Fatal Flower Garden- Nelstone's Hawaiians (AL) 1929 REC
[From the recording, "Fatal Flower Garden," performed by Nelstone's Hawaiians. Recorded in Atlanta on November 30, 1929. Original issue Victor V-401938.
R. Matteson 2013, 2015]
Despite the group's name, Hubert Nelson (vocal and steel guitar) and James Touchstone (vocal and guitar) were not, in fact, Hawaiians. They were from southern Alabama. But they were country music pioneers, being among the first to use the steel guitar in a folk or country setting. They were also among the first to record the country standard "Just Because" (later to be performed by Elvis Presley during his debut recording sessions at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee). The practice of laying a guitar on one's lap and using a bar to slide up and down the strings had been in use in the Hawaiian Islands for over a century before coming to the mainland in the early 20th century, sparking a craze for Hawaiian music and encouraging the incorporation of slide and steel guitars, as well as ukuleles, into various styles of music. Certainly, country music was among the most affected genres, with lap and pedal steel guitars becoming ubiquitous by mid-century, although blues has also incorporated the slide technique.
Nelstone's Hawaiians, a folk group formed in southern Alabama by steel guitarist Hubert Nelson and guitarist James D. Touchstone, recorded for Victor during the late '20s. The Hawaiian style of steel-guitar playing, popular during the '20s after Hawaii entered the Republic, featured on many of their recordings. The song "Fatal Flower Garden" was included on Harry Smith's 1952 folksong collection Anthology of American Folk Music.
Fatal Flower Garden
[Listen: Nelstone's Hawaiians]
It rained, it poured, it rained so hard,
It rained so hard all day,
That all the boys in our school
Came out to toss and play.
They tossed their ball again so high,
Then again so low,
They tossed it into a flower garden
Where no one was allowed to go.
Up stepped this gypsy lady,
All dressed in yellow and green;
"Come in, come in, my pretty little boy,
And get your ball again."
"I won't come in, I shan't come in,
Without my playmates all;
I'll go t'my father 'n tell him about it-
That'll cause tears to fall."
She first showed him an apple seed
Then again a gold ring;
Then she showed him a diamond,
That enticed him in.
She took him by his lily-white hand,
She led him through the hall,
She put him into an upper room,
Where no one could hear him call.
"Oh take these finger-rings off my fingers,
Smoke them with your breath;
If any of my friends should call for me,
Tell them that I'm at rest."
"Tether the Bible at my head,
The Testament at my feet;
If my dear mother should call for me,
Tell her that I'm asleep."
"Tether the Bible at my feet,
The Testament at my head;
If my dear father should call for me,
Tell him that I am dead."