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Carve dat Possum
Old-Time Breakdown and Minstrel Song- Oklahoma, Tennessee, Southeast; Words and Music by Sam Lucas Pub in Boston: John F. Perry & Co, 1875.
ARTIST: Unknown. Thede printed the following stanza with the tune, collected from Oklahoma fiddlers. (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
View Original Sheet Music: Page 1; Page 2
Listen: Uncle Dave Macon- Carve That Possum
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Minstrel piece from 1875.
RECORDING INFO: Macon, Uncle Dave. Go 'Long Mule, County 545, LP (1981), cut# 5 . Macon, Uncle Dave; & the/his Fruit Jar Drinkers. Going Down The Valley; Vocal & Instrumental Music from the South, New1 World1 NW 236, LP (1977), cut# 9.
OTHER NAMES: “Possum Meat;” “Carve That Possum Lucas,” "Possum Pie"
SOURCES: Thede’s Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 69 (Possum Pie) Randolph 276, "The Possum Song" (3 texts, 2 tunes); (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
NOTES: One part- Key of G; Similar melody and form to Macon's "Sail Away Ladies." Macon sticks close to the original lyrics (See version 1). For a more bluegrass style cover of Macon's version Listen: J.E. Mainer- Carve That Possum Children.
The song was "composed" in 1875 by Sam Lucas was one of the leading African-American minstrel composers and performers in the late 1800’s. His “Shivering and Shaking Out in the Cold" shows Lucas in the role portrayed by the song, and the song was sung in the pioneering African American drama Out of Bondage, but the song itself contains neither dialect nor racial references. In the 1880s Lucas would be joined by Gussie L. Davis as an African-American writer of popular songs that were not racially specific; by the turn of the century such songs would be fairly common (Chris Smith would write "The Irish Were Egyptians Long Ago"), but Sam Lucas was the pioneer.
CARVE THAT POSSUM- Thede
Carve dat 'possum Hannah,
Carve dat 'possum soon;
For de pan am ready,
An' here am de spoon.
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