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Ain’t Gonna Rain No More
Old-time; bluegrass breakdown, very widely known
ARTIST: From Scarborough 1925
Listen: Butch Cage and Willie Thomas from Old-Time Black String Band Music
Listen to: Paramount # 20305-A 5102 Al Bernard acc. on uke by Frank Ferera Nov. 1923
Listen to: Wendell Hall w/uke 1923
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 Odum; 1923 (recording by Hall)
RECORDING INFO “Aint Gonna Rain No Mo”: 3. Solomon, Jack & Olivia (eds.) / Sweet Bunch of Daisies, Colonial Press, Bk (1991), p175 [1938] (It Ain't Gonna/Gonner Rain No More) 4. Sandburg, Carl / American Songbag, Harcourt Brace Jovan..., Sof (1955/1928), p141 5. Scott, John Anthony (ed.) / Ballad of America, Grosset & Dunlap, Bk (1967), p212 (T'ain't Gonna Rain (No More)) 6. Visconti, Carl (ed.) / Paint Creek Folklore Society Song Tune Book, Paint Creek, Sof (1986), p 1 (It Ain't Gonna/Gonner Rain No More) 7. Fields, Arthur; & Fred Hall (eds.) / 50 Favorite "Get Together" Songs, Piedmont Music, sof (1933), #29 (It Ain't Gonna/Gonner Rain No More) 8. Home Spun Songs, Treasure Chest, Sof (1935), p43 9. Brand, Oscar. Absolute Nonsense, Riverside RLP 12-825, LP (195?), trk# B.09 10. Brehm, Louise. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume III, Humorous & Play-Party ..., University of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p370/#557 [1935/07/07] 11. Cannon, Gus. Walk Right In, Stax SCD-8603-2, CD (1999), trk# 8 [1963/06/10] 12. Gaster, Marvin. Uncle Henry's Favorites, Rounder 0382, CD (1996), trk# 9 (It Ain't Gonna/Gonner Rain No More) 13. Golden Gate Quartet. Folk Music Radio, Radiola MR 1133, LP (1982), trk# B.02 14. Hall, Wendall. Minstrels and Tunesmiths, JEMF 109, LP (1981), trk# B.09 [1923/10/12] (It Ain't Goin' to Rain No More) 15. Howard, Clint; and Fred Price. Ballad of Finley Preston, Rounder 0009, LP (1972), trk# 4 16. Lipscomb, Mance. Garwood, Donald / Masters of Instrumental Blues Guitar, Oak, Fol (1967), p54 17. Lipscomb, Mance. Texas Sharecropper and Songster, Arhoolie F 1001, LP (1961), trk# A.06 [1960] 18. Parish, Roscoe. Old-Time Tunes from Coal Creek, Heritage (Galax) 005, LP (1975/field), trk# 4 [1970s?] 19. Snipes, John. Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia, Smithsonian SF 40079, CD (1998), trk# 15 20. Thompson, Joe. Family Tradition, Rounder 2161, CD (1999), trk# 2 (It Ain't Gonna/Gonner Rain No More) 21. Unidentified Group of Eight Girls. Alabama. From Lullabies to the Blues, Rounder 1829-2, CD (2001), trk# 21 [1934/10ca]
RELATED TO: Song of (the) States; Song of Song Titles
OTHER NAMES: There Ain’t No Bugs on Me; Ain't Gonna Rain No More;"Ain't Got to Cry No More"
SOURCES: Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 226, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (1 text, 1 tune) Silber-FSWB, p. 244, "There Ain't No Bugs On Me" (1 text) Randolph 557, "Ain't Going to Rain No More" (1 short text, 1 tune); also perhaps 275, "The Crow Song" (the "D" fragment might be this piece); Randolph/Cohen, pp. 409-410, "Ain't Going to Rain No More" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 557); BrownIII 430, "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (5 short texts); Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 107, "'Tain't Gwine Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 108 (no title) (1 text; the chorus at least goes here though the verses may be from a rabbit-hunting song); Sandburg, p. 141, "Ain't Gonna Rain" (1 short text, 1 tune); Scott-BoA, pp. 212-213, "T'ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune) Fuld-WFM, p. 307, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'"
NOTES: “It Ain't Gonna Rain No More” was part of the black string band repertoire (Thomas and Cage) and was a standard hillbilly song (Gid Tanner). The melody was adapted by Fiddlin’ John Carson for his rendition of “Ain’t No Bugs On Me.”
