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Going Across the Sea
Old-Time, Breakdown and Song Tune. USA; Tennessee, Kentucky.
ARTIST: Uncle Dave Macon from Vo 15192;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: County 542, Crook Brother's String Band {1928} - "Nashville: the Early String Bands, Vol. 2." County 787, Clarence Ferril Band - "Five Miles Out of Town: Traditional Music From the Cumberland Plateau, Vol. 2." Marimac 9060, Jim Bowles - "Railroading Through the Rocky Mountians" (1992). Morning Star 45004, H.L. Bandy (southern Ky.) - "Wish I Had My Time Again." Rounder 1004, "Ramblin' Reckless Hobo: The Songs of Dick Burnett and Leonard Rutherford." Victor Vi40099 (78 RPM), The Crook Brothers. Bandy, H. L.. Fiddle Band Music from Kentucky, Vol.2, MorningStar 45004, LP (1980), cut# 4; Bluestein, Evo. Deep Shady Grove, Swallow 2002, LP (197?), cut# 3; Burnett and Rutherford. Ramblin' Reckless Hobo, Rounder 1004, LP, cut# 13; Cahill, Susan. Southern Clawhammer, Kicking Mule KM 213, Cas (1978), cut#B.07; Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver). New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy, Folkways FTS 31015, LP (1968), cut# 3 (I'm Goin Across the Sea); Evans, Billy. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p106b (Across the Sea); Flatt & Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys. Flatt And Scruggs. Country and Western Classics, Time-Life Records TLCW-04, LP (1982), cut#F.05; Harmony Sisters. Harmony Pie, Flying Fish FF-248, LP (1981), cut# 2; Holt, Bob. Got a Little Home to Go To, Rounder 0432, CD, cut#19; Koken, Walt. Hei-wa Hoedown, Rounder 0367, CD (1995), cut#18; Macon, Uncle Dave. Uncle Dave Macon. Early Recordings, County 521, LP (197?), cut# 9; Perry, Cliff; and Laurel Bliss. American Fogies. Vol. 2, Rounder 0389, CD (1996), cut#17; Rain-Crow Countryside Band. Roustabout, Log Cabin 8005, LP (1977), cut#B.09a; Rosenbaum, Art (Arthur). Five String Banjo, Kicking Mule KM 108, LP (1974), cut# 4; Schwarz, Tracy and Eloise. Down Home, Folkways FTS 31052, LP (1978), cut#B.04 (I'm Goin Across the Sea); Volo Bogtrotters. Tough Luck, Marimac 9042, Cas (1991), cut# 17; Chelf, J. E.. I Kind of Believe It's A Gift, Meriweather Meri 1001-2, LP (198?), cut# 29; Crook Brothers String Band. Nashville Early String Bands, Vol. 2, County 542, LP, cut# 10; Ferrill, Clarence. Five Miles Out of Town: Traditional Music from Cumberla... Vol.2, County 787, LP, cut# 2; Lusk, John; Band. Altamont: Black Stringband Music from the Library of Congress, Rounder 0238, LP (1989), cut# 5; Murphy, Jeanie; and Scott Marckx. Time's Been Sweet, Murphy, CD, cut# 21a; Rosenbaum, Art (Arthur). Folk Banjo Styles, Elektra EKL-217, LP (195?), cut# 15 (Across the Sea)
OTHER NAMES: "Across the Sea," "Going to the Army," "Gwine Across the Sea."
SOURCES: The piece was recorded in 1924 by Tennessee's Uncle Dave Macon, and in a noticiably different version 1929 by Monticello, Kentucky, muscician Dick Burnett.
NOTES: "Going across the Sea" was in the repertoire of fiddler Isham Monday who recorded the piece in 1959 (Titon). This piece has been popular as a banjo/vocal number and has a reputation as a driving banjo tune among musicians in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, though Guthrie Meade (1980) says the tune is identified with the south central Kentucky and middle Tennessee locale. Others have called it a fairly common tune in the upper/central South. Charles Wolfe says a "sea chanty" variant was published in 1939 by Jean Thomas in her book "Ballad Makin' in the Mountains of Kentucky," collected in northeastern Kentucky.
Goin' Across the Sea LYRICS:
[spoken] Now folks that's what's called banjo picking. Now I'm going to give you some old time banjo rappin'. That old familiar tune, Gwine Across the Sea, from away back yonder.
I'm going cross the sea, stay forever more,
Left my little darling, standing in the door.
Chorus: Won't you come and go, won't you come and go,
Follow me, my pretty little love, I'm going across the sea.
Wind is howling low, the wind is howling high,
Go with me, my pretty little love, until the day I die. Chorus
Wouldn't you give a nickel, wouldn't you give a dime,
Wouldn't you give one dollar bill, call your name and mine. Chorus
[spoken] dream on Rose's red as cherry's, cherry's red as plums,
She threw her arms around my neck, thought my time had come. Chorus
If I had to marry again, would not marry for riches,
Marry some old big fat girl, could not wear my britches. Chorus
[spoken] Glory halelujah Lamb!
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