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If You Want to Go A-Courtin'/West Virginia Gals/West Virginia Boys/When You Go A-Courtin'/Come Girls, Come/Hello Girls/ Kansas Boys/Askansas Sheik/ Cornbread, Molasses and Sassafras Tea
Traditional Old-Time Song and Breakdown; Minstrel origin
ARTIST: From Carolina Twins; Ashley and Foster.
Listen: Gid Tanner
Listen: When You Go A- Courting: Carolina Twins
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes.
EARLIEST DATE: "De Free *Man" 1841; Collected by Cecil Sharp in 1916
RECORDING INFO West Virginia Girls/Gals:
Rt - Come Girls, Come; Old Leather Bonnet with a Hole in the Crown
At - Last Three Drops
Uf - Fire On the Mountain [Appalachian]
Hollow Rock String Band. Hollow Rock String Band, Rounder 0024, LP (1974), trk# B.06
Krassen, Miles. Krassen, Miles / Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p39
Krassen, Miles. Krassen, Miles / Clawhammer Banjo, Oak, sof (1974), p34
Slater, Alec. Slater, Alec / Clawhammer Banjo Solos, Mel Bay, Sof (1979), p57
RECORDING INFO Kansas Boys [Me II-B41]:
Rm - Harriet Tubman's Ballad
Uf - Come Girls, Come
Brand, Oscar. Courtin's a Pleasure and Other Folk Songs of the Southern App..., Elektra EKL 122, LP (1957), trk# A.07 (Kansas Boys)
Lingenfelter, Richard E., et.al.(eds.) / Songs of the American West, U. Calif Press, Bk (1968), p452 (Kansas Boys)
O'Bryant, Joan. Folksongs and Ballads of Kansas, Folkways FA 2134, LP (1957), trk# B.01 (Kansas Boys)
Sandburg, Carl (ed.) / American Songbag, Harcourt, Sof (1955/1928), p129 (Kansas Boys)
RECORDING INFO Come Girls, Come [Sh 75B/Me II-B41]:
Rt - Poor Tuckahoe; When You Go A-Courtin'; U-S-U Range
At - Arkansas Boys; Free "Nigger"; Johnny Cake
Rm - West Virginia Girls/Gals
Cousin Emmy, "Cousin Emmy's Blues" (also issued as "Come All You Virginia Gals") (Decca 24213, 1947)
Riley Puckett, "The Arkansas Sheik" (Columbia 15686-D, 1931; rec. 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Arkansas Sheik" (on NLCR14)
Pete Seeger, "Texian Boys" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
Sandburg, Carl (ed.) / American Songbag, Harcourt, Sof (1955/1928), p128 (Hello Girls)
Cazden, Norman (ed.) / Merry Ditties, Bonanza Books, Bk (1958), p 66 (West Virginia Boys)
Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Folk Song USA, Signet, Sof (1966/1947), # 11b (Texian Boys)
Sorrels, Rosalie (ed.) / Way Out in Idaho, Confluence, Sof (1991), p182 (Don't [You] Marry the Mormon Boys)
Scofield, Twilo (ed.) / An American Sampler, Cuthroat, Sof (1981), p 86 (Alsea Girls)
Silverman, Jerry / Folk Guitar - Folk Song, Scarborough Book, Sof (1983/1977), p 74 (Tex-I-An Boys)
Briegel, George F. (ed.) / 44 Old Time Morman and Far west Songs, Kessinger, Sof (1933), p49/#36 (Come Little Girls)
Fife, Austin E. & Alta S. / Cowboy and Western Songs, Bramhall House, Bk (1982/1969), p 25/# 9D (Mississippi Gals)
Drake, Rod. Owens, William A. (ed.) / Texas Folk Songs. 2nd edition, SMU Press, Bk (1976/1950), p110a [1952] (Come All You Mississippi Girls)
Fiddlin' Red and Patti O'Farrell. Gift to the Mountain, Fidllin' --, CD (2008), 4 (West Virginia Gals)
Gear, Jeanetta. Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p175/# 81 [1914] (Cheyenne Boys)
Groves, Lula. McIntosh, David S. / Folk Songs and Singing Games of the Illinois Ozarks, SIU Press, Bk (1974), p 25 [1950/02/09] (Illinois Gals)
Hannah, Mrs.; and Effie Mitchell. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 7/# 75B [1918/09/29] (If You Want to Go)
Hathaway, Mark. Owens, William A. (ed.) / Texas Folk Songs. 2nd edition, SMU Press, Bk (1976/1950), p111 [1941] (Come All You Mississippi Girls)
Hopkins, Al; and his Buckle Busters. Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol 4, Revenant RVN 211, CD (2004), trk# 2.03 [1928/12/20] (West Virginia Gals)
