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Rye Whiskey/Jack O’ Diamonds
Old-Time, Texas Style; Breakdown. USA; Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia. SEE ALSO: “Rye Whiskey” "Drunken Hiccups," "The Cuckoo," "Way Up On Clinch Mountain."
ARTIST: From Mudcat: Ramblin' Jack Elliot's version
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: Appears in JOAFL as “Drunkard’s Song” 1905 Perrow; Lyrics originated in the mid 1800’s as “The Rebel Soldier.” First printed version as "The Rebel Prisoner" in the 1874 songbook "Allan's Lone Star Ballads." The Scottish melody ["Robi Donadh Gorrach" set by Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831) as an "An Old Highland Song"] is associated with "The Wagoner's Lad," "The Drunken Hiccups," "Rye Whiskey" "Jack of Diamonds," "Clinch Mountain," "The Cuckoo."
RECORDING INFO: (Appearing as Drunken Hiccups/Rye Whiskey also) Barnett, Dick; and Bill Long. More Fiddle Jam Sessions, Voyager VRLP 304, LP (197?), cut# 7. Blue Sky Boys. Presenting The Blue Sky Boys, JEMF 104, LP (1965), cut# 8. Carpenter, Ernie. Elk River Blues, Augusta Heritage AHR 003, LP (1986), cut# 16. Chapman, Owen "Snake". Up in Chapman's Hollow, Rounder 0378, CD (1996), cut# 9. Chapman, Owen "Snake". Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 28/2, p29a. Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins. Back Home in the Blue Ridge, County 723, LP, cut# 5. Fox, Curly. Champion Fiddler, Vol. 2, Rural Rhythm RR 252, LP (196?), cut# 13. Jarrell, Tommy. Union Grove 50. Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Union Grove SS-9, LP (1974), cut#A.06 (Jack O' Diamonds). Leftwich, Brad; and Linda Higginbotham. No One to Bring Home Tonight, County 790, LP (1984), cut# 7a. McBee, Hamper. Raw Mash, Rounder 0061, LP (1978), cut# 12. Thomasson, Benny & Jerry. Weiser Reunion, Voyager VRCS 309, Cas (1993), cut# 14. Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "If the River Was Whiskey" (with verses from this song though a version of Hesitaion Blues); Columbia 15545-D, 1930; on CPoole02) Jules Allen, "Jack O' Diamonds" (Victor 21470, 1928) Hobart Smith, "Drunken Hiccups" (on LomaxCD1706); Bill Nicholson w. Zane Shrader, "Jack of Diamonds" (AFS; on LC14). Jilson Setters [pseud. for James W. "Blind Bill" Day], "Way Up On Clinch Mountain" (Victor 21635, 1928; on RoughWays1). New Lost City Ramblers, "Drunkard's Hiccups" (on NLCR08) Augusta Heritage Records 003, Ernie Carpenter - "Elk River Blues: Traditional Tunes From Braxton County, W.Va." County 724, Benny Thomasson- "Country Fiddling." Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association 002, Taylor McBaine - "Boone County Fiddler." Rural Records RRCF 251, Curly Fox (1970). Voyager 301, Dwayne Youngblood- "Fiddle Jam Session." Voyager 309, Benny and Jerry Thomasson- "The Weiser Reunion: A Jam Session" (1993). Voyager 319-S, Ace Sewell- "Southwest Fiddlin.'"
OTHER NAMES: “Drunken Hiccups/Hiccoughs;” “Rye Whiskey;” "Way Up On Clinch Mountain," "Clinch Mountain;" "Fort Worth," "Robi Donadh Gorrach," "Johnnie Armstrong," "Todlen Hame," "Bacach," "Hell on the Wabash." "Jack of Diamonds," "Clinch Mountain," "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler.”
RELATED TO: ”The Rebel Soldier,” "The Wagoner's Lad," "The Cuckoo," "Mason's Apron," "Greenback Dollar," "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (floating lyrics) and "Wake Up Susan"
SOURCES: [Brody, Phillips]; Cyril Stinnett (Mo.) [Phillips]. West Virginia fiddler Ernie Carpenter learned his version from Wallace Pritchard. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 142. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994; pg. 120. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 51. Frank McCraw (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede]: Benny Thomasson (Texas) McGraw, Frank. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 51b (Jack O' Diamonds) Sandburg, p. 307, "Way Up On Clinch Mountain" (2 text, 1 tune, but only the "A" text belongs here).Lomax-FSUSA 64, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune) Rorrer, p. 92, "If the River Was Whiskey" (1 text, built around W. C. Handy's "Hesitating Blues" but with most of the verses from this song) Darling-NAS, pp. 286-287, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, heavily mixed with "Logan County Jail"); pp. 287-288, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text) Randolph 405, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (6 texts, 1 tune); also 494, "Tie-Hackin's Too Tiresome" (1 text, 1 tune, an extract from a longer version) MWheeler, pp. 112-113, "Beefsteak When I'm Hongry" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed fragment I file here on the basis of the first verse; the others are from elsewhere) Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 211-213, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text; this particular Lomax offering contains elements of "Jack o Diamonds/Rye Whisky," "The Wagoner's Lad," The Rebel Soldier," and others) Chase, pp. 142-143, "Clinch Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The earliest collected versions appears in JOAFL as “Drunkard’s Song” 1905 by the collector E.C. Perrow. The “Rye Whiskey/Jack O’ Diamonds” song lyrics originated in the 1800’s as “The Rebel Soldier.” The first printed version appears as "The Rebel Prisoner" in the 1874 songbook "Allan's Lone Star Ballads." The Scottish melody of Rye Whiskey ["Robi Donadh Gorrach" set by Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831) as an "An Old Highland Song"] is associated with "The Wagoner's Lad," "The Drunken Hiccups," "Rye Whiskey" "Jack of Diamonds," "Clinch Mountain," "The Cuckoo."
