"Uncovering the History of the Banjo with Rhiannon Giddens: From African Roots to American Music" (Video & Selected Comments)

The Great Courses, Mar 23, 2023 ..."Open your eyes and ears to the rich—and surprising—cross-cultural history of the banjo with GRAMMY®-Award winning artist, Rhiannon Giddens. Stream "The Banjo: Music, History, and Heritage" on Wondrium now! https://www.wondrium.com/the-banjo-mu... ------- Join renowned musician Rhiannon Giddens as she delves into the fascinating and complex history of the banjo. With her signature blend of musical expertise and historical insight, Giddens explores the African roots of the instrument, tracing its evolution through the centuries to its role in contemporary American music. Through her engaging storytelling and masterful playing, Giddens reveals the banjo's rich cultural heritage, highlighting the instrument's significance as both a symbol of oppression and a source of empowerment. She draws on a wealth of historical research and personal experience to offer a thought-provoking exploration of the banjo's complex legacy, shedding light on the ways in which music can serve as a powerful tool for resistance, resilience, and transformation. Whether you're a music lover, a history buff, or simply curious about the banjo's fascinating past and present, this video is not to be missed. Join Rhiannon Giddens as she takes us on a journey through the vibrant and multifaceted history of this iconic instrument, and discover the enduring power of music to inspire, challenge, and unite us all."... **** Edited by Azizi Powell This pancocojams post showcases the 2023 YouTube video entitled ""Uncovering the History of the Banjo with Rhiannon Giddens: From African Roots to American Music". This post also presents comments that I selected from this video's discussion thread. The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and socio-cultural purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to Rhiannon Giddens. Thanks to all those who have researched,written, and otherwise presented information about the history of the banjo. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube. -snip- Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/04/rhiannon-giddens-on-lost-history-of.html for a closely related 2025 pancocojams post entitled "Rhiannon Giddens: "On the Lost History of the Black Banjo" (Complete unofficial Transcript Of This June 2017 YouTube Video)."

**** SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO These comments are presented in relative chronological order based on their publishing date, except for replies. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiP8Tfa8bB8&t=1022s

2023

1. @toddgraves8547
"Very interesting but I am mixed myself and it bugs me when other mixed people like rhianna only value there black side. My white grandfather took me to a bluegrass concert when i was a child and I loved it. Cultures learn and borrow from each other alot blacks took irish dancing and made tap the origin of guitar goes back to lutes and oud but the spanish are most responsible for modern guitar that doesnt in anywau take away the beauty of the blues guitar but spanish flamenco is beautiful also her tone to me seemed mocking of syerotype white banjo players  im black and white I lo e both my fathers side of family and my mothers I wish more people would stop hating and in the desguise of antiracial thry are really prejudice bigots. We are proven by genetics only one race , the human race learn from and love all but the bible could have told you that.love thy neighbor as thysrlf we are all one blood one race stop hating and pretending its antiracist its these divisions that cause hate"

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Reply
2. @angelagoodwin5758, 2024
"I'm not mixed, but I'm a black woman in my 60s. I grew up during the Civil Rights era.  Though I understand your point, I also get why Ms. Giddens focused on the black musical roots of this music because it RARELY if ever gets the attention it deserves. For most of my life, I and many others from different ethnicities and walks of life NEVER knew any of this. It wasn't being taught at all. We were taught mostly white people created country and folk music with no contribution from people of color. Look up Lesley Riddle. So much of our history is so deeply hidden. I thank Ms. Giddens for enlightening us all."

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3. @martifingers, 2024
"@angelagoodwin5758   I agree with Angela.   To be honest  if this is Ms. Giddens only valuing the "black side" it sure looks like she is doing it in the most inclusive way possible.  I am white and in my 70's and a long time admirer of Ms Gidden's talents as a world class musician and also with her amazing  ability to tell the story of the music that is now part of all our cultural DNA through the blues, jazz, rock and soul."

**
4. @camerongill101
"The bango is an important element of the "string bands" found in several Caribbean islands such as St. Kitts and Nevis"

**
5. @ellenlockhart4494
"Thank you Rhiannon, on St. Thomas, USVI, we were given a Kora. A late, dear friend named Jamesie Brewster, had a Scratch band and made his own banjos from cheese tins. My husband was a producer of a documentary about Mr. Brewster's band. At the invitation of the Queen of Denmark the band performed there and held workshops"

****

2024

6. @johnabernethy8873
"Beutiful music,  beutiful instruments, Incredible Musician and a fine education on the importance of early Black music in America today."