“A popular version of this piece was published in 1923 as by Wendell W. Hall. Even the cover, however, admits that it was an "old southern melody" -- and since we have traditional versions at least from 1925, there is little doubt that the song is traditional-RBW”
Here’s some information on Wendal Hall by Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide: Despite having sold more than two million copies of one of his records and having written several totally evergreen standards, it seems the most enduring historical legacy of this artist is a series of instruments named after him. In this sense, Wendell Hall is the Les Paul of ukuleles and the slightly louder ukulele banjo, because just as the guitar maestro who designed a popular electric guitar as his namesake, Hall was the designer of a series of sought-after, collector's item ukes and banjo ukes, the subject of brisk commerce on the internet decades after his death. And just as many guitarists strumming their Les Paul guitars don't fret about who Les Paul is, there are surely many crooners strumming prestige Wendell Hall ukuleles who are unaware of who the Hall is. The singer and strummer was known as both "the red-haired music maker" and the slightly more pungent "pineapple picador."
He had several decades of recording success in the '20s and '30s, performing a variety of pop and blues numbers while attracting attention with novelty songs. He also had a shoe, or perhaps we should say a barefoot, in the hillbilly patch and in terms of national hit records is reported to be the first "official" hillbilly, if there can be such a thing. His song "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" was considered a hillbilly release when it first was pressed in 1923, a distinction that has long since faded while the song itself has remained a classic standard.
This was the release that sold two million for Hall, but it was not his only successful recording by any means. He played the other side of the rain cloud with a release of "It Looks Like Rain," although public response indicated a preference for dryer climates. He recorded a cover version of "Big Rock Candy Mountain," and an "answer" song to Harry McClintock's "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" entitled "Who Said I Was a Bum?" He provided lyrical fodder for many a serviceman with "Show Me the Way to Go Home," and also drew attention collaborating with fellow official hillbilly Carson Robinson in a series of Stephan Foster platters, such as "Camptown Races" and "Oh Susanna." Hall also became involved in publishing instruction manuals and songs for ukulele early on in the game. His Ukulele Methods, published by Forster Music in 1925, was one of the first such manuals for the instrument to be commercially available. It came hot on the heels of Uke Songs published the year before by Jack Mills. Hall also recorded and performed on several other small stringed instruments, the mildly obscure tipple and the truly rare taropatch. He was featured on radio broadcasts over the NBC WHZ network in the '30s.
THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLK-LORE Vol. XXIV. —JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1911— No. XCIII FOLK-SONG AND FOLK-POETRY AS FOUND IN THE SECULAR SONGS OF THE SOUTHERN NEGROES BY HOWARD W. ODUM
Or the woman sings in retort to the husband who thus sings, and who does not support her properly, or has failed to please her in some trifle:
I got a husband, a sweetheart, too,
Ain't goin' to rain no mo',
Husband don't love me, sweetheart do,
Ain't goin' to rain no mo'.
T'ain't Gwine Rain No Mo- Scaborough
Another famous old dance-song, well known especially in Texas, is called T'ain't Gwine Rain No Mo\ One couple enters on the floor with the first stanza and another with each succeeding stanza, till all those present are in the dance. The air and part of the words were given me by Mabel Cranfill, of Dallas, Texas, and various Texans contributed other stanzas. The last line of the chorus is for all to "steal up" in the dance.
Ole cow died at the mouth of the branch,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'. The buzzards had a public dance,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus: 'T ain't gwine rain,
'T ain't gwine snow,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
Steal up, ev'rybody,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
What did the blackbird say to the crow?
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
'T ain't gwine hail an' 't ain't gwine snow,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus
Gather corn in a beegum hat,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
Ole *man grumble ef you eat much of that,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus
Two, two, and round up four, T ain't gwine rain no mo';
Two, two, and round up four, 'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Six, two, and round up four, 'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
Six, two, and round up four, 'T ain't gwine rain no mo'. Chorus
Chorus
W. R. Boyd, Jr., formerly of Teague, Texas, gave part of a different version, to which various Texans in New York added stanzas.
Rabbit skipped de garden gate,
'Tain't gwine rain no mo'; Picked a pea and pulled his freight,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus: Oh, ladies!
'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
'T ain't gwine to sleet,
't ain't gwine snow,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Rabbit et a turnip top,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
He went off a-hippity-hop,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus
Rabbit hiding behind a pine,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
Had one eye shut an' t'other eye blind,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus
Bake them biscuits good and brown,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo';
Swing yo' ladies round and round,
'T ain't gwine rain no mo'.
Chorus
One can hear the scrape of the lively fiddle playing the tune and the fiddler's voice singing the song, as the couples go through the spirited dance. The leader starts the song and all present join in, so there is communal singing as well as dancing — perhaps a fashion too strenuous for weary city-folk, but enjoyed by rustic dancers. Other variants to this are known in Texas.
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