Kraber, Tony. Silber, Irwin / Songs of the Great American West, Dover, Sof (1967), p229 (Kansas Boys)
McNamara, Rory. Still Got That Look in His Eye, Kicking Mule KM 323, LP (1984), trk# B.05 (Come All You Virginia Girls)
Mitchell, J. D.. Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, MacMillan, Bk (1938), p338 (Texian Boys)
Muir, Ann Mayo. So Goes My Heart, Folk Legacy FSI 099, LP (1985), trk# B.05 (Cousin Emmy's Blues)
Nash, Len. Fife, Austin E. & Alta S. / Cowboy and Western Songs, Bramhall House, Bk (1982/1969), p 22/# 9A (On the Road to California)
New Lost City Ramblers. Remembrance of Things to Come, Folkways FTS 31035, LP (1973/1966), trk# 17 (Arkansas Sheik)
O'Bryant, Joan. Asch, Moses (ed.) / 124 Folk Songs as Sung and Recorded on Folkways Reco, Robbins, Fol (1965), p 63 (Kansas Boys)
Risinger, Robert L.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey O.(ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwes, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p300/#144 [1940s] (Mississippi Girls)
Sorrels, Rosalie. Lonesome Roving Wolves. Songs & Ballads of the West, Green Linnet SIF 1024, CD (1980), trk# 2 [1960s] (Don't [You] Marry the Mormon Boys)
Sorrels, Rosalie. Songs of the Mormon Pioneers, Festival LB 2582, LP (196?), trk# B.03 (Don't [You] Marry the Mormon Boys)
Stephens, Ed. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume III, Humorous & Play-Party ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p 12/#342A [1928/06/20] (Arkansas Boys)
Toelken, J. Barre. Garland of American Folksong, Prestige International INT 13023, LP (196?), trk# 3
Wasson, Laura. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume III, Humorous & Play-Party ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p 12/#342B [1942/01/28] (Missouri Boys)
RECORDING INFO When You Go A-Courtin' [Sh 75/Me II-B40]:
Rt - Come Girls, Come
At - Down at the Old Man's House
Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Folk Song USA, Signet, Sof (1966/1947), # 11
Fife, Austin E. & Alta S. / Cowboy and Western Songs, Bramhall House, Bk (1982/1969), p 24/# 9C (When I Went a Courting)
Boone, Sina. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 8/# 75C [1918/10/01] (If You Want to Go A-Courting)
Bradley, Bob. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 9/# 75D [1918/06/09] (If You Want to Go A-Courting)
Jones, William. McIntosh, David S. / Folk Songs and Singing Games of the Illinois Ozarks, SIU Press, Bk (1974), p 41 [1935/02/16] (If You Want to Go A-Courting)
Kelly, Maidy. Owens, William A. (ed.) / Texas Folk Songs. 2nd edition, SMU Press, Bk (1976/1950), p112 [1938] (Went Out A-Sparking/Sparkin')
Sands, Mary. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 6/# 75A [1916/08/05] (If You Want to Go A-Courting)
Wilson, Coral Almy. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume III, Humorous & Play-Party ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p223/#466 [1929/07/17] (Old Leather Bonnet)
RECORDING INFO Corn Bread, Molasses and Sassafras Tea:
Rm - Cotton Eyed Joe - II
ALT TITLE: Cornbread 'Lasses and Sassafras Tea
Carter, June (Cornbread 'Lasses and Sassafras Tea)
Freight Hoppers. Where'd You Come From, Where'd You Go?, Rounder 0403, CD (1996), trk# 10 (Cornbread, Molasses and Sassafras Tea)
Gellert, Dan; and Shoofly. Forked Deer, Marimac 9000, Cas (1986), trk# A.05b
Harold and Abe. Cornbred, Molasses and Sassafras Tea, Heritage (Galax) 023, LP (1978), trk# 3
Lilly Brothers And Don Stover; Cornbread and 'Lasses and Sassafras Tea
Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys; Cornbread and 'Lasses and Sassafras Tea
CLOSELY RELATED TO: "Cornbread, Molasses and Sassafras Tea"
