REFERENCES
The selected bibliographical and discographical references included below are
intended as guides for background reading and comparative listening.
Side A, Band 1: GREEN FIELDS OF AMERICA
This appears under the same title in 1,000 Fiddle Tunes (Chicago: M.
M. Cole, 1940), p. 17, and under "Molly Brallaghan" in F. Roche's
Collection of Irish Airs, Marches, and Dance Tunes, Volume I (Dublin: Pigott,
1911), p. 62.
Side A, Band 2: STONEY POINT .
Ira W. Ford in Traditional Music of America (New York: E. P. Dutton,
1940)
gives two variants under different names: "Wild Horse," p. 35, and
"Hop Along Sally," p. 64. Compare Tom Owens, "Stoney Point,"
Gennett 3303.
Side A, Band 3: FAIR FANNY MOORE (Laws 0 38)
For further references see G. Malcolm Laws, American Balladry from British
Broadsides (Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 19 7) [Publications of the
American-Folklore Society, Bibliographical Series, Volume VIII ], pp. 244-245.
Cecil Goodwin had learned this ballad from his mother, then forgotten part of
the text. In 1957 his brother sent him a new set of words from an
unidentified woman in Renfro Valley, Kentucky, which Cecil set to his mother's
tune.
Side A, Band 4: OLD AGE PENSION
One of a handful of songs prompted by various social reform plans during New
Deal days, this one was written by Roy Acuff, and was recorded by him as
"The Old Age Pension Check," Vocalion-Okeh 05244 and Conqueror 9432.
Recently the New Lost City Ramblers included it in their Songs from the
Depression, Folkways FH 5264.
Side A, Band 5 : Crow CREEK -- JAY BIRD -- TENNESSEE WAGGONER
A. CROW CREEK
So far we have not located other references to this tune. Mrs. Elam learned
it from her Uncle Jack Stipp.
B. JAY BIRD
Ira W. Ford gives this tune under the same title in Traditional Music of
America, p. 96. See also Samuel P. Bayard, "A Miscellany of Tune
Notes," Studies in Folklore in Honor of Distinguished Service Professor
Stith Thompson, edited by W. Edson Richmond (Bloomington: Indiana University,
1957) [Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series no. 9], pp. 151-176. In
this article Bayard gives a 1790 version of this tune called "The Breast
Knots," and mentions a 1758 Scottish reference to a reel called "The
Lady's Breast Knot," pp. 157-158; he also gives a version from Pennsylvania
called "Daddy Shot a Bear," pp. 157, 158, 173.
C. TENNESSEE WAGGONER
See Ira W. Ford, Traditional Music of America, p. 28, for two variants,
"The Wagoneer" and "Wagner." See also Lloyd Shaw,
"Waggoner," in Cowboy Dances (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1952),
p. 387, and Don Messer, "Johnny Wagoner" in Way Down East Fiddlin'
Tunes (Toronto: Gordon V. Thompson, 1948) , p. 3.
Side A, Band 6: THE BLACK SHEEP
In the Journal of American Folkore, Volume 45 (1932), pp. 174- 175, Mellinger
E. Henry refers to a North Carolina text very similar to that given by Sigmund Spaeth in
Weep Some More, My Lady (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday, Page, 1927) p. 173-174 . The song is referred to as
early as 1911 in Hubert G. Shearin and Josiah H. Combs, A Syllabus of Kentucky
Folk-Songs (Lexington: Transylvania Printing Company, 1911) [Transylvania
University Studies in English, Volume III], p. 33. Compare Stonewall Jackson on
The Dynamic Stonewall Jackson, Columbia CL 1391.
Side A, Band 7: THE LETTER EDGED IN BLACK
See Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume 4 (Columbia: The State Historical
Society of Missouri, 1950), pp. 162-163,
and Sigmund Spaeth, Weep Some More My Lady, pp. 38-39. Compare Vernon Dalhart,
Edison 5086 (a four minute cylinder).
Side A, Band 8: DRINK ‘ER DOWN
"Drink Her Down," no. 82 in the Emma Dusenberry Collection of Arkansas
Folk Songs, recorded for the Library of Congress by Laurence Powell, Sidney
Robertson Cowell, and John Lomax is related to Lyle Mayfield's song. The
stanzaic pattern with its "drink her down" refrain, the tune, and the
sequence based on drinking are all familiar to singers of college songs, e. g.
"Here's to good old beer, drank her down ...for it makes you feel so
queer;" the numerical sequence is likewise familiar from such pieces as
"Roll me over in the clover" and "I gave her kisses one."
Such songs are bawdy as often as not; see the many texts in the Indiana
University Folklore Archive. Compare Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers,
"Drink ‘er Down," Columbia 15188-D.
Side A, Band 10: GREEN CORN
This piece is part of a family complex performed either as an instrumental or
a vocal under names such as "Green Corn," "Hot Corn," and
various local titles. Examples are: "Barnyard Banjo Pickin'" by
Stringbean (David Akeman), Old Time Banjo Pickin' and Singin', Starday SLP 142
and "Green Corn" by Huddie Ledbetter, Leadbelly Memorial: Volume 2,
Stinson SLP 19.
Jim Goodwin's banjo is tuned in the normal G tuning, with the fourth string
tuned to C: the song is played in C. The right-hand picking style is closer o a
classical guitar style than to the standard banjo styles. This style involves
the use of the thumb and first three fingers, the thumb playing the lead,
followed either by the first, second, and third fingers in succession, or by the
third, second, and first fingers. Goodwin learned this style on the guitar from
the Bailey sisters (in central Illinois) and adapted it to the banjo. See also
the note for "Apples in the Summertime": (Side B, Band 5).
