|
Boating Up Sandy
See: Davy (Weems); Going Down the River; Barlow Knife
Old-time breakdown; southeast.
ARTIST: George Lee Hawkins; Bath Co., KY Fiddler
Listen: Uncle Earl- (instrumental) Boatin' Up Sandy
Listen: Owen "Snake" Chapman-(instrumental) Boatin' Up Sandy
Listen: Clyde Davenport- (instrumental) Boatin' Up The Sandy
Listen: Wilson Douglas- (instrumental) Boatin' Up The Sandy
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1800s; 1911 (Thomas & Leeder);
RECORDING INFO: Boating Up Sandy
Baker, Kenny; and Joe Greene. High Country, County 714, LP (1968), trk# A.01
Chapman, Owen "Snake". Fiddle Ditty, June Appal JA 061C, Cas (1990), trk# 10
Chapman, Owen "Snake". Walnut Gap, Rounder 0418, CD (1999), trk# 14
Smith, Paul. Devil Eat the Groundhog, Rounder 0409, CD (1999), trk# 8
Boating Up the Sandy [Me IV-E 37]
Rt - Flatwoods
Uf - Barlow Knife
Brody, David (ed.) / Guitar Picker's Fakebook, Oak, Sof (1984), p 33 (Boating Up Sandy)
Brody, David. Brody, David (ed.) / Fiddler's Fakebook, Oak, Sof (1983), p 50 (Boating Up Sandy)
Carlin, Bob. Brody, David (ed.) / Banjo Picker's Fakebook, Oak, Fol (1985), p 33b
Deseret String Band. Land of Milk and Honey, Okehdokee 74002, LP (1974), trk# 2b
Deseret String Band. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1975/08,p15
Douglas, Wilson. Boatin' Up the Sandy, Marimac AHS 1, Cas (1989), trk# 7 (Boating Up Sandy)
Douglas, Wilson. 2nd Annual Brandywine Mountain Music Festival, "75 Tradition..., Heritage (Galax) 012, LP (1976), trk# 11 (Boating Up Sandy)
Hollow Rock String Band. Hollow Rock String Band, Rounder 0024, LP (1974), trk# B.01 (Boating Up Sandy)
Hughes, Delbert. Home Recordings., Augusta Heritage AHR 015, Cas (1994), trk# B.02 (Boating Up Sandy)
Johnson, Sara and Maynard. Pickin' Magazine, Pickin' Magazine, Ser, 1978/05,p33
Kretzner, Leo; and Jay Leibovitz. Pigtown Fling, Green Linnet SIF 1019, LP (1979), trk# B.07 (Boating Up Sandy)
Levy, Bertram; and Peter Ostroushko. First Generation, Flying Fish FF 392, LP (1987), trk# 10c (Boating Up Sandy)
Mearns, Molly. Hellman, Neal / Dulcimer Songbook, Oak, Sof (1977), p39 (Boating Up Sandy)
Thompson, Tommy. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1975/08,p14
Boating Up the Sandy [Me IV-E 37]
Uf - Forks of (the) Sandy
RELATED TO: Sally Goodin; Flatwoods
OTHER NAMES: Barlow Knife; Going Down the River; Boating Up the River; Davy; Walking in the Parlor
SOURCES: Kuntz; Folk Index
NOTES: Kuntz gives four different listings for the title which is used for Barlow Knife and also the Pretty Betty Martin/Fire in the Mountain/Hog-eye songs. Beacuse the title is a floating title it's hard to track the various versions. The first version was recorded in 1927 (see: Version 2) by Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters with Charlie Bowman on fiddle.
It was recorded as "Walking in the Parlor" by Obed Pickard of the Pickard family in 1928. it was recored as "Davy" by the Weems String Band (see: Davy) and Going Down the River by Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers (see: Going Down The River).
Here's some listings by Andrew Kuntz:
BOATIN' UP (THE) SANDY [1]. Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, W.Va., Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. The Big Sandy River is the border dividing two states. Bobby Fulcher (1986) says the tune "only occasionally" appears in Kentucky fiddler's repertories, as it does in Clyde Davenport's (Monticello, Ky.). Source for notated version: "this tune was played on a mouth harp by Zeff Burgess, June 1911, at the head of the Big Sandy when he was 'loggin'" [Thomas & Leeder]; Clyde Davenport (Ky.) [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 50. Thomas and Leeder (The Singin’ Gathering), 1939; pg. 66. County 788, Clyde Davenport ‑ "Clydescope: Rare & Beautiful Tunes from the Cumberland Plateau" (1986).
