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Boatman’s Dance- Bluegrass Style Lyrics
Old-Time, Breakdown; W.Va., Pa. Widely known. Words and music attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett, 1815-1904, Leader of the Virginia Minstrels
ARTIST: Cathy Barton & Dave Para- 2000
Listen: Carolina Chocolate Drops "Live"- Boatman Dance
Listen: Mike Seeger- Boatman
Listen: Hackensaw Boys- Boatman Dance
Listen: Melvin Wine- (instrumental) Dance Boatman Dance
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: 1843.
RECORDING INFO: De Boatman/Boatman's Dance [Me IV-D 4] - Emmett, Daniel Decatur
Rm - Ho for California; Sailing Down the River on the O-Hi-O
Mf - Seeing the Elephant; Cherry Creck Emigrants Song
Uf - Boatmen's/Boatmen Dance
Boatman/Boatsman [Me IV-D 4] - Emmett, Daniel Decatur
Rt - Boatmen's/Boatmen Dance ; Come Love Come
Rm - Johnny Booger ; Old Aunt Adkins
Arkansas Sheiks. Whiskey Before Breakfast, Bay 204, LP (1975), trk# 18a
Benford, Mac. Backwoods Banjo, Rounder 0115, LP (1979), trk# 15b
Coryell, Lea. Cornbread & Rum, Coryell, CD (2001), trk# 3
Coyne, Eamonn. Through the Round Window, Compass 7 4345 2, CD (2002), trk# 13b (Unidentified Hoedown)
Curley, Clyde. Songer, Susan; & Clyde Curley (eds) / Portland Collection, Vol. 2, Portland Collection, Fol (2005), p 27
Doherty, Mick;, Steve Einhorn and Dan Compton. Simple Gifts, Doherty, Compton, Einh.., Cas (198?), trk# 12b
Dornfield, Bernstein, and Murphy. Ways of the World, Foxglove FG 9801, CD (1998), trk# 7a
Flat Mountain Girls. Honey Take Your Whiskers Off, Flat Mountain Flat S002, CD (2005), trk# 4
George, Franklin/Frank. Traditional Music for Banjo, Fiddle & Bagpipes, County C 2703, Cas (1992/1967), trk# A.03
George, Franklin/Frank. Traditional Music for Banjo, Fiddle and Bagpipes, Kanawha 307, LP (1967), trk# A.02
Grey, Sara. Sara Grey, Folk Legacy FSI 038, LP (1970), trk# B.04
Haley, Ed. Grey Eagle, Rounder 1133/1134, CD (1997), trk# 2.07
Hollow Rock String Band. Devil's Riding Horse. 44th Annual Old Time Fiddler's Convention, Union Grove SS-2, LP (1978), trk# A.02
Jabbour, Alan. Fresh Oldtime String Band Music, Rounder 0262, LP (1988), trk# 1
Johnson, Cletus. Old-Time Banjo Anthology, Vol. 1, Marimac AHS 4, Cas (1991), trk# 3 [1976]
Krassen, Miles. Krassen, Miles / Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p69
Krassen, Miles. Krassen, Miles / Clawhammer Banjo, Oak, sof (1974), p56
Lost World String Band. Lost But Not Least, Wheatland 002, LP (1978), trk# A.01
Nelson, Mark. Nelson, Mark / Twenty One Fiddle Tunes for Mountain Dulcimer, Nelson, Fol (197?), p 2
New Tranquility String Band. Berkeley Farms, Folkways FA 2436, LP (1972), trk# A.07
Perlman, Ken. Perlman, Ken / Fingerpicking Fiddle Tunes for Finger Style Guitar, Chappell, Sof (1978), p16
Perlman, Ken. Perlman, Ken / Melodic Clawhammer Banjo, Oak, Sof (1979), p20
Portland Megaband. Portland Megaband Live, PortMeg, CD (2002), 6c
Reynolds, George. Silberberg, Gene (ed.) / Complete Fiddle Tunes I Either Did or Did Not., Silberberg, Fol (2005), p 21
Ruffwater Stringband. Michigan Spring, Ruffwater MS 006, Cas (199?), trk# 9a
Skylark. Favorites, Little Bird LB 1001, Cas (1990), trk# A.06a
Trail Band. Voices from the Oregon Trail, Trail's End TEP 001, Cas (1991), trk# B.05a
Trail Band. Lewis and Clark, Trail's End TEP 006, CD (1999), trk# 12a
Additional Recordings: Clemmens, Ginni. Sing a Rainbow and Other Children Songs, Folkways FC 7637, LP (1967), cut#B.03 (Boatman Dance); Common Ground. Traveller's Choice, Kicking Mule KM 229, LP (1984), cut# 10b(Boatman Dance); Cotten, Elizabeth. Shake Sugaree, Volume 2, Folkways FTS 31001, LP, cut# 15 (Boatman Dance); Folk-Legacy FSI-38, "Sara Grey with Ed Trickett" (1970). Kanawha Records 307, Frank George - "Traditional Music for Banjo, Fiddle, and Bagpipes." Rounder CD0262, Mike Seeger - "Fresh Oldtime String Band Music" (1988). Rounder CD 0382, Marvin Gaster - "Uncle Henry's Favorites."
