a saw mill operator who was also a fiddle player.  He played the tune at a giant four-day long celebration of the opening of the saw mill.  The original name of the tune was The Downfall of Paris, but ever since that party, the tune was known as "Mississippi Sawyer"  after the owner of the sawmill.  ( http://books.google.com/books?id=oakbS2YVosEC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=mississippi+sawyer+ira+ford&source=bl&ots=RwdK8yjFb5&sig=Q_DzL4bRl3E0hkbrA2nYai3ICsA&hl=en#v=onepage&q=mississippi%20sawyer%20ira%20ford&f=false / ).  

     This makes about as much sense as anything else I've seen on this song, so I'm going with that as the best explanation.   

      The Downfall of Paris was published in England in 1816.  In some cases, the song was still known by that name even in the US in the 20th Century, although the title  "Mississippi Sawyer" was also well known in the 19th Century, consistent with the story about the party at the sawmill. 


   There were lyrics in French (Ca Ira) which celebrated the French Revolution, but these apparently have nothing at all to do with Mississippi or sawyers.  Likewise there have been a few attempts to create English language lyrics for the song over the years, but none of them have stuck.  Mississippi Sawyer is an instrumental tune. 

   Here is a version from my friends Rachel Eddy and Kristian Herner from Sweden, with Bill Fahy. This version is kind of laid back, and It's perfect for playing along with.

I also like this version by Annie and Mac, which is played at a nice even tempo, with a perfect view of the left hand technique for banjo and guitar,  This is really helpful for those of us trying to learn the song....but Annie and Mac are playing in the key of C rather D. I think that most of the known world plays this song in D, so if you learn via Annie and Mac, you will want to capo on 2 in order to coexist with the rest of the world.  
   At the Trolley Stop, we are always in D, and we generally kick it up a notch or two. 

 
A PART 

D---   D---   G---   G--- 
D---   D---   A7--- D---
 
B PART

D---   D---  A7--- A7--- 
D---   D---  A7--- D---

My LIttle Georgia Rose

     One thing you can do to create controversy is to start a conversation about whether Old Time musicians ought to play Bluegrass or not. This is a bit like Hatfields fraternizing with McCoys, so watch out or you might get hit!

    On the other hand, many of the casual listeners are not even aware of the difference.  If the band has a banjo, that usually signals "Bluegrass" to many casual fans. 

    So what is the difference?  Well, you get different answers from different people, but to me the main difference is that bluegrass is characterized by a fingerpicked banjo (a style invented by Earl Scruggs, imho, with later styles emerging thereafter).    Bluegrass became stylized around 1945 when Earl and guitar player Lester Flatt joined mandolin player Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.   Hence Bluegrass often has a guitar lead.  By contrast,  Old Time  has a rhythmic "clawhammer" style banjo, and usually a fiddle lead.  This music existed before bluegrass.  Not everyone agrees, but I believe Old Time is more conducive to jams than other styles, because it is easier to blend several clawhammer banjos, whereas the Scruggs style is so overpowering that it is hard to have more than one banjo player in the group.

So that brings us to the next point.  Is it kosher for Old Time jams to jam to songs from Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass? 

At the Trolley stop, we've started to do My Little Georgia Rose, with Ryan playing lead vocals and guitar.  However, we still play it with an Old Time sound, usually with two or three guitars and a couple of clawhammer banjos.  I'm by no means an authority, as probably the weakest musician in our group, but in my humble opinion it works very well and the fan response has been great.

However, I do have a few observations to share about the great Bill Monroe.  One thing about his songs is that often the sentiment doesn't match the song.  For example, Little Georgia Rose tells about a sweet young woman that the singer has a big crush on. It is a very sweet and sentimental lyric.

But the melody is completely different.  It's a very powerful melody, almost like a hymn.  Let's just say that you could play it for the Heavyweight Champion of the World as easily as some little sweetheart in George!   In particular, the chorus is sung by a lot of power, both by Bill Monroe back in the day, and by the Trolley Stoppers today.  We really boom "She's MY LITTLE GEORGIA ROSE!"   This is actually not that unusual in Bill Monroe's songs. Check out his version of Shady Grove (Ray Hicks has two great version on his new album http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_2039956 Shady Grove 2 is the more traditional version, while Shady Grove 1 is based on the Monroe version).  The line "I'm going back to Harlan!" makes it sound llike something dramatic is about to happen.  