OTHER NAMES: West Virginia Gals/West Virginia Boys/If You Want to Go A-Courtin'/When You Go A-Courtin'/Come Girls, Come/Hello Girls/ Kansas Boys/Askansas Sheik/Don't Marry the Mormon Boys/Missouri Boys/Poor Tuckahoe/California Boys/East Virginia Girls/Mississippi Gals/The Mormon Boys
SOURCES: Kuntz; Brown; Mudcat; Sarah McQuaid;
PRINT SOURCES: Belden, pp. 426-428, "Texan Boys" (1 text plus a fragment probably not part of this song)
Randolph 342, "The Arkansas Boys" (3 texts, 2 tunes); also (perhaps with some mixture) 466, "The Old Leather Bonnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 277-278, "The Arkansas Boys" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 342A)
BrownIII 328, "The Carolina Crew" (1 fragment, thought by the editors to be this song); 336, "If You Want to Go A-Courtin'" (1 text, clearly mixed; the first three stanzas are this song, the next four something completely unrelated about a fight and a very bad meal)
Sandburg, pp. 128-129, "Hello, Girls"; "Kansas Boys" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 95, "The Hunter's Song" (1 fragment)
Lomax-FSUSA 11, "When You Go A-Courtin'"; 12, "The Texian Boys" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fife-Cowboy/West 9, "Johnny Cake" (4 texts, 1 tune, though the "B" text is clearly "Little Fight in Mexico" and the "C" text is also quite distinct)
LPound-ABS, 81, pp. 175-176, "Cheyenne Boys" (1 text)
JHCox 58, "The Tucky Ho Crew" (1 text -- a very mixed version which is only partly this song, but the rest doesn't look like anything I know. It may be a conflation with an otherwise lost ballad)
SharpAp 75, "If You Want to Go A-courting" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Silber-FSWB, p. 173, "Kansas Boys" (1 text)
DT, WHNCORT1* WHNCORT2* WHNCORT3* WHNCORT4* WHNCORT5*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 207, "The Old Leather Bonnet" (1 text, fairly full but missing the opening verse)
NOTES If You Want To Go A-Courting: "If You Want to Go A-Courting" is part of a large related group of a songs in which the girls are warned about courting with a certain group of boys (i.e. Kansas Boys). The songs are of minstrel origin dating back to the 1841 song, "De Free *Man." The original sheet music, available at American Memory, gives the first verse as:
Come all you Virginia gals and listen to my noise
Neber do you wed wid de Carolina boys,
For if dat you do your portion it will be
Corn cake and *hominy and Jango lango tea. [*originally "harmony"]
It has been passed down in various forms and a myriad of titles including West Virginia Gals/West Virginia Boys/If You Want to Go A-Courtin'/When You Go A-Courtin'/Come Girls, Come/Hello Girls/ Kansas Boys/Askansas Sheik/Don't Marry the Mormon Boys/
Missouri Boys/Poor Tuckahoe.
Sharp collected his version from Mary Sands in 1916; first verse:
1. If you want to go a-courtin' I'll tell you where to go,
Just down yonder, just down below.
The old man, the old woman gone from home,
The girls all *married and their heads not combed.
The girls all married and their heads not combed. [*mad]
Mead separates the songs into two groups "When You go A-Courting" and "Come Along, Girls."
In their book Songs of the Great American West (1995), Irwin Silber and Earl Robinson describe how the song made the rounds of the country:
In the Ozarks, they told the Tennessee girls not to marry the Arkansas boys, while the Arkansas girls were similarly warned against the Missouri boys, and Louisiana girls were advised to guard against the Texas clan.... The song traveled to Wyoming, where young ladies were urged to scorn the Cheyenne boys, and out near the Great Salt Lake, the disciples of Brigham Young fashioned their own wry parody on themselves:
Come, girls, come, and listen to my noise,
Don’t you marry the Mormon boys,
For if you do, your fortune it will be,
Johnnycakes and babies are all you’ll see.
