American Songs & Ballads- Minstrel Songs
F. Minstrel Songs Contents
67. Old Dog Tray 157
68. Nancy Till 158
69. My Gum-Tree Canoe 159
F. Minstrel Songs
Foster's "Old Dog Tray" was published in 1853 when its author-composer was still alive and his songs were being taken over by the folk. Probably the Stevens family knew them so
well that they did not bother to write the words of other
minstrel songs by the same composer. "Nancy Till" had been
sung since 1851. Steele's "My Gum-Tree Canoe" dates from
about 1850. "Gum" is here spelled "Gun," but also "night" is
spelled "Knight"; there are knights in several old ballads, of
course, but also the proper name Knight was found among
families in western New York. Anyway, here is evidence that the
song was not copied down from a printed sheet.
6j. Old Dog Tray
Stephen Collins Foster's song in memory of his "handsome setter
dog" was published in 1853. According to John Tasker Howard
(Stephen Foster [New York, 1934]), Christie paid Foster ten dol-
lars for the privilege of singing this song first and having his name
on the title page. Foster was to receive a 10 per cent royalty from
158 A Pioneer Songster
the publisher on all copies with vocal arrangements; up to January
27, 1857, he had received $1,080.25. As might be expected, the
Douglass version shows few variations; it may possibly have been
set down in the same year. The tune appears in many songbooks
as well as in a book edited by Earhart and Birge, Songs of Stephen
Foster (Pittsburgh, 1939).
Old Dog Tray
1. The morn of life is past and evening comes at last
It brings me a dream of a once happy day
Of many forms ive seen up on the village green
Sporting with my old Dog Tray
Chorus Old Dog Tray is ever faithful
Grief cannot drive him away
He is gentle he is kind I'll never never find
A better friend than Old Dog Tray
2. The forms I called my own have vanished one by one
The loved ones the dear ones have all passed away
Their hapy smiles have flown their gentle voices gone
I have nothing left but old Dog Tray
Old dog Tray &&
3. When thoughts recall the past his eyes are on me cast
I know that he feels what my breaking heart would say
Although he cannot speak 111 vainly vainly seek
A better friend than old Dog Tray
Old dog Tray &c. &c.
68. Na?icy Till
According to Scribner, "Nancy Till" was first "written and ar-
ranged by White's Serenaders" and was published in 1851. Brown
reports two identical versions of four stanzas. The last line of their
chorus is line 2 of Douglass stanza 2 ; Brown stanza 2 corresponds to
Douglass stanza 3; and in stanza 1, "she" and "I" are exchanged.
Brown (C) is only four lines, the first two being like the last two of
the Douglass chorus. Douglass has dropped the "de," "dere," and
so on of Negro dialect in this minstrel song; otherwise, except for
minor word variations, it corresponds closely to the DeMarsan ver-
sion.
American Songs and Ballads 159
Nancy Till
1. Down in the cane break close by the mill
There lives a yaller gall hre name is Nancy Till
I know that she loves me Ive known it very long
Im going to serenage her by singing her a song
Chorus Come love come the boat lies low
She lies high and dry the ohio
Come love come and go along with me
And I'll take you down to Tenessee
2. I came from below will you go along with me
And I'll row the boat while the boat rows me
Im waitting for an answer will you not refuse to go
And listen to the harmony of my old Banjo
Come love come &c &c
3. Open your window to your lover so true
And listen to the music Im paying to you
Like the soft summer notes so swet and low
As they flow from the strings of me old Banjo
Come love come &c &c
69. My Gum-Tree Canoe
This minstrel song, entitled "My Gun Tree Canoe" in the Doug-
lass Manuscript, was written by S. S. Steele about the middle of the
nineteenth century. It is sometimes known as "Tom-big-bee River"
in reference to the river that rises in Mississippi and flows southeast
through Alabama, emptying into Mobile Bay. Ozark has a version
similar to that of Douglass though its chorus consists of only the last
two lines of the Douglass refrain. The Brown (A) chorus repeats
those two lines to make a four-line refrain, but (B) does not. The
Brown versions are shorter than Douglass. Music and a version
closely similar to that in Douglass appear in Margaret and Travis
Johnson's Early American Songs (Associated Music Publishers,
I 943)-
My Gun Tree Canoe
1 . On Tombigbee River so bright I was born
In a hut made of husks of the tall Yellow Corn
160 A Fioneer Songster
Twas there I first met with my Julia so true
And that night we rowed round in our Gun Tree Canoe
Chorus. Then row the boat lightly love over the sea
For daily and Nightly 111 wander with thee
Then row away row oer the waters so blue
Like A feather I floatted My Gun Tree Canoe.
2. All day in the Field of soft Cotton I hoe
And think of my Julia and sing as I go
I Caught her a bird of the wing of true blue
And that Knight we rowed round in our Gun Tree Canoe
Chorus. Then row the &c. &c.
3. On[e] Hand to the banjo on[e] toe to the oar
We'll sing to the sound of the Rivers soft roar
The stars they look down on my Julia so true
And dance in her eyes in our Gun Tree Canoe
Chorus. Then row the &c. &c.
4. One day the stream led us so far away
That we could not get back so we thought we would stay
We me[t] a tall Ship with the flag of true blue
And they took us onboard with our Gun Tree Canoe
Chorus. Then row the &c. &c.