      Once you get your mind around that little quirk, the rest of it starts to hang together.  The fact is, Monroe may be considered the Father of Bluegrass to many (though in my humble opinion Earl Scruggs was the single most influential individual, albeit in Monroe's band), but his songs are certainly amenable to the Old Time style. 

     At the Trolley Stop, we play this in the key of C. The Bill Monroe video, which comes to us courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry circa 1957, is in the key of B-flat, meaning the guitar needs to be capo'ed at the fourth fret to play along. 
  
     So for what it's worth, my take is, heck yeah we can do Bill Monroe songs in an Old Time jam.  It works great with a fiddle lead and a couple of clawhammer banjos playing along side. Just don't use no Moog synthesizers or nothin', y'hear?

 

My Little Georgia Rose
Written and recorded by Bill Monroe

                     G(C)      C(F)            G(C)

Now come and listen to my story

   G(C)                         D(G)

A  story that I know is true

                 G(C)         C(F)          G(C)  

About a Rose that blooms in Georgia

        G(C)        D(G)                      G(C)

With a hair of gold and a heart so true

        C(F)                                          G(C)

Way down past the Blue Ridge Mountains 

 G(C)                                  D(G)

Way down where tall pines grow

G(C)                                       C(F)

Lives my sweetheart of the mountains

G(C)             D(G)                  G(C)

She's my little Georgia Rose 

Her mother left her with another
A care free life she had planned
The baby now is a lady
The one her mother could not stand

Chorus

We'd often sing those songs together
I watch her do her little part
She'd smile at me when I would tell her
That she was my own sweetheart 

Raise a Rough House Tonight

This song is known by several names and different pronunciations (kind of like listening to a speech by former President Bush).  In Morgantown, it's known as "Raise a Rough House Tonight"  but others know it as "Raise a Ruckus Tonight"   Ruckus can be pronounced so that it rhymes with "Duck Us" or with "Kook Us."

     

      One of the fellows in Mudcat.org  says that the song dates to at least the early 19th century in the form of a slave song.  To me this is very plausible based on the structure of the song and the leader/response pattern of singing the lyrics.  A slave version of the song found its way into print in 1922 (Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes, published in 1922, p. 90.  This doesn't even come close to being politically correct, however, as the N-word is used throughout.     

   The East River Band version, like the Talley version, tells the grim story of a slaveowner woman who promised to set her slaves free upon her death, and one of the slaves got tired of waiting and took matters into his own hand.  One could not understand "Mistress" to be the fellow's wife or girlfriend, but almost certainly a slaveowner. The lyrics appended below allude to the same story, though the Mistress is replaced by a Master.

     The image of a boat floating down a river suggests that a version of this song may have been popular in minstrel shows, some of which were held on the riverboats.  It's easy to imagine that Raise a Ruckas may have been performed in Minstrel shows on the riverboats, but I have found no direct proof of that.  

 Minstrel shows, such as The Virginia Minstrels and  "The Celebrated Negro Melodies"  represent a rich source of musical heritage, despite their questionable attitudes on race. 

John Heneghan and Eden Brower and the East River Band perform this version, with Robert Crumb on the lefty mando (strung for a righty no less!), Dom Flemons (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Joe Lauro (Lone Sharks).



Blues musician Buster Brown (not the kid who lives in your shoe) recorded a New Orleans version in 1960.

Best of all, Uncle Earl has a version of this song, which you can find here:  

http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=70954240&ac=now

Uncle Earl is an all-female band, not the least of whom is Rachel Eddy Herner of Morgantown (now Stockholm).  Speaking of Uncle Earl,  one of the past members is Rayna Gellert, the daughter of Dan Gellert, who is a very talented fiddle player who occasionally drops in at the Trolley Stop in Dayton.  How about that? 

Raise a Ruckus

(choice of Jesse Fuller in Something to Sing About! - The personal Choices of America's Folk Singers, collected and arranged by Milton Okun, McMillian, 1968, pp 63-67.)

CHORUS:
(A) Come a-long, lit-tle chil-dren come a-long
(A) While the moon is shin-ing (E) bright.
(A) Get on (A7) bo-ard,- (D7)down the ri-ver float,
(A) Raise a (E7) ruck-us to- (A) night!