Side A, Band 10: HASTE TO THE WEDDING
Samuel P. Bayard in Hill Country Tunes (Philadelphia: American Folklore
Society, 1944) [Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume
39] item 22, discusses this
piece. Compare Jean Carignan on Old Time Fiddle Tunes, Folkways FG 3531.
Side A, Band 11: SALLY GOODIN
This tune can be found in Ira W. Ford, Traditional Music of America, p.
64.
David S. McIntosh gives a square dance call but no music for "Sally
Gooden" in his Sing and Swing from Southern Illinois (Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University, 19 , pp. 18-19. Compare Riley Pucket, "Sally
Goodwin." Columbia 15102-D; Vester Jones on Traditional Music from Grayson
and Carroll Counties, Folkways FS 3811.
Side B, Band 1: BILLY IN THE LOW GROUND
See the discussion by Samuel P. Bayard in Hill Country Tunes, item 4
"Jinny in the Lowlands," and item 5 "Reel." For recorded
versions compare Fiddlin' Red Herron on Square Dance Music, King 562; The
Lonesome Strangers on The 37th Old-Time Fiddlers Convention at Union Grove,
North Carolina, Folkways FA 2434.
Side B, Band 2: BUFFALO NICKEL
This appears under the title "Old Taylor" in Ira W. Ford's
Traditional Music of America, p. 51. Compare Peter Bates, The Lark in the
Morning, Tradition TLP 1004, where it is called simply "Reel." Jim
Goodwin knows this tune as "White Horse," and Mrs. Elam knows it also by the
name "Kinmundy," after the town in Illinois where she lived as a young
girl.
Side B, Band 3: MY LITTLE GIRL
Compare Walter C. Peterson, "My Little Girl," Gennett 6102 (music
only). Cecil Goodwin learned this song (composed by Albert von Tilzer) during
World War I and sings the following "straight" version:
My little girl, you know I love you,
Though you're many miles away.
My little girl, I'm dreaming of you,
And I long for you each day.
I see the flowers down in the wildwood,
where you promised to be true.
My little girl, you know I love you,
And I'm coming back to you.
After learning the song he picked up the parody presented on this record.
Similar types of parodies appear for "After the Ball" and "The
Old Maid and the Thief."
Side B, Band 4: BILLY RICHARDSON'S LAST RIDE
Cecil Goodwin's ballad derives from various recordings by Vernon Dalhart such
as Columbia 15098-D, Okeh 40685, Brunswick 102, Banner 1879.
Side B, Band 5: APPLES IN THE SUMMERTIME
The guitar is tuned like a 5-string banjo as follows: lst string D, 2nd
string B, 3rd string G, 4th string C, 5th string G, and 6th string G (although in this piece the 6th string is
never used). The main fingering technique consists of the thumb striking first,
followed by first, second, and third fingers successively. Jim Goodwin learned
this piece from the Bailey sisters, residents of central Illinois. A tablature
of this piece has been prepared and will appear in a future issue of Autoharp,
the University of Illinois Campus Folksong Club's publication. Jim remembers one
verse, which belongs to the "Cindy" complex:
Apples in the summertime,
peaches in the fall,
If I can't have the one I want,
I won't have none at all.
The first part of the tune is well known especially among children, as a
traditional piano piece for one or two people, using principally the
black keys. The background noise was caused by someone's rattling metal
measuring spoons during the recording session.
Side B, Band 6: .OLD COON DOG -- MISSISSIPPI SAWYER
A: OLD COON DOG
We have not been able to place this tune in its tradition.
B. MISSISSIPPI SAWYER
See Ira W. Ford, Traditional Music of America, p. 32. Compare Glen Smith on
Traditional Music from Grayson and Carroll Counties, Folkways FS 3811.
Side B, Band 7: PUT MY LITTLE SHOES AWAY
See Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume IV, pp. 178-180; and Charles
Neely, Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois (Menasha, Wisconsin: George Banta,
1938) , pp. 257-258. Compare the recording by Rose Lee and Joe Maphis
on Rose Lee and Joe Maphis, Capitol T 1778, and Hylo Brown's Hylo
Brown, Capitol
T 1168.
Side B, Band 8: MISSISSIPPI FLOOD
Compare the various Vernon Dalhart recordings, such as Columbia 15146-D,
Victor 20611, Brunswick 153, Okeh 45107.
Side B, Band 9: TRAMP ON THE STREET
The most influential recording is that by Molly O'Day, "Tramp on the Street," Columbia 20187. Compare Jeanie West's rendition on
Roaming the
Blue Ridge with Jeanie West, Prestige International PRINT 13038.
Side B, Band 10: FARTHER ALONG
Compare The Maddox Brothers and Rose on A Collection of Standard Sacred
Songs, King 609. This piece (as well as
the following two) is widely printed in gospel songbooks and folios.
Side B, Band 11: LORD, BUILD ME A CABIN IN GLORY LAND
Compare the Stamps Quartet, "Lord, Build Me a Cabin in Glory,"
Mercury 6080, and Carl Story's Carl Story, Starday SLP 137.
Side B, Band 12 : LIFE'S RAILWAY TO HEAVEN
Compare Red Foley on Songs of Devotion, Decca DL 4198.
references by:
Judy McCulloh
Preston K. Martin
"Green Fields Of
Illinois" was a record of traditional folk music performed by artists from
southern Illinois, released by the Campus Folksong Club of the University
of Illinois in 1963. It was accompanied by a booklet with extensive
documentation about the artists and their songs. At this website I have
reproduced much of the content of that booklet as well as some of the images and
cover art.
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GREEN FIELDS OF ILLINOIS --