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Chicken in the Bread Tray/Chicken in the Bread Pan/Granny Will your Dog Bite
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Widely Spread;
ARTIST: Thomas Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes. 1991 new edition ed. Ch. K. Wolfe, p. 6, Univ. Tenn. Press.
Listen: Mrs. W.B. Elizabeth Apple; Chicken In the Bread Pan
Listen: Munsey Gaultney; (Fiddle Solo) Chicken in the Bread Tray 1973 [From Jefferson NC area related to Liza Jane- Sugar Hill]
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1800’s; 1801 as "I Betty Martin"; Septimus Winner 'Choice Gems For The Violin' Cleveland, S. Brainard's Sons 1873.
OTHER NAMES: "Betty Martin," "Boatin' Up Sandy," "Brad Walters," "Chippy/Gippy Get Your Haircut," "Hog Eye and a Tater," "The Hog Eye Man," "Hog Eye," "Jake Gilly," "Old Mother Gofour," "Old Granny Rattletrap," "Pretty Betty Martin," "Very Pretty Martin," "Sally in the Garden," "Tip Toe Fine,""Fire on the Mountain," “Gate to Go Through;” “Buck Hord/Hoard” “Johnny Get Your Hair Cut,” Incorrectly named for Old Jake Gillie.
RELATED TO: These branches and connected groups-
1) “Hog-Eye” songs
2) “Betty Martin; “Tip Toe Fine” “Johnny/Chippy Get Your Hair Cut” songs
3) “Fire on the Mountain” songs
4) “Sally in the Garden” songs
RECORDING INFO: 1928 recording of Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers (Sally in the Garden); Armstrong, Sarah. Hill Country Tunes: Instrumental Folk Music of Southwestern Penn, Amer. Folklore Society, fol (1944), 71 (Johnny Get Your Hair Cut); Fraley, J. P. and Annadeene. Gallynipper, June Appal JA 0058C, Cas (1990), cut# 8; Fraley, J. P. and Annadeene. Maysville. Old Time Fiddle Tunes, Rounder 0351, Cas (1995), cut#A.06; Jarrell, Tommy. Rainbow Sign, County 791, LP (198?), cut# 8; Lamb, Dwight. Dwight Lamb, American Heritage, LP (196?), cut# 13; Lamb, Dwight. Joseph Won a Coated Fiddle, Rounder 0429, CD (1999), cut# 20; Mabus, Joel. Clawhammer, Fossil, Cas (198?), cut# 10b; Milnes, Gerry. Old Time Fiddling of Braxton County. Vol 2, Augusta Heritage AHR 013, Cas (1992), cut# 5; Parrish, Pete. Galax International, Heritage (Galax) 067, LP (1988), cut# 11; Robertson, Lonnie. Fiddle Tunes - Ozark Style, Vol. 2, Caney Mountain CLP-233, LP (1980), cut# 11; Walters, Bob. Old Time Fiddler's Repertory, University of Missouri --, LP (1973), cut# 1; West Orrtana String Band. West Orrtana String Band, Revonah RS-924, LP (1976), cut#B.07; Wine, Melvin. Vintage Wine, Marimac AHS 6, Cas (1993), cut#B.06; Augusta Heritage AHS6, Melvin Wine - "Vintage Wine." Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Dwight Lamb (b. 1937) - "Old Ladies Pickin' Chickens." Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Bob Walters (1889-1960) - "Old Time Fiddler's Repertory" (1976). Revonah Records RS-924, "The West Orrtanna String Band" (1976). Voyager VRCD 344, Howard Marshall & John Williams - "Fiddling Missouri" (1999). Otha Tuner and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band from North Mississippi do "Granny Does Your Dog Bite?" on the "Everybody Hollerin' Goat" CD (Birdman Records). It's done with cane fife and snare and bass drum.
SOURCES: Brown, Vol. III, #158, "Chicken in the Bread Tray." Dance to the Fiddle by Bayard; Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 36a; ); Collins, Sherman. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 82; Bob Walters (1949, Burt County, Nebraska) [Christeson, Phillips]; Sherman Collins (Pawnee County, Oklahoma) [Thede]. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 1), 1973; No. 1, pg. 3. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 36. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994; pg. 102. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 87. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 58. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 82; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 67, "Hog-eye;" Darling-NAS, pp. 254-255, "Hogeye"
NOTES: The melody for Chicken in the Bread Tray is the same for Granny will your Dog Bite" and was first published circa 1801 as "I Betty Martin." The rhyming play-party lyrics were first associated with the Betty Martin songs (see: Betty Martin/Tip Toe Fine). The title itself is a floating one that refers to the rhyming lyrics:
Chicken in the bread tray
Scratching out dough.
