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Winter's Come and Gone/Mississippi Sawyer
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- USA, North Georgia.
ARTIST: lyrics Gillian Welch/ melody traditional
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Lyrics 1998 "Hell amongst the Yearlings" CD; Melody 1800s
RECORDING INFO: Fiddlin' John Carson And His Virginia Reelers; Okeh 45273; Issued November 1928; County 514 cut# 10, Fiddlin' John Carson and the Virginia Reelers- "Hell Broke Loose in Georgia" (originally recorded 1927). Victor Vi45273 (78 RPM), Fiddling John Carson and the Virginia Reelers (1927).
Christmas Time's A Coming Recordings: Fahey, John. Popular Songs of Christmas and New Years, Varrick VR-012, Cas (197?), cut# 5a; Sparks, Larry; and the Lonesome Ramblers. Christmas Time Back Home, Rebel REB 1600, LP (1980), cut# 2;
OTHER NAMES: John Carson's "Christmas time Will Soon Be Over"
SOURCES: African-American fiddler Bill Driver (Cole County, Missouri) [Christeson]; Marion Unger (Oklahoma) [Thede]; 9 southwestern Pa. fiddlers [Bayard]; Emmett Lundy (southwestern Va.) [Phillips, Reiner & Anick]; Alan Garren (Portland, Oregon) [Songer]. Adam, 1928; No. 8. Arkansas Arkie Woodchopper Square Dance Calls, 1940; pg. 24. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 329A‑I, pgs. 298‑302. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 191. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; pg. 63. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 32. S. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician No. 4: Collection of Fine Tunes), 1983 (revised 1991, 2001); pg. 4. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pg. 44. Messer (Way Down East), 1948; No. 26. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 50, pg. 33. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; pg. 30. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 153. Reiner (Anthology of Fiddle Styles), 1979; pg. 10. Reiner & Anick (Old Time Fiddling Across America), 1989; pg. 85. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 33, pg. 13. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 101. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 137. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 78. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 117 (two versions). Bluebird 5433B (78 RPM), The Skillet Lickers. County 201, The Old Virginia Fiddlers‑ "Rare Recordings." CCF2, Cape Cod Fiddlers – “Concert Collection II” (1999). Cleff’d Ear CD 114, Charlie Acuff. County 531, Earl Johnson & his Clodhoppers ‑ "Old Time String Band Tunes" (1975. Appears as "Mississippi Jubilee"). County 535, Emmett Lundy (Va.) ‑ "Round the Heart of Old Galax." County CO-CD-2711, Kirk Sutphin - "Old Roots and New Branches" (1994). Document DOCD-8006, Earl Johnson (reissue). Document 8039, “The Hill Billies/Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 1” (reissue). Flying Fish FF 90415, A. Robic (Bruce Molsky) and the Exertions - “Old Time Music Dance Party” (1987). Front Hall 01, Bill Spence & Fennigs All Stars‑ "The Hammered Dulcimer." Front Hall FHR‑037, Mark Graham ‑ "Natural Selections" (1987). June Appal 014, John McCutcheon ‑ "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (1977). Library of Congress (2738-B-1) recording by Herbert Halpert, 1939, from the playing of the Houston Bald Knob String Band (Franklin County, Va.). Marimac 9064D, Lauchlin Stamper & A.C. Overton - “Sally with the Run Down Shoes” (1996). Meadowlands MS‑1, "Allan Block and Ralph Lee Smith." Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH‑002, Hardy Sharpe ‑ "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo‑American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" (1985). Mountain 310, Tommy Farrell ‑ "Joke on the Puppy" (1976). Musical Traditions MTCD321-2, Ted Boyd (et al) – “Far on the Mountains, vols. 1 & 2” (2002). PearlMae Muisc 004-2, Jim Taylor – “The Civil War Collection” (1996). Rounder 1023, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers (c. 1934) ‑ "The Kickapoo Medicine Show." Rounder Select 82161-0476-2, “The Wind That Shakes the Barley: Hammered Dulcimer Music” (reissues, orig. released 1977). Rural Records RRCF 251, Curly Fox (1970). Vetco 502, "Fiddlin' Van Kidwell.”
NOTES: Song is sometimes sung to the "A" and "B" parts of Mississippi Sawyer. Kuntz: MISSISSIPPI SAWYER and see "Downfall of Paris," "Mississippi Jubilee," "Love from the Heart." Old‑Time, Breakdown. Widely known. USA; Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Pa. D Major (most versions): D Mixolydian (S. Johnson). Standard tuning. AABB. An extremely well-known old-time fiddle tune. One of the earliest printings of a tune by this title is in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume IV (Baltimore, 1839), where it appears under the title "Love from the Heart" (Knauff also printed a "Mississippi Sawyer" in volume I of his Reels, but this tune is no relation to "Mississippi Sawyer [1]"). Alan Jabbour believes that versions printed in older tune collections suggest the coarse part of the tune was played first, though the fine part is almost universally heard played first among Southern fiddlers in the 20th century. The tune has been known to American fiddlers since the early 19th century, and older fiddlers frequently give the tune's title as "The Downfall of Paris." The melody was known particularly in Texas around 1935 as "Downfall of Paris" and was recorded in 1939 (for the Library of Congress) in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, under that title from the playing of John Hatcher. W.H.A. Williams suggests the 'A' section of the Irish tune "Rakes of Mallow" was "appropriated" as the 'A' part of "Mississippi Sawyer."
