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Georgie Buck
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown.
ARTIST: Dink Roberts (banjo and vocal) from, “African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia”
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:
Georgie,
Georgie Buck is dead.
Last word he said,
“Don’t let a woman have her way.”
(Spoken) What y’say banja? (Banjo break)
Yes, if you let a woman have her way,
She’ll lead you astray,
Say, “I’m goin’ to the shack,
Where the car number nine-”
(Spoken) What y’say banja? (Banjo break)
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