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Down in Alabam ( Ain’t I glad I Got Out de Wilderness)
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA Words & music: J. Warner published by Wm. Hall & Son, N. Y.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1858.
RECORDING INFO: See: "Old Grey Mare, The”
OTHER NAMES: "Out of the Wilderness," "The White Horse." The original melody of the tune now better known as "The Old Grey Mare (Came Out of the Wilderness)," which begins: The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be, Ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be- "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness," "Johnny Stole a Ham," "Old Yeller Dog," "Old Blind Dog."
SOURCES: "The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. A related tune is "Old Blind Dog." Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner remembered the tune as a hoedown in the Southwest, c. 1900." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
NOTES: "G Major. Standard. AABB The original minstrel version of "The Old Grey Mare (Came Out of the Wilderness)." It is likely that the tune is older than the 1858 date since it closely resembles a contemporary revivalist hymn--they may have had a common folk ancestor. Bayard (1981) calls it a good example of a popular tune which became traditional (or, if it was a traditional tune reworked by Warner, then a folk tune which became a popular one, which again reverted to folk form). Mark Wilson relates that a parody figured prominently in the famous Lincoln-Douglas campaign of 1860, probably the "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" version popular in Civil War times." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
LYRICS:
(All) Ah! Ah!
(Solo)
My old massa he’s got the dropser, um,
He’s got the dropser, um,
He’s got the dropser, um,
He am sure to die ’kase he’s got no doctor, um,
Down in Alabam’.
Chorus: Ain’t I glad I got out de wilderness,
Got out de wilderness,
Got out de wilderness,
Ain’t I glad I got out de wilderness
Down in Alabam’.
Old blind horse come from Jerusalum,
Come from Jerusalum,
Come from Jerusalum,
He kicks so high dey put him in de museum,
Down in Alabam’.
Chorus:
Dis am a holiday, we hab assembled, um,
We hab assembled, um,
We hab assembled, um,
To dance and sing for de ladies and genbleum,
Down in Alabam’.
Chorus:
Fare you well to de wild goose nation,
Wild goose nation,
Wild goose nation,
I neber will lead de old plantation,
Down in Alabam’.
Chorus:
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