Lead Belly's And Several Other Versions Of "Give The Fiddler A Dram" (Examples & Comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides several text examples, one sound file, and one video example of the Old Time Music fiddler song "Give The Fiddler A Dram".

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT "GIVE THE FIDDLER A DRAM" (tune and song)
From http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Give_the_Fiddler_a_Dram_(2)
"GIVE THE FIDDLER A DRAM [2]. AKA - "Fiddler a Dram," "Fiddler's Dram." Unrelated to "Dance All Night." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia... One version of this tune was played at a 1931 LaFollette, north-east Tennessee fiddlers' contest, according to a local newspaper of the time. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. It was also listed by the Fayette Northwest Alabamian of August 19th, 1929, as one of the tunes likely to be played at an upcoming fiddlers' convention (Cauthen, 1990), and was recorded in 1939 for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing of Mississippi fiddler W.E. Claunch. Gerry Milnes, in the notes for his album "Hell Up Coal Creek," writes that this tune was one of old Tom Dillon's (of Webster County, W.Va.) showpiece tune. Dillon was a character who busked around sandlot baseball games for drinks and tips, often dancing while he played. Another trick of his was to play with two bows strapped together. "Girl with the Blue Dress On" is a related tune."...

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EXAMPLES OF "GIVE THE FIDDLER A DRAM"
Example #1: Lead Belly - Dig a Hole & Tight Like That



sherpa285, Uploaded on Dec 10, 2011
-snip-
From Google Books The Life & Legend Of Leadbelly by Charles K. Wolfe, ‎Kip Lornell, p. 20
“One old fiddle song- borrowed from the American fiddler tradition, not necessarily from whites- was Leadbelly’s version of the familiar “Give The Fiddler A Dram” which he called “Gwine Dig A Hole Put The Devil In”. This hard driven breakdown with simple expandable verses could easily be drawn into a fifteen- or-twenty minute set. Whites have often sung about giving the fiddler a dram of liquor; the line among black performers dealt with digging a hole to put the devil in...

Gwine* dig a hole put the devil in
Gwine dig a hole put the devil in
Gwine dig a hole
Gwine dig a hole
Letta dig a hole**
Letta dig a hole**

Yee ha! They all clappin and shoutin. The devil comin now. He don't know what it's all about, but they do.

Gwine dig a hole
Gwine dig a hole
Let me dig a hole to put the devil in
Let me dig a hole
Let the devil in
Let the devil in

Then they start

Gimme little bit of dram***
Little bit of dram
Little bit of dram
Little bit of dram

When the boss is gone they startin

I don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
I don't give a damn...
-snip-
*Gwine is a no longer used Southern regional (USA) dialectic word which means "gonna".

**This word sounds like "pole" but I think that Lead Belly meant "hole".

***dram - a portion of an alcoholic drink

This transcription is from a United States Library of Congress recording of an interview with Huddie Ledbetter that was conducted by Alan Lomax. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/lead-belly-dig-hole-put-devil-in-its.html for the complete lyrics with Lead Belly's comments. My opinions about the meaning of that rendition of "Give The Fiddler A Dram" are included in the comment section below.

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Example #2: 14 PertNearSandstone 2011-04-09 Give The Fiddler A Dram



tapermark, Uploaded on May 13, 2011

Pert Near Sandstone live at the Goodfoot Lounge in Portland, Oregon on 4/9/2011 performing Give The Fiddler A Dram.
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pert_Near_Sandstone
"Pert Near Sandstone is a bluegrass band from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, and part of the Minnesota Roots Music scene"...
Click http://www.reverbnation.com/pertnearsandstone for more information about this band.

Here's my partial transcription of that rendition. Additions and corrections are welcome.

Dance all night with a bottle in my hand [3x]
Just go give the fiddler a dram*

Jawbone walk and jawbone talk
Jawbone eat with a knife and fork
Oh jawbone you better get along
Here comes Sally with the red dress on
Who’s been here since she’s been gone
Pretty little girl with the red dress on
She took it off and Jenny put it on
Here comes Sally with the big boots on
-snip-
Italics mean that I'm not sure about those words.
-snip-
It occurs to me that line "jawbone walk and jawbone talk" refers to the man who plays the jawbone. Understanding that that line refers to the jawbone player makes sense out of the subsequent line of that verse - except that there's another verse about putting a jawbone on a fence and haven't seen it since. That undoubtedly was an actual jaw bone.

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Example #3 - #4 from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=56403
"Lyr Req: Give the Fiddler a Dram"

Example #3 (posted by Cluin 03 Feb 03 - 08:01 PM)

From the album "Atlantic Bridge" by Jane Rothfield & Allan Carr (with Martin Hadden), 1987 Green Linnet Records

FIDDLER A DRAM
(Trad. Arr. Rothfield & Carr)

My dog gone, Jimmy come along
Here comes Sammy with the red shoes on
He took `em off and I put `em on
Here comes Tommy with the big boots on
He took `em off and I put `em on
Here comes Sammy with the red dress on
He took it off, I put it on
Twenty long years since he's been gone

Got me a job, sittin' on a fence
Haven't seen a damn thing since
Worked all night with a bottle in my hand
Come on give the fiddler a dram

Fiddler a dram, Fiddler a dram
Come on give the fiddler a dram
Fiddler a dram, Fiddler a dram
Come on give the fiddler a dram

Some drink wine, some drink water
Come on give the fiddler a quarter
I drink whisky; it makes me holler
Come on give the fiddler a swaller
Got me a job, sittin' on a fence
Haven't done a damn thing since
Work all night with a fiddle in my hand
Come on give the fiddler a dram

Fiddler a dram, Fiddler a dram
Come on give the fiddler a dram
Fiddler a dram, Fiddler a dram
Come on give the fiddler a dram

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Example #4 (posted by Bee-dubya-ell, Date: 03 Feb 03 - 09:25 PM)

I have a cassette recording of a radio program that was taped at a festival in Indiana in the 70's. Indiana fiddler Dan Gellert does "Give the Fiddler a Dram" on it. Here are the lyrics he uses:

Dance all night with a bottle in my hand
Good God almighty give the fiddler a dram

Who's been here since I've been gone
Pretty little girl with a red dress on

My name is Sam and I don't give a damn
I can get to Hell just as quick as you can

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RELATED LINK
http://www.ceolas.org/cgi-bin/ht2/ht2-fc2/file=/tunes/fc2/fc.html&style=&refer=&abstract=&ftpstyle=&grab=&linemode=&max=250?give+the+fiddler+a+dram The Fiddler's Companion: "Give The Fiddler A Dram".

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Thanks to these musicians/singers for their renditions of and recollections of "Give The Fiddler A Dram". Thanks to all those who I quoted in this post.

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