OTHER NAMES: "Boatman;" "Boatsman;" "Dance, Come Love Come;" "Sailing Down the River on the O-hi-o;" "Ohio River;" "Boatman Dance;"
RELATED TO:"Little Rabbit"; "Johnny Booger;" "Old Aunt Adkins;"
SOURCES: Debbie McClatchey (Spandaro), George Strosnider (an elderly Greene County, Pa., when collected in the 1930's) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 21, pgs. 25-26 (appears as "Sailing Down the River on the O-hi-o"). Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc), No. 2, 1988; pg. 3. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 69 (appears as "Boatsman"). Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 32. Scott (English Song Book), 1926; pg. 78. Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980 pg. 28; Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 566, "De Boatman Dance"; Silber-FSWB, p. 39, "Boatman's Dance;” Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
Traditional Ballad Index: De Boatman Dance
DESCRIPTION: A minstrel song about a boatman's life, observing that there is no one like a boatman. "O dance, de boatman, dance all night 'till broad daylight, And go home wid de gals in de morning. Hi, ho, de boatman row, Floating down de ribber on de Ohio"
AUTHOR: Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.22(54)), but reportedly copyrighted 1843
KEYWORDS: dancing river minstrel ship sailor
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hugill, pp. 492-493, "Dance the Boatman" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 484, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "The Boatman's Dance" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
BrownIII 223, "Hi You Boat Row" (1 fragment)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 566, "De Boatman Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 39, "Boatman's Dance" (1 text)
DT, BOATDANC*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Dance the Boatman Dance" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #5898
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Boatman Dance" (on Cotten02)
Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots, "Boatman's Dance" (Gennett, unissued, 1930)
Eleazar Tillet, "Come Love Come" (on USWarnerColl01) [a true mess; the first verse is "Nancy Till", the chorus is "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low," and it uses part of "De Boatman Dance" as a bridge.)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.22(54), "The Boatman of de Ohio" ("De boatman dance, de boatman sing"), G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Firth b.25(239), "Dance de Boatmen"; Harding B 15(81b), Harding B 11(352), Firth b.28(38) View 1 of 2 [almost entirely illegible], "[De] Boatman Dance"; Firth b.25(595/596) View 1 of 2, "The Boatmen Dance"; Harding B 11(1117), "Boatman's Dance"
LOCSheet, sm1844 390930, "De Boatman Dance, Ethiopian Ballad," C. G. Christman (New York), 1844 ["by Philip Ernst"]; also sm1848 441710, "De Boatmen's Dance" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seeing the Elephant (When I Left the States for Gold)" (tune
NOTES: Curiously, there were no early country recordings released before 1940 of this rollicking old-time song. The song is in the repertoire of several good old-time string bands including: Hakensaw Boys (listen above); Yonder Mountain String Band; Clack Mountain String Band and the Carolina Chocolate Drops (listen above).
The song has been recorded as a fiddle solo (hear Melvin Wine above) and several good recording can be found at Digital Appalachia.
Notes from Kuntz: "A Major (Krassen, Phillips): D Major (Johnson): G Major (Spandaro). Standard. AABBC: ABCC (Johnson): AABBCC (Phillips). The fiddle tune is derived from the minstrel piece credited to Dan Emmett called "De Boatmen Dance" or "Dance, Boatman, Dance;" the tune according to some accounts, was first heard in performance in Boston in 1843. Emmett published it in that year, advertising it as "An Original Banjo Melody." The tune appears in many American and even English songsters of the 19th and early 20th centuries; Scott (1926) prints it as "Sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders." Both Nathan and Cauthen (1990) assert the melody was in folk currency before the minstrel era, and that it made its way back to folk currency in the fiddle tradition after popularization by minstrels; this is probably true, for it was in print (as "Ohio River") in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume IV (Baltimore, 1839) -- associated with Ohio River boatmen -- before it was played on the minstrel stage. See also "Boatman's Dance" for version of the tune in the Morris dance tradition and "Little Rabbit" for a related old-time version. It underwent different renditions during minstrelsy's heyday and went into tradition as both a song and a fiddle tune, and was even taken in by the real boatmen." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Boatman Dance- Cathy Barton & Dave Para- 2000:
The boatman dance, the boatman sing
The boatman do most anything.
And when the boatman get on shore,
He spends his money, and he works for more.
Chorus: Dance, boatman dance! Dance, boatman dance.
O dance all night till broad daylight
And go home with the gals in de morning.
Hey, ho, the boatman row, sailin' on the river on the Ohio!
Hey, ho, the boatman row, sailin' on the river on the Ohio!
I've never seen a pretty girl in my life
But that she'd be some boatman's wife.
When the boatman blows his horn,
Look out, old man, your daughter's gone;
Chorus:
When you go to the boatman's ball,
Dance with my wife or not at all;
Sky-blue jacket and tarpaulin hat,
Look out, my boys, for the nine tail cat.
Chorus:
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