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Seneca Square Dance (See: Got A Little Home To Go To; Little Home to Go To
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Arkansas, Missouri.
Hear the tune at HONKINGDUCK as fiddled by Fiddlin' Dave Neal. Recording: Challenge 301; Date Issued: January 1927; Side: B; Title: Seneca Square Dance
ARTIST: Lyrics from several sources at Mudcat
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1925 as "Hawk and Buzzard" by Fiddlin' John Carson
RECORDING INFO: Seneca Square Dance [Me IV-E 9]
Rt - Coon Dog ; Got a Little Home to Go To
At - Waiting on the Federals ; Old Coon Dog ; Get Away from the Federals
Rm - Shoot the Turkey Buzzard
Ford, Ira W. / Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1965/1940), p122a
Bain, Aly; and Phil Cunningham. Best of Aly & Phil, Compass 7 4403 2, CD (2005), trk# 14 (Waiting for the Federals)
Baldassari, Butch. Day in the Country, Soundart SAR 2253, CD (1994), trk# 9
Bouterse, Curtis C.. Long Riders, Warner HS 3448, LP (1980), trk# A.03
Bouterse, Curtis C.. Down the Road I'll Go, Dancing Cat EWM 1002, CD (2006), trk# 10
Bouterse, Curt; and Bob Webb. Waiting for Nancy, Dancing Cat EWM 1003, CD (2008), trk# 5
Bunkhouse Orchestra. Old-Time Cowboy Songs, Gibbs Smith, Cas, trk# 13
Chancellor, Jim "Texas Shorty". Texas Shorty and John Hartford. Old Sport, Small Dog A-Barking SD 494, Cas (1994), trk# A.03 (Georgia Boys)
Garren, Alan. Songer, Susan; & Clyde Curley (eds.) / Portland Collection. Contra..., Portland Collection, Fol (1997), p179
Holt, Bob. Got a Little Home to Go To, Rounder 0432, CD (1999), trk# 9a (Flop Old Turkey Buzzard)
Johnson, Vesta Wilson. Blue Flame, Marimac 9057, Cas (1994/1991), trk# B.01 (Little Home to Go To)
Long, Sam (Fiddlin' Sam). Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 3, County 520, LP (1970), trk# 13 [1926/02/23]
Rosenbaum, Art. Art of the Mountain Banjo, Kicking Mule KM 203, LP (1975), trk# 1.01b
Rosenbaum, Art. Rosenbaum, Art / Art of the Mountain Banjo, Centerstream, Fol (1981), p45
Stoneking, Fred. Saddle Old Spike. Fiddle Music From Missouri, Rounder 0381, CD (1996), trk# 23 (No Little Home to Go To)
Stoneking, Lee R.. Rainbow of Fiddle Tunes, Stoneking, LP (197?), trk# A.04 (No Little Home to Go To)
Tuttle, Jack. Fiddler Magazine, Fiddler Mag., Ser, 6/1, p36(1999)
West Orrtana String Band. Orrtana Home Companion, Revonah RS-932, LP (1978), trk# A.01
Williams Family. All in the Family, Arkansas Traditions 004, LP (1986), trk# A.05
Wood, Jim. Fiddler Magazine, Fiddler Mag., Ser, 12/1, p20b(2005)
RELATED TO: "Georgia Boys," "Got a Little Home to Go To," "Higher Up the Monkey Climbs," "John Hoban's Polka," "Running from the Ferderals," "Waiting for the Federals."
OTHER NAMES: Shoot the Tukey Buzzard; Greasy String; Engineer on the Mongul
SOURCES: Ceolas; Mudcat Café; John Hartford [Phillips]. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 122. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), No. 2, 1982/1988; pg. 12. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 125. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 179. Recorded by Ozark fiddler Sam Long for Gennett Records c. 1928. Revonah RS-932, The West Orrtanna String Band - "An Orrtanna Home Companion" (1978). Kerry Elkin et al - "Tradition Today."
NOTES: The title suggests that they may have influences & origins from the name of the Seneca First Nations tribe and the town of Seneca, Missouri as well as the American Civil War.
Kuntz: G Major. Standard. AB (Johnson): ABB (Ford): AABB (Phillips, Songer). Johnson (1982/1988) notes that there is an old hymn set to this tune, but does not give specifics. The melody is known to Irish musicians as "John Hoban's Polka" and appears to be related to the tune "(What Shall We Do with a) Drunken Sailor" and perhaps the gospel song "Rock-a My Soul (in the Bosom of Abraham)." "Seneca Square Dance" appeared on the Challange label (a subsidiary of Sears and Roebuck) on a 78 RPM recording by one 'Fiddlin' Sam Long of the Ozarks' (1876-1931, who actually was from Oklahoma but won a big contest in Missouri, according to Charles Wolfe) and was reissued by County on an LP entitled "Echoes of the Ozarks" in the 1970's. Long recorded the tune via acoustic, not electronic methods in 1926, and despite the rather poor quality of the sound it sold well in the Mid-west and West. Gus Meade and W.L. McNeil researched Long and discovered he had been born in 1876 and died sometime in March 1931 (perhaps in Wichita, Kansas). He was the first Ozark fiddler to have been recorded.