BOATING UP SANDY [2]. Old-Time, Breakdown. A Major ('A' part) & A Mixolydian ('B' part). Standard tuning. AABB. Source for notated version: Owen “Snake” Chapman (Ky.) [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; pg. 32.
BOATING UP SANDY [3]. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. A Dorian. Standard tuning. ABB'. The tune is a member of a tune family including "Hog Eye an' a 'Tater," "Hog Eye Man [1]," "Hog Eye," "Granny, Will Your Dog Bite? [1]," "Sally in the Garden [1]," "Fire on/in the Mountain [1]" (there are several tunes by this name; it is a "floater"), and, in some respects "Betty Martin." Known as a West Virginia tune, it is in the repertoire of Wilson Douglas (W.Va.) who learned it from one of his strongest influences, the regionally famous and influential fiddler French Carpenter (W.Va.). Also in the repertoire of Braxton County, W. Va., fiddler Melvin Wine (d. 1999). Source for notated version: Wilson Douglas (W.Va.) & Mel Marshall [Phillips]. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old‑Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), 1982 (revised 1988 & 2003); pg. 9. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 32. Document 8040, “The Hill Billies/Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 2” (reissue). Marimac Recordings, 1989, Wilson Douglas ‑ "Boatin Up Sandy." Rounder 0024, "The Hollow Rock String Band" (1974. Learned from Doc White, Ivydale, W.Va., who called it “Gal with the Blue Dress On”).
BOATIN’ UP SANDY (4). Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. Neither of the two common versions. Rounder CD0380, Roger Cooper (Lewis County, Ky.) - “Going Back to Old Kentucky” (1996).
MORE NOTES: This version is George Lee Hawkins, who give the lyrics and then plays the tune, his version can be heard on-line. There aren't many versions with lyrics. The main one is the 1927 version by Al Hopkins and His Bucklebusters with Charlie Bowman on the fiddle.
Bio: George Lee Hawkins b:10-10-1904 d:2-8-1991 buried in Longview Cemetery, Bath County, Kentucky
From his Grandson: I don't know if this is appropriate to place any place in the web, this is a poem that my grandfather wrote years after his wife died. She died in childbirth at a young age. He never remarried, but became skilled at his fiddle and recorded music that is in the Library of Congress in 1946, with Martus Moser, they sent me the recordings on a cd. He also recorded music that is now sold by Rounder Records, Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky: Up the Ohio and Licking Rivers, Volume 1. He is also mentioned in the Old Time Herald, He is George Lee Hawkins. Very few people could play his style of music, it was Scottish Irish.
Poem Written By George Lee Hawkins Paris, Ky Nov. 27, 1957
Early in the month of June
with fiddle to chin I played a tune
As the music filled the air
it caught half on a maiden so fair
Her bright red cheeks and dark curly hair
Her brown eyes sparkled as she played the guitar
I listened carefully with an artistic ear
to the songs she'd sing seemed to draw us near
The Day was bright a Sunday in June
the lilac bush was in bloom
It's sweet fragments filled the air
Blended with music and a true love affair
This courtship started in the month of June
in 1920 by a silver moon.
We played sweet music as time went by
for in 1923 she became my bride
the memory of lilacs under a golden moon
remind me of an old fiddle tune the one I played that Sunday in June.
Many years have passed since that Sunday in June
where two hearts met under lilacs of blue
She sleeps now beneath the sod in a silent cemetery
Her name Jennie C. ingraved on a tombstone
for a memory in the year of 1920
A Sunday afternoon in June a true love was united that Death could only part
the homestead is gone and the lilac bush so is the fair maiden I love so true....
NOTE from his grandson: Papaw had Tuberculosis and went to the TB Sanitorium in Paris, KY I believe this was when he wrote the poem. His wife was Jennie Crouch Emmons, died giving birth to a son, they both died, she was the daughter of James Wallace and Mary Hannah Perry, Emmons. They are buried at Longview Cemetery, Bath County, Bethel Ky. George Lee Hawkins was the son of James Monroe and Nannie Butler, Hawkins. They are buried not far from each other in the Longview Cemetery, Bethel, KY. Jennie also played the organ, piano, guitar, fiddle and banjo. The old organ is still in the family, with their youngest daughter until she passed away, this summer. I remember it well, my aunt had to pump up air into the huge organ. It was a beautiful organ and sure wished I had pictures of it. I have my grandfathers fiddle that he bought from Sears and Roebuck when he and my grandmother went to housekeeping.