**
7. @tiffanylockett5950
"Wow, I've known these things for 16'ish years (only through the telling of it to me by my brother who researched it heavily first before me) and it seems like now there is finally a Blast Off with revealing these truths about Country Music! I'm so glad it's FINALLY happening now, and in such a big wave, because it felt like such a frustrating thing to be held a secret away from even most Black People! Just like how for such a long time people called Rock "white people music". And thought Disco and Techno were also (probably still do on those two). The record must be set straight, never, ever to be forgotten again! White people have gotten away with it time & time again and for TOO long."

**
8. @petersmybro
"1:15 contra dancing! And yah, it's pretty much exactly how she described it 😅"

**
9. @evelynanyeko1635
"I learnt about this history from another documentary 👇

Bela Fleck - Throw Down Your Heart 2008. Please check this out- Full Movie

Thanks alot for sharing this.👍🙏🙏🙏"

**
10. @amiramira-sd2zi
"In north africa this instrument plays a big role in our “ chaabi” music but the way we play it is more deep and emotional not energetic, i know it’s weird but it is , and we have solos in the beginning of every song called “ takdim” and with singing called “istikhbar”. I thought it is an American instrument till recently ❤️❤️❤️❤️ thnx for the video"

**
11. @annedwyer797, 2024
"When PBS debuted Ken Burns' "Country Music" abt 5 yrs ago, it was kicked off with a concert that was broadcast.  The opener was Rhiannon on banjo and a bluegrass/roots music fiddler (I think it was Ketch Secor); they did an absolutely riveting, BLAZING song ("Ruby"?) that kind of left me with goosebumps and my mouth hanging open. I wish like hell I could see/hear that performance again. It was really amazing. And yes, being that Ken Burns and his colleagues always do their homework, the series did include African American influence and contributions to bluegrass and country music. There's definitely more than most of us realize!"

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12. @thaxtonwaters8561
"Reclaim it.🖤"

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13. @andrewhammel8218
"On NPR I heard an African guy talking about how he went to college in the US in the Seventies and was hanging with White friends while watching Hee Haw and he saw Roy Clark playing the banjo and how he exclaimed "my uncle in the backwoods of Senegal plays that instrument!". His American friends thought he was nuts. But it turns out that in the villages of Senegal they do play a traditional instrument nearly identical to the banjo...and play it claw hammer style."

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Reply
14. @InspiredByEbonyLove
"Mali as well."

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15. @bri52
"Thank You Rhiannon. From this clip I went to Bella Fleck’s movie “Throw down Your Heart” 2008. A wonderful journey through Africa following the roots of the banjo. The musicians from East and West Africa along with Bella transcends anything I have ever experienced before! Play on,💕🎶"

**
16. @nisiunavoce1264
"That's very interesting that you associated banjo with white folk in your youth. When I was young (way before you) the banjo was more tagged with black folk. Later on hearing Taj Mahal's De Ole Folks at Home cemented my love of early folk music.

I listened to other folk recordings but he really exemplified the simple repetitive rhythms for me which I played along with on my National steel.

Your journey exploring the origins of the instrument and sounds is fascinating and most appreciated. Great to see and hear young folk embracing the wonderful sound of roots folk."

**
17. @patricioferreira5495
"Despite Brazil received same people than USA, we haven't a tradition of african stringed melodic instruments: heat and moisture destroy them fastly. However we have documentation about their use by africans arrived here and we are recovering this tradition with modern materials to build them and contact with african derivative culture worldwide."

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18. @cappriment
"Continue to do your research and preserve The African history in Brazil!"

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19. @jamesoliver6625
"Steve Martin is probably one of the most serious students of the banjo and it's relationship to old time play-party music, minstrelsy, parlor-porch music you will find. I took a graduate course in the early 70s "Music of America" the first subcourse covered 1492 to 1750 from published street sheets and hymnody to the rough forms and as a music comp student who was intensely interested old-time fiddling and bluegrass at the time, I was astounded to find a fully formed version of the music for the fiddle tune Sally Goodin' in a published song collection originally published in ~1720. It's ALL very interrelated.  I would venture that it took maybe 20 minutes for the first gourd banjo that came ashore in the "whenever" to cross the cultural line between poor blacks and poor whites because it was almost non existent in a practical manner much earlier, my suspicion is earlier than 1800."

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20. @Ferndalien
"In a few of Kipling's short stories about the English Colonials in India the banjo is mentioned, mainly as an instrument that someone would play for relaxation or recreation.  I've also read a couple of stories set in Great Britain that mention the banjo.  And of course Ms. Giddons mentions the Irish banjo.  I think the history of the banjo among the English, not just the Americans could add another dimension to its history."

**
21. @parkerbrown-nesbit1747
"I've been a fan of Rhiannon Giddens since her Carolina Chocolate Drops days (I'll willingly follow her anywhere she wants to go musically).

This was WAY too short!"