In his book “Dance to the Fiddle” Samuel Bayard says, "Either as a dance or a song, this tune has had many titles . . . the air has had the names of Johnny Armstrong, Todlen Hame, Bacach, Robi Donadh Gorrach, Wagoner's Lad, Clinch Mountain, The Cuckoo, Rye Whiskey, Jack of Diamonds and a number of others." Samuel Bayard, Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife (University Park & London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982), p.567.
The song, “The Rebel Soldier”, which eventually evolved into Rye Whiskey, follows the typical form of the English folk song "One morning, one morning in May." The lyrics of "One morning, one morning in May" also appear in “The Rebel Soldier.” Randolph speculated a resemblance in form to "The Forsaken Damosel." (17th c. or so).
The lyrics of the “Rebel Soldier/ Old Soldier” appeared around the time of the Civil War. Here’s a typical version from John H. Cox's 'Folk-Songs of the South' Harvard University Press in 1925:
The Union men and Yankees have forced me from my home
I am a rebel soldier and far from my home
I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry
If those Yankees don't kill me, I'll fight till I die
The song, “Rye Whiskey/Jack O’ Diamonds” is also related to the large family of songs originating in the British Isles as “The Cuckoo.” The Cuckoo ballad relates to the Irish ballad- Bunclody (Streams of Bunclody/ Maid of Bunclody/ Bunclody). These are some names from the Cuckoo branch: "Cuckoo Bird;" "Coo Coo;” "Coo Coo Bird;" "A-Walking and A-Talking," "The Unconstant Lover” (Frank Brown); "The Fourth Day of July" “Dove;” “Pretty Girl Is Like a Little Bird;” “Variations on the Coocoo;” “I'm Sad and I'm Lonesome/Lonely;” “Wobble Bird.”
“The Bonny Cuckoo” (An chuaichin mhaiseach), an Irish air in3/4 or 6/8 time, appears to be the original source for the “Bunclody” songs and another direct line to the “Cuckoo” songs found in Ireland, Scotland and England which were brought to the US in the late 1700’s.
Both the “Jack O' Diamonds” and “Rye Whiskey" songs are well-known in America and as the fiddle tune "Drunken Hiccups." In both the songs and the fiddle tune “drunken hiccup” sounds are often made to convey the state of inebriation. The songs are a composite of "The Wagoner's Lad", which itself has offshoots such as "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler.”
The “Jack O' Diamonds” is also a 1926 blues title by Blind Lemon Jefferson and the line “Jack o' diamonds is hard,” appears in Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The reference to the “Jack O’ Diamonds” is that it’s a bad (unlucky) card to hold:
Jack of diamonds, jack of diamonds
I’ve known you from old
You’ve robbed my poor pockets
Of silver and gold
Tex Ritter, whose son John Ritter carried on the family name as a popular actor in TV sitcoms like Three's Company and Hooperman, was the first to record the song under the title Rye Whiskey in 1932. The song was first recorded as “Jack O' Diamonds” in 1927 by Tommy Jarrell father, Ben Jarrell with Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters.
Kuntz gives the following information: Rye Whiskey-A Major. Standard or AEAC#. AABB (Brody, Thede): AABCDD (Phillips). The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
Here are the lyrics to Rye Whiskey:
RYE WHISKEY-From Mudcat
Ramblin' Jack Elliot's version, as best as I can remember:
Jack o' diamonds, jack o' diamonds, I know you of old
You've robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold
And whiskey, rye whiskey, you've been my downfall
You've kicked me and you've cussed me but I love you for all
It's beefsteak when I'm hungry, rye whiskey when I'm dry
A greenback when I'm hard up, go to hell when I die
I'll go to yonder holler and build me a still
I'll give you a gallon for a five dollar bill 'cause it's
Whiskey, rye whiskey, whiskey I cry
If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die
(some yodeling/screeching here, plus some hiccups)
If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck
I'd dive to the bottom and never come up.
(sing this sadly:) But the ocean ain't whiskey, and I ain't a duck
I'll just play jack o' diamonds and trust in my luck 'cause it's
Whiskey, rye whiskey, whiskey I cry
If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die
Her parents don't like me, they say I'm too poor
'Twere them who said not to knock at her door
If her parents don't like me, my money's my own
Them that don't like me can leave me alone 'cause it's
Whiskey, rye whiskey, whiskey I cry
If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die
(and he closes it with more yodeling and this weird reverse-
forced-air shriek that's amazingly hard to do)
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