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"Seneca Squaredance" has been, and continues to be, a popular tune among regional fiddlers. Fiddlin' Bob Larkin recorded a version with words called "The Higher Up the Monkey Climbs." Alton Jones of Theodosia calls it "Seneca War Dance" and Cliff Bryan of West Plains calls it "Got No Little Home to Go to." It is infrequently called "Echoes of the Ozarks," the name of a different tune (by Clyde Davenport, for one).
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The melody was featured in the score by Ry Cooder for the film The Long Riders. It seems that one of Cooder's associates, David Lindley, previously performed an ideosyncratic version when he played with folk-rock musician Jackson Browne. There was no name attached to it and it was called "David's Fiddle Tune" at the time.
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The origin of the title is obscure. Jim Kimball, a musicologist from Genesco, NY, points out that many Seneca indians (part of the Iroquois nation) were relocated to Oklahoma after the War of 1812, and that there is still a large community of Seneca in the northeastern part of the state, not far from southwest Missouri. The tune may also be called after the town of Seneca, Missouri, in the southwestern part of the state (which may itself have taken its name from the Indian tribe). A distanced, somewhat odd although regularly phrased version appears in Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948) by champion Arizona fiddler Viola "Mom" Ruth, under the title "Get Away from the Federals" with "Fall of Paris" given as an alternate title. Source for notated version: T:Seneca Square Dance
Seneca Square Dance Notes: This is a tune from the Ozark Mountain areas of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas. The title refers to the town of Seneca, Missouri. According to one source I consulted, this piece may well date back to the days of the minstrel stage, and is a variation of an older tune called Shoot the Turkey Buzzard. Other common titles for Seneca Square Dance are Waiting for the Federals, The Federal Hornpipe, and Shelby's Mules, a reference to Confederate cavalry commander General Joseph Shelby.
This simple melody has become one of my favorites. Through the magic of overdubbing, we start the piece off with twin fiddles, adding a hammered dulcimer, banjo, and three guitars by the end of the tune.
Seneca Square Dance Henry Reed: "Greasy String" is known by that title in versions scattered across southwestern Virginia and West Virginia. But under other titles the tune has turned up across an even wider swath of the country, from Virginia to Texas and Missouri. Some typical multiple versions are in Ford, Traditional Music of America, p. 122 "Seneca Square Dance," p. 62 "Old Raccoon," p. 7 "Running from the Federals," and p. 101 "Hell among the Yearlin's"; Adam, Old Time Fiddlers' Favorite Barn Dance Tunes #14, "Raccoon's Tail"; Thede, The Fiddle Book, p. 127 "Coon Dog" (or "Raccoon's Tail"), p. 136 "Heel Flies" (or "Rock Along John to Kansas"); Ruth, Pioneer Western Folk Tunes, p. 7 "Get Away from the Federals, or Fall of Paris"; "Shoot the Turkey Buzzard," played by J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers (King 819). It is but a small step to a yet wider circle of related tunes, such as the "Liza Jane" of Southern Piedmont, minstrel stage, and jazz band circulation, or another tune in Henry Reed's repertory, set in the key of A, that he called "Dinah." In short, the tune is cut of a cloth so common in the Upper South, and in musical domains touched by the influence of the Upper South, that it could be described as a paradigmatic Southern tune, appearing in so many related versions, allied forms, and modified guises that it almost defies genetic tracing.
MUSICAL FEATURES
Key: G
Meter: 4/4
Strains: 2 (high-low, 4-2)
Rendition: 1r-2r-1r-2r-1r-2r-1r-2r-1r-tag
Phrase Structure: ABA'C QC (abcd a'bef qb'ef)
Compass: 12
STYLISTIC FEATURES
Syncopated.
ALTERNATE TITLE(S)
Seneca Square Dance
Old Raccoon
Running from the Federals
Hell among the Yearlin's
Raccoon's Tail
Coon Dog
Heel Flies
Rock Along John to Kansas
Get Away from the Federals, or Fall of Paris
Shoot the Turkey Buzzard
Dinah
Liza Jane
Here are the lyrics to Seneca Square Dance- Rainbow Round His Shoulders:
This is a great camp-meeting song, believe I heard it from Jean Ritchie. The tune is the same as Seneca Square Dance, but AB instead of AABB in form.
We are waiting for the boatman, We're waiting for the boatman, Lord
We're waiting for the boatman, who rose from Calvary
CHORUS: And we'll all go together, We'll all go together
To see the Lord Jesus walking on a cloud
With a Rainbow 'Round His Shoulders
O, Fathers are you ready, Fathers are you ready, Lord
O, Fathers are you ready and don't you want to go
CHORUS: And we'll all go...
Repeat for Mothers, Sisters, etc., and end with the "waiting for the boatman" verse and a last chorus
Come along, fathers,
Come along, fathers.
Come along, fathers,
Don't you want to go?
And we'll all go together,
We'll all go together
To see my Lord Jesus walking on a cloud
With a rainbow 'round his shoulder.
Pete Peterson: The ones I first heard sung at Motleigh Musicalia 1988 (plus or minus a year) were:
I'm waiting for the boatsman
I'm waiting for the boatsman
I'm waiting for the boatsman
Who will carry me away from here
Come along children (mothers, fathers) 3X
Don't you want to go
And we'll all go together
Yes, we'll all go together
To see my Lord Jesus walking on a cloud
With a rainbow 'round his shoulders
(Then you play the second B part again)
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