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Charles Wolfe elucidates the the title and states that a 'sawyer' was a boatsman's term for an uprooted tree whose roots had become partially anchored to the bottom of the stream bed. Though anchored, the river's currents would cause the trunk to bob up and down, often causing the tree to break surface rather suddenly in front of an unsuspecting river craft. On the Mississippi the problem was of such proportions that special government 'snag boats' patrolled the river in order to protect against such menaces. He opines: "Since the Mississippi River trade played a large role in the economic life of most Americans of the 19th century, it could be expected that most fiddlers of the period would have known what a 'Mississippi Sawyer' was, whereas the term's significance has been lost to the majority of contemporary fiddlers" (notes to Rounder Records "Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers ‑ The Kickapoo Medecine Show"). Mark Twain, a licensed riverboat pilot in addition to being a renowned writer, knew well the potential menace of sawyers in the river and used the term in fashioning the name of his literary hero, Tom Sawyer.
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Ford (1940) relates: "This tune seems to have a strong appeal among old‑time fiddlers. The writer has heard it at old fiddlers' concerts from coast to coast. When played by a fiddler who loses himself in the swing of its rhythm, his listeners may hear the faint tinkle of anvils, the clinking of horseshoes, and the wetting of sickles and scythes and cradles. It is lively and exciting, yet soothing. The authorship is credited to an early sawmill owner, who set up his mill somewhere near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The first enterprise of its kind so far West, it created widespread interest among a people whose only means of producing building materials had been the ax, maul, wedge and rive, and the broadax and adz. Always referred to as 'The Mississippi Sawyer,' the millwright became a noted character and people congregated daily at his mill from miles around. It was a tradition among a later generation that the celebration following the test run of the mill was the occasion for a picnic that lasted for days. The picnickers came in covered wagons, well supplied with good things to eat, and pitched camp in the woods near the mill. All hands took part in handling the logs and lumber as the work got under way, and tables and a dance platform were speedily built of the first boards from the saw. After the day's work an open‑air banquet was served by the woman, and when it was learned that the sawyer was also a fiddler he was immediately chosen by acclimation to play the opening tune of the dance. Thus came into being 'The Mississippi Sawyer', one of the rare old tunes of American fiddle lore."
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It was a 'catagory tune' for an 1899 fiddle contest in Gallatin, Tenn. Each fiddler would play his version of the tune; the rendition judged the best would win the fiddler a prize (C. Wolfe, The Devil's Box, vol. 14, No. 4, 12/1/80).
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Emmett Lundy of Galax, Virginia, said: "This tune is a little difficult to play; they ain't many fiddlers that can lay it. They play at it, but they don't get all of it" (Reiner & Anick, 1989). He reportedly felt that fiddlers who did not note with the fourth finger but instead slid up with the third finger did not play the tune correctly. It was in the repertory of early 20th century Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner (Shumway) and also in repertoires of Uncle Jimmy Thompson (Texas, Tennessee), and Uncle Bunt Stevens (Tennessee), and Buffalo Valley, Pa., region Harry Daddario. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's, and by Herbert Halpert in 1939 from the playing of Mississippi fiddlers W.E. Claunch, Stephen B. Tucker and Hardy Sharpe. “Mississippi Sawyer” is one of ‘100 essential Missouri tunes’ listed by Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden. Virginia old-time musician Wade Ward played a wonderful, crooked, version of the melody. Interestingly, the Kessinger Brother’s recording of “Mississippi Sawyer” was re-released in Québec, with a French title, “Le Reel Gaspesien.”
WINTER'S COME AND GONE (Original Chords)
Capo III
(G)Oh little red bird
Come to my window sill
Been so lonesome
Shaking that morning (Em)chill
(G)Oh little red bird
Open your mouth and say
Been so lonesome
Just about flown away
(C)So long now (G)I've been out
In the rain and snow
But winter's come and gone
A little bird told me so
(G)Oh little blue bird
Pearly feather breast
Five cold nickels all I got (Em)left
(G)Oh little blue bird
What am I gonna do
Five cold nickels
Ain't gonna see me through
(C)So long now (G)I've been out
In the rain and snow
But winter's come and gone
A little bird told me so
(G)Oh little black bird
On my wire line
Dark as trouble
In this heart of (Em)mine
(G)Poor little black bird
Sings a worried song
Dark as trouble
'Til winter's come and gone
(C)So long now (G)I've been out
In the rain and snow
But winter's come and gone
A little bird told me so
(C)So long now (G)I've been out
In the rain and snow
But winter's come and gone
A little bird told me so
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