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Fortune/I'll Never Get Drunk Any More/I'll Never get Drunk Again
Traditional Old-Time, Song and Breakdown- "most popular around Galax, Va." (Krassen, 1973).
Version of: I'll Never Get Drunk Anymore (Listen)
http://honkingduck.com/78s/listen.php?s=20398A
ARTIST: Tommy Jarrell
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Published between 1850-1870
RECORDING INFO: Biograph 6003, The Bogtrotters (Galax, Va.) - "The Original Bogtrotters" (Wade, Crockett, and Fields Ward). County 705, Otis Burris- "Virginia Breakdown." County 778, Tommy Jarrell- "Picklin' On Tommy's Porch" (1984). Folkways FTS 31038, Roger Sprung- "Bluegrass Blast." Heritage XXIV, Smokey Valley Boys - "Music of North Carolina" (Brandywine, 1978). Marimac 9009, Andy Cahan - "Old Time Friends" (1987). Tennvale 003, Pete Parish- "Clawhammer Banjo." Rounder 0128, The Backwoods Band- "Jes' Fine" (1980. Influenced by the fiddling of Otis Burris and the singing of Scotty East). Tennvale 002, Barry Poss- "Galax '73." Alden, Ray. Old Time Friends, Marimac 9009, Cas (1987), cut# 3. Backwoods Band. Jes' Fine, Rounder 0128, LP (1979), cut# 1. Blue Ridge Mountain Boys. More Goodies from the Hills, Union Grove SS-3, LP (1969), cut# 1. Bogtrotters (Bog Trotters). Original Bogtrotters, Biograph RC 6003, LP (196?), cut# 12. Boiled Buzzards. Fine Dining, Marimac 9043, Cas (1991), cut#A.09. Burris, Otis; & the Mountain Ranblers. Virginia Breakdown, County 705, LP, cut# 1. Camp Creek Boys. Camp Creek Boys, County 709, LP (1967), cut# 1. Cockerham, Fred. High Atmosphere, Rounder 0028, LP (1974), cut# 12. East, Earnest; & the Pine Ridge Boys. Old Time Mountain Music, County 718, LP (1969), cut# 4. Edwards, Kenneth. Old Time Fiddling at Union Grove. The 38th Annual Old-Time Fi..., Prestige 14039, LP (1964), cut#B.04. Harold and Abe. Cornbred, Molasses and Sassafras Tea, Heritage (Galax) 023, LP, cut# 7 (Once I Had a Fortune). Molsky, Bruce. Lost Boy, Rounder 0361, CD (1996), cut# 7. Old Timers. 28th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention. Galax, Virginia 1963, Kanawha 302, LP (1963), cut# 17. Round Peak Band. Round Peak Band, Marimac 9044, Cas (1992), cut#B.04. Smith, Glen. Traditional Music From Grayson and Carroll Counties, Folkways FS 3811, LP (1962), cut# 23. Smokey Valley Boys. Smokey Valley Boys, Rounder 0029, LP (1974), cut# 4. Smokey Valley Boys. Music of North Carolina, Heritage (Galax) 024 (XXIV), LP (1979), cut#A.09. Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers. Ernest V. Stoneman & his Dixie Mountaineers. 1927-28, Historical HLP-8004, LP (196?), cut# 1 (Once I Had a Fortune). Williams, Vivian. Fiddler, Voyager VLRP 323-S, LP (1978), cu.
OTHER NAMES: "Once I Had a Fortune," "I'll Never Get Drunk Anymore (Brown)"
SOURCES: The Bogtrotters (Galax, Va) [Brody]; Charlie Higgins (Galax, Va.) [Krassen]; The Backwoods Band (Kuntz); Tommy Jarrell (Mt. Airy, N.C.) [Kuntz]; Ottis Burris [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 112. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 46. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pgs. 309-311 (two versions). Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 91; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: This song was collected in the early 1900s by Brown and Perrow. A broadside (song lyrics without music) of "I'll Ne'er Get Drunk Again," no date given, was published by H. De Marsan, Publisher, 54 Chatham Street, N. Y. between 1850-1870.
From Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc: D Major. Standard or ADAE. AABB. Called a "Blue-Ridge Mountain standard," it is found in western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, but has become particularly identified with Galax, southwestern Virginia, style bands. It was, for example, one of the few tunes recorded by legendary Galax, Va., fiddler Emmett Lundy. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell (1901-1986) said of the melody: "I can recollect hearing my daddy play it as far back as I can recollect. I don't know where that started from...it was more just an old, well, a flat foot dance tune I'd say.”
Brown calls the song, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" and gives four texts (See Version 4) have little in common beyond the refrain stanza "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" and the "Once I had a fortune" in a verse.
Shearin's syllabus shows that this is known in Kentucky, and Perrow (JAFL xxviii 151- See version 3) reports it as sung by both whites and blacks in Tennessee. It is reported also from Virginia (FSV 308) and from Missouri (OFS 11 413-14, iii 140-1). Mrs. Sutton notes that Miss Emeth Tuttle of Lenoir found it in Mississippi.
Brown reports: "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More' by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, sometime between 1914 and 1920, with the notation : "This song was once popular around here (25 or 30 years ago). Young people sang it a great deal in those days. The tune is still well known to several of my neighbors."
LYRICS:
Once I had a fortune, I put it in my trunk,
I lost it all a-gambling one night when I was drunk.
Wish I had a pretty little horse, corn to feed him on,
And a pretty little wife around the farm to feed him when I'm gone.
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