VERSE:
(1) (A) Love my wife, I love my ba-baby,
Raise a (Bm) ruck-us to- (A) night.
(A) Love my bis-cuits pick-led in gra-vy,
Raise a (E) ruck-us to- (A) night.
(A) Save me the ham-burg,
give me the gra-vy, (Bm) Raise a ruck-us to- (A) night.
(A) Love my gis-cuits sopped in gra-vy,
Raise a (E7) ruck-us to- (A) night.

(2) My old master said to me,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
When he'd die he's set me free,
Raise a ruckus tonight.
He lived so long his head got bald,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
He got out o' the notion of dying at all,
Raise a ruckus tonight.

(3) Old hen sitting on a fodder stack,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
Hawk came along and struck he in the back,
Raise a ruckus tonight.
Old hen flew and the biddies too,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
What in the world is the rooster gonna do?
Raise a ruckus tonight.

All Night Long (Richmond Blues)

     All Night Long, which is also known as the All Night Long Blues or the Richmond Blues, is a great jam tune.  It's a very simple blues progression, and the chorus only has three words, so even I can remember it. At  Morgantown Brewing Company, we played it in the key of G, while at the Trolley Stop in Dayton Ohio, we played it in the key of C.  

Dan Gellert from Dayton way, nails Richmond Blues at Clifftop, 2013.  

Burnett and Rutherford recorded All Night Long in 1928.  They are actually in the key of B-flat, which is the Antichrist key for intermediate level players (one way out is to try the capo on 3rd and play as if were the key of G). 

Clarence Tom Ashley,  the fellow holding the guitar, and the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers performed a version of All Night Long, also in the late 1920's.  Ashley would eventually become friends with a young Doc Watson and perform together at various venues including the Newport Folk Festival  in the early 1960s.   A Folkways version by Clarence Tom and Doc is linked here (for whatever reason I'm not able to imbed it in the blog):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ77jez37Mo

The lyrics are not particularly sophisticated. They tell  the story of a fellow (with a wife and family) who left home in order to pursue some other woman.  "I coulda been sleeping in mama's bed" is referring to an ex-wife and not to be taken literally (unless of course, the composer has even more problems than the average blues singer!).  And, as is typical in a blues song, the woman is blamed for everything.  "On account of you....I left my home...I'd rather be dead than be treated this way."

This is a more recent version, and has tap dancing accompaniment.  This is guaranteed to help your sense of rhythm! 

Here's a version from John Heneghan (guitar) and Eden Brower (resonator uke + legs) and the East River String Band with some help from Robert Crumb (Cheap Suit Serenaders), Pat Conte (Canebreak Rattlers & Legendary Otis Brothers), Dom Flemons (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Eli Smith, Craig Judelman & Walker Shepard (The Dust Busters), Ernesto Gomez (Brotherhood Of The Jug Band Blues).

G   C  G   G   Burnett and Rutherford  =  C    F   C   C

G   D  G   G   (capo on 3)                    =  C    G   G   C

G  C   G   G                                         =   C   F    C   C

G  D   G   G                                         =   C   G    G  C

***********************************************************

Honey all night long, Baby all night long
Got the Richmond Blues, Baby all night long

I’m going to the depot
Look on the board
If the train ain’t here
Somewhere's on the road Well I left the country
And I moved to town
That's when my baby
Was done and gone.

Honey all night long, Baby all night long,
Got the Richmond Blues, Baby all night long.
 (Fiddle) 

If I’d have minded
What mama said
I could-a been sleeping
In Mama’s bed

Me being young
And foolish too
I left my home
On account of you.

On account of you,
On account of you
I left my home
On account of you.

I'd rather be dead;
And in my grave
Than be in this town
Treated this a-way.

All night long, All night long,
All night long, All night long.

Ain’t got no woman
Ain't got no kin
Ain't got nobody
To be bothered with.

All night long, All night long,
All night long, All night long.

(Fiddle break)

So if I live
And don’t get killed
Gonna make my home
In Louisville.

All night long, all night long
All night long, From midnight on.

(Fiddle break)

All night long, All night long
All night long, All night long.

(Fiddle break)