Jennie also played the organ, piano, guitar, fiddle and banjo. The old organ is still in the family, with their youngest daughter until she passed away, this summer. I remember it well, my aunt had to pump up air into the huge organ. It was a beautiful organ and sure wished I had pictures of it. I have my grandfathers fiddle that he bought from Sears and Roebuck when he and my grandmother went to housekeeping.
"Jackie Huller 2-3-2005" George Lee Hawkins The newspaper article of Papaw under the tree, with his fiddle was taken at his daughter's house outside of Bethel, Ky. This is the picture that the festival at Morehead used on their billboards. In the Field-An Interview with Mark Wilson By Kerry Blech Tell me about George Hawkins. I think it's great that you appreciate what a truly wonderful musician he was. I always remember George with a tinge of sadness, although I don't know if that's the proper emotion to feel. Objectively, some of the circumstances of his life were quite unhappy: his wife died of TB when she was quite young and the disease almost killed George in the '50s. He mainly worked as a farm-hand and occasionally experienced a little trouble with the bottle. Nonetheless, George possessed this fantastic determination to excel at the fiddle, following Tom Riley and the other "northern fiddlers" that he admired. So he paid an enormous amount of attention to controlled bow work - he would do little exercises where he would purposefully bow tunes with a backwards stroke to heighten his control, as well as cycling "Fisher's Hornpipe" through a series of difficult keys. Although there was once a circle of excellent fiddlers in Bath County who appreciated George's music, Roger Cooper tells me that George almost "improved" himself out of the fiddle contests they used to have in Vanceburg and Maysville. The other fiddlers would work up outlandish versions of "Orange Blossom Special" while George would prepare a virtuoso version of "Good for the Tongue" in Bb. You see, George followed essentially 19th century paradigms for what "quality fiddling" should be like and, by damn, he wasn't going to degrade his instrument by playing lesser fare. I found his intense concern with self-betterment rather noble.
The Old-Time Herald Volume 7, Number 6: George Lee Hawkins was another great fiddler, from Bath County, who had some renown outside his own community, having recorded in 1946 for Artus Moser, discs that went into the AFS collection at the Library of Congress. George's fiddling may be my favorite of all the players on this set. His "Humphrey's Jig" is one of the all-time mind-blowing performances, even more so if one can visualize his dancing left arm driving the bowing intricacies in this showpiece. (In fact, John Harrod did capture Mr. Hawkins doing just this on videotape at a small festival held at Morehead State University.)
He was known as a "hornpipe" fiddler; he actually did play mountain hornpipes in that old dotted rhythm rather than turning them into driving reels, as most southern fiddlers do. Listening to him bow and phrase is an advanced lesson in the finer intricacies of old-time fiddling. He also obviously enjoyed his art. His introduction to a piece he learned from one of his mentors, the black sharecropper Bill Trumbo, sets the tone: "'Rat's Gone To Rest' . . . with D-Con!" And we also have some fine lyrics from him for "Boatin' Up Sandy"-"Way down yonder boating up Sandy/Red top boots and a quart of good brandy/Some like chicken foot, I likes the liver/I loves the pretty girl who lives on the river/Sometimes drunk, sometimes boozy/Old Johnny Huckleberry a-hugging his Susie." Now that is poetry!
One of George's mentors was the legendary Tom Riley (some home recordings of Riley are said to have survived) who later moved to Marion, IN, where he would be an influence on John Summers. Summers sometimes would accompany Riley on visits back to Bath County. It is interesting to compare Summers' versions of tunes to those of Hawkins.
Boating Up Sandy by George Lee Hawkins; Bath Co., KY Fiddler
Way down yonder, boatin' up Sandy,
Red top boots and a quart of good brandy.
Some like chicken foot, I likes the liver,
I likes the pretty girl that lives down the river.
Sometimes drunk, sometimes boozy,
Johnny Huckleberry, a-huggin' his Susie.
|