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Finger Ring
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown/ Song. Oklahoma.
ARTIST: R.E. Perkins (Sequoyah County, Oklahoma) [Thede].
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Early 1900’s
RECORDING INFO: Block, Allan; and Ralph Lee Smith. Allan Block & Ralph Lee Smith, Meadowlands MS 1, LP (1971), cut#A.06. Mann, Mary C.. Folk Songs of America. The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection...., Library of Congress AFS L68, LP (1978), cut# 11c. Trickett, Ed. Telling Takes Me Home, Folk Legacy FSI-046, LP (1972), cut# 6; County 787, Clarence Ferrill Band - "Five Miles Out of Town: Traditional Music From the Cumberland Plateau." County CO-CD-2711, Kirk Sutphin - "Old Roots and New Branches" (1994. Learned from fiddler Bert Edwards, "a native of the hills of Alleghany County, North Carolina"). Rounder, "Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks."
OTHER NAMES: "I Wish't I Had a New Five Cents," "New Five Cents," Yellow/Yeller Gal (Song), "Ruffled Drawers,"
SOURCES: Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 67. Collins, Louise. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 66. Perkins, R. E. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 67 Paul Warren [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 164; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: D Major. ADAE. AABB Originally from African-American tradition. See "Old Joe Clark," "Old Dan Tucker" for similar floating verses, also the song "Raise a Ruckus (Roughhouse) Tonight". (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"The ”New Five Cents” version is from Cumberland Plateau border region of Ky./Tenn., western North Carolina. D Major. Standard. AABB. In the repertoire of fiddler Isham Monday, who played the tune in ADAE tuning, but who tuned his fiddle so low it sounded below C. Also “Finger Ring” is related to "Robinson County" the melody for Dave Macon’s “Country Ham” song." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
A similar song is in the Brown Collection titled Italy. Sung by Willard Randall of Ellenboro, NC. No date given. With the tune:
1. Yonder comes a pretty little girl.
Tell you how I know;
Her head is full of pretty little curls
A-hangin' down so low.
Chorus: I'm going- to Italy 'fore long,
Going to Italy 'fore long,
I'm going to Italy 'fore long
To see that gal of mine.
2. Finger ring, finger ring.
Shines like glittering gold.
I'm going to see my dear love
Before she gets too old.
3. Apple like a cherry.
Cherry like a rose.
How I love my pretty little girl.
Oh. God in heaven knows.
4. I have a house in Baltimore,
Sixteen stories high ;
Every story in that house
Is filled with rock and rye.
5 I wish I was an apple
Hanging in the tree;
Every time my sweetheart passed
She'd take a hite of me.
6 I wish I had a needle and thread
As fine as I could sew,
And a thimble from Baltimore
To make that needle go.
LYRICS:
I would not have a yeller gal, I'll tell you the reason why,
She'd blow her nose on yeller corn bread and call it pumpkin pie.
Chorus: Wish't I had a finger ring (or, new five cents),
Wish't I had a dime;
Wish't I had a finger ring (new five cents),
To give that gal of mine.
I would not have a yeller gal, I'll tell you the reason why,
Her neck's so long and yeller I'm afraid she'd never die.
Mawsy had a yeller gal, brought her from the South,
Her mouth looked like an old fireplace with the ashes all raked out.
Mawsy had an old gray mare I know her mighty well,
If she ever jumps in my corn patch she'd better jump in hell.
Mawsy had an old blind horse, he calls him Bawly Sam,
Every tooth in his old head is sixteen inches round.
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