Chicken in the Bread Tray under this title appears in the Talley and Brown collections from the early 1900s. Here's the entry for the Brown Collection:
158 Chicken in the Bread Tray
This might as well, perhaps, be captioned 'Granny, will your dog bite?" for the two pairs of lines commonly go together. Miss Scarborough (TNFS 194) calls it something that "every Southerner knows." It has been reported from Virginia (FSV 232). Kentucky
(Shearin 38). Tennessee (JAFL xxvi 130), South Carolina (JAFL ix,xvi 127, XLiv 431, in both cases from Negroes). Alabama (ANFS 241, Negroes), and Talley gives it in his Negro Folk Rhymes 7. Ford, Traditional Music of America 36, gives it as a square-dance
song. It appears seven times in our collection, with little variation in form. The following, reported by Antoinette Beasley of Monroe, Union county, seems to be the standard text:
Chicken in the bread tray
Scratching out dough.
Granny, will your dog bite ?
No, chile, no.
Of the other texts one, from Louise Bennett of Middleburg, Vance county, has "plate" for "tray" and "pickin' up" for "scratching out"; another, from Win. C. Daulken, who was a student at the University of North Carlina in 1915, has "pickin' up" for "scratch-
ing out" and "mammy" for "granny"; another, from V. C. Royster, Wake county, adds a line:
Get out er the corner, do, gals, do;
and another, from Caroline Biggers of Union county, has only the last two lines of the quatrain.
Here's some information from Andrew Kuntz: "This melody is popular under several titles, however, the title "Granny Will Your Dog Bite" also is a floating title. It was frequently played at Mid-Western fiddle contests. R.P. Christeson says his version is dissimilar to the tune of the same title in Ford (1940), but is similar to "Tip Toe, Pretty Betty Martin" in the same book. Bayard (1981) notes the resemblance between this tune and the "Betty Martin" variants, many listed as alternates above. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's. See also related tunes "Gate to Go Through" and "Old Coon Dog." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"Ford (1940) said that "occasional verses" were sung by fiddlers while playing the tune, and indeed, various verses have been collected from both white and black sources. (Ford's collection area was the Mid-West, often Missouri, and Thede printed Oklahoma versions). Charles Wolfe (1991) remarks the tune has been collected widely from Mississippi to California, and notes that Ray Browne (writing in The Alabama Folk Lyric, 445) heard it often as a banjo tune popular more with blacks than whites." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
From 3rd Maine Volunteers Home Page: "Granny" was a popular fiddle tune in the 1850s, and was adapted by Military Fife-and-Drum Corps on both sides of the Civil War. It is a regular part of the repertoire of the 3rd Maine Regimental Field Music (F&DC) Reenactment Unit. It has a really kickin' rudimental drum beat to it - particularly the bass, which really thunders. One set of lyrics used by 3rd Maine are: "Granny will yer dawg baht?; Hellfahre, no!"(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
On the Ken Burns Civil War series, a historian recalls how when one Volunteer Regiment had all of its musicians shot down in battle, one enterprising infantryman with a fiddle approached the Commanding Officer with the offer to "fiddle the boys in" on the next charge... which he did, to a rousing rendition of "Granny". It was his last tune." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Here is what Talley says about it, "Ira Ford, in his Traditional Music of America (1940) lists this as a square dance tune, with the lyrics as "occasional verses" fiddlers sang in calling sets. It has been called, “Chicken in the Bread Tray” or "Granny, Will Your Dog Bite?" and has been collected widely from Mississippi to California [Note- also by Brown in North Carolina and by Randolph in Missouri]." "Ray Browne, in The Alabama Folk Lyric [1979], notes that he has heard it often as a banjo tune and that it "seems to be a greater favorite with Negros than Whites." The opening quatrain appears often in white old-time music recordings of the 1920s." Lines appear in "Shootin' Creek - Ida Red." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
The inherent problem with “Chicken in the Bread Tray” or “Granny Will your Dog Bite” is that the name has been used for so many tunes and related songs. The “Granny Will your Dog Bite” lyrics appear in everything from "Devil Went Down to Georgia” to a book of nursery rhymes.
CHICKEN IN DE BREAD TRAY- From Talley 1925:
Auntie, will your dog bite?
No, chile, no!
Chicken in de bread tray
A makin' up dough.
Auntie, will your broom hit?
Yes, chile! Pop!
Chicken in de bread tray,
Flop! Flop! Flop!
Auntie, will yo' oven bake?
Yes, jes' fry!-
What's dat chicken good fer?
Pie! Pie! Pie!
Auntie is yo' pie good?
Good as you could 'spec.
Chicken in de bread tray;
Peck! Peck! Peck!
CHICKEN IN THE BREAD PAN (CHICKEN IN THE BREAD TRAY)
Sung by: Mrs. W.B. (Elizabeth) Apple; Recorded in Huff, AR 8/27/62
Listen: Mrs. W.B. Elizabeth Apple; (Comment by Mrs. Apple: "This is an old play-party song, and it's 'Chicken In the Bread Pan'.") Song Recorded by John Quincy Wolf, Jr.
Chicken in the bread pan
Scratching out dough,
"Granny, will your dog bite?"
"No, child, no."
"Granny, will your hen peck?"
"No, child, no.
Pappy cut her bill off
A long time ago."
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