** 22. @andrewpotter4131
"Rhianon , Ive made connections to the evolution of the history of jazz and parralel cadences of the  Afro Brazilian religion , Ketu Candomble .

Including how much OPANIJE cadence the Louis Armstrong ground breaking record , Hotfives has .on that record , is banjo on some songs.

I notice you sometimes do a cadence on banjo that is like the Ketu Candomble cadence , ILU

There is banjo in certain types of samba in Brazil"

**
23. @xander9564
"Very interesting. In history, you sometimes see these developments of musical instruments in the context of separate peoples having contact with one another, sometimes in positive, and sometimes in negative, situations.

The gourd banjo led to the modern banjo because Africa and America had contact. This reminds me of how the rhaita (also called mizmar or zurna) from the Middle East and North Africa got to Europe during the Middle Ages, where it was called the shawm and later developed into the oboe."

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24. @rnoe1986
"I wish the Carolina Chocolate Drops were still together. I saw them x4 and love their take on old time music. Miss that band!!!" 

**
25. @ImaniGroce-lm6by
"I Had A Feeling It Came from Africa  and I Had A Feeling Square Dancing Did too. ✌️ and ❤️ The Elephant In ALL ROOMS. Makes Me Understand Why "The Night The Devil Came To Georgia" To Me Always Sounded.....FUNKY. ✌️ and ❤️"

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27. @plucknpick6414
"How fun!   Your story led me to see if there was "banjo" in my cultural past....1760 account of two brothers learning to play and dance from slaves they knew.  Quite an amusing account.   The boys enjoyed themselves enough that the account records they wanted to have their own banjos.  Fascinating.  Keeping alive the memory of African Conqurors enslaving and selling them to others who transport them to the Caribbean and later the Colonies."

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28. @MikoManII
"Funny, I first learn of Rhiannon Giddens when she was awarded Steve Martin's Banjo Prize in 2016. 1) I didn't know that there was such a prize, and 2) there was this beautiful black women who won it. What is this all about?

A wonderful rabbit hole to fall into!"

****
2025

29. @VettsClass
"The banjo 🪕 🪕 is such a sacred instrument. When I was in West Africa the different styles of banjos (akintong)🪕🪕 paired with bluegrass 🎶 was astonishingly gorgeous👂🏿👂🏿. We didn't learn 🎶 history in school and it's intentional. This suppresses black folks🤬. Thank you for advocating our history📚🎶🙌🏿🪕✨🎸🪘🎻📯🪈🎺🍶🕺🏿👩🏿‍🎤👨🏿‍🍳🎬"

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30. @Joe-d4h3s
"I'd read or been told that banjos came from Africa and were made out of gourds. Never knew they were invented in the Caribbean and had three tune strings and a drone! Yours sounds really good."

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Rhiannon Giddens: "On the Lost History of the Black Banjo" (Complete unofficial Transcript Of This June 2017 YouTube Video)

greenmentch, Jun 20, 2017

Rhiannon Giddens is a Grammy-award-winning musician and co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops who discusses the history of the African banjo and how it became a keynote instrument of American music through the minstrelsy and beyond.  Rhiannon is part of the new film on mountain music, A Great American Tapestry, The Many Strands of Mountain Music, with more information at www.saveculture.org

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents the complete (unofficial) transcript of a June 2017 YouTube video entitled "Rhiannon Giddens: "On the Lost History of the Black Banjo".

This post is presented for historical, cultural, and folkloric purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Rhiannon Giddens and thanks to all those who were associated with this YouTube video. 
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/04/uncovering-history-of-banjo-with.html for the closely related 2025 pancocojams post entitled "Uncovering the History of the Banjo with Rhiannon Giddens: From African Roots to American Music" (Video & Selected Comments)

****
TRANSCRIPT: RHIANNON GIDDENS: ON THE LOST HISTORY OF THE BLACK BANJO"
This English (auto-generated) transcript includes my spelling corrections, including capitalizations and my additions of punctuation marks. I am not including any time stamps in this transcription. A few words of this transcript that are given in brackets are my guesses about what Rhiannon Giddens left out but meant by her comments at those points.

Additions and corrections of this unofficial transcription are welcome. 

.011-6:27

"I think it's uh pretty well summed up what Cecil Sharp left out of the story by uh, visually, by a movie called “Song Catcher" which kind of like takes that story of of people finding this connection between these Victorian songs and in in England and the Appalachian mountains.

And so this woman is collect… is going to collect songs in the Appalachian mountains and she's looking for this ballad singer.

And she stops and sees a Black man playing banjo on the stomp. (You know um which in the film is played by Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal right.) And uh she stops and asks him where this ballad singer is. And then she keeps going.

And that to me is the story. You know, it's like “Oh, hey, a Black person playing banjo.  Where where's the ballad singers?”

All right, you know, let's forget you now. