Georgia Buck (John Snipes)

Georgia Buck

Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown.

ARTIST: North Carolina banjo player John Snipes;

CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;

RECORDING INFO: Global Village C217, (Black fiddle and banjo players) Joe and Odel Thompson - "Old Time Music From the North Carolina Piedmont." Rounder CD 0382, Marvin Gaster - "Uncle Henry's Favorites."

OTHER NAMES: Georgie Buck; Barbara Buck; Old Georgie Buck;

SOURCES: "The tune was also in the repertoire of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, guitarist and banjo player Elizabeth Cotten, and was played by African-American fiddler Joe Thompson in GDGD tuning." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). American Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. 1995); Recordings by Dick Roberts and Joe Thompson & Odell Thompson (Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40079) and Odell Thompson (Rounder CD 0439) clearly belong to Conway's banjo song genre, although a 1927 recording by The Hill Billies (reissued on Document DOCD-8041) treats it more like a regular song. A rather odd-sounding field holler version by Leonard Emanuel (Rounder CD 0071) is indicative of another way in which this song was used. Doc Watson also does a banjo version.

NOTES: "Heard in many parts of the South, but relatively rare" (Kerry Blech). The tune is known as a black Southern banjo song.

Georgia Buck belongs to what Cecilia Conway calls 'the banjo song genre'. Such songs are usually characterized by the following five musical features: 1) rhythmic and syncopated playing throughout the performance, especially when singing; 2) elaborated instrumental interludes; 3) compressed vocal lines of two or more syllables per beat; 4) occasional but irregular interruptions by instrumental interludes within the stanza; and 5) varied repetition of instrumental elements. (American Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. 1995).

A single verse, Barbara Buck, collected by Cecil Sharp from Laura V Donald of Dewey, VA, EFSSA No. 196, shows some similarities.

LYRICS: 

Where ya' goin' old rabbit
Where ya' goin' old crow
Goin' in the new-groun' to git my grubbin' hoe

Oh me, trouble do I see
Goin' in the new groun' to git my grubbin' hoe.

Georgie Buck, Georgie Buck...