West Virginia Gals was first recorded by this title in 1928 by Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters. Fiddler Henry Reed recorded the tune which Alan Jabbour titled West Virginia Gals, because Reed couldn't remember the name. Jabbour gives alternative titles as "West Virginia Girls" and "If You Want to Go A-Courting." Reed's version- Key: A; Meter: 4/4; Strains: 2 (high-low, 4-4); Rendition: 2-1r-2; Phrase Structure: AAAB QRQ'B' (abab abcd qrst qr'c'd'); Compass: 15
Here are Jabbour's notes: The tune appears to be an instrumental version of a song known in older Appalachian tradition (see Sharp, "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians", vol. 2, 6, #75-A, "If You Want to Go A-Courting") and recorded on early hillbilly records. Though Henry Reed gave the tune no title, the Hollow Rock String Band recorded it as "West Virginia Gals" (Rounder 0024), the title which is adopted here. The song typically repeats the final phrase, making a five-phrase tune. The high strain of the fiddle tune corresponds to the song, though it eliminates the repeated fourth phrase, and the low strain is a kind of arpeggiated filler.
West Virginia Boys (Sarah McQuaid): I learned this song from my mother. It’s part of a grand tradition of songs in which girls are strongly advised against consorting with young men from the neighbouring parish, county, state or whatever. The miserable repast the prospective brides are told to expect varies from “Johnny cake and venison” (which doesn’t sound all that bad!) to “hoecake and hominy”, “cornbread and buttermilk” and “cornbread and bacon”.
Come on all you Virginia gals and listen to my noise
Don’t you mess around with West Virginia boys
If’n you do your ration will be
Cornbread, molasses and sassafras tea
If You Want To Go A-Courting- Collected by Sharp from Mary Sands 1916
1. If you want to go a-courtin' I'll tell you where to go,
Just down yonder, just down below.
The old man, the old woman gone from home,
The girls all *married and their heads not combed.
The girls all married and their heads not combed. [*mad]
2. They hain't got sense to bake a pound of bread,
They'll throw on a log heap as high as my head,
They'll rake out the ashes and then they'll throw
A little some of what's called dough, boys, dough.
3. They'll milk the old cow and they'll milk her in a gourd
And set it in a corner and covered with a board.
And that's the best that I got there,
All along on a missionary fair.
4. Hey, old lady, you'd better run,
Yonder comes your daddy with the doubled barreled gun.
I'll stand my ground as brave as a bear,
I'll tangle my fingers with the old man's hair.
336 If You Want to Go A-Courtin'- Brown Collection
This is a form of a rather widely known satire on frontier manners and conditions, concerning;- which see BSM 426 and add to the references there given Maine (MM 337-8), Florida (SFLQ VIII 192-3), Texas (CS [iQio] 108-9), Iowa. (MAFLS xxix 96-7),
and for the Negroes JAFL xxiv 285 and NS 192. A reduced treatment of the theme is 'Johnson Boys.'
'If You Want to Go A-Courtin.' Contributed by Miss Pearly Webb of Pineola, Avery county, in 1922, with the notation : "This is a ballad made up on a mountain family in western North Carolina. I do not know the name."
1. If you want to go a-courtin' I'll tell you where to go,
Down to the ol' man's down below.
The children all a-squallin' and the ol' folks gone.
The gals all married and their heads not combed.
The gals all married and their heads not combed.
2. If you want to go to preachin' I'll tell you how to dress:
In ol' ragged breeches I think is the best.
Old ragged coat greased all around,
Old leather hat, no brim, no crown,
An old pair of cotton socks wore the winter roun'.
An ol' pair of cotton socks wore the winter roun'.
3. When they go to milk I'll tell you how they do.
They milk the old cow and strain it in a gourd
And' set it in the corner and cover with a board.
Some gets a little and some gets none.
Some gets a little and some gets none.
4. Babe bought a rooster and Joe bought a hen
And it was how ol' Noah and Delphy shouted hallelujah then.
And it was how ol' Noah and Delphy shouted hallelujah then.
5. Joe called me in to supper an' I thought it was to eat.
He set me down to carve up the meat.
He had an ol' knife an' he had no fork.
I sawed about an hour an' I couldn't make a mark,
I sawed about an hour an' I couldn't make a mark.
6 I sawed an' I sawed an' I got it on the floor.
I gave a little kick and I got it out o' doors.
I gave a little kick and I got it out o' doors.
7 Up stepped ol' Noah with his double barrel gun.
I says. 'Mr. Noah, I guess you better run.'
Up stepped Noah, as brave as any bear.
I tangled my fingers in ol' Noah's hair,
I tangled my fingers in ol' Noah's hair.
^ The manuscript has a superfluous 'in" after "Iniggies."
-The manuscript has "gourd," evidently a slip. See the Missouri text.
When You Go A-Courtin'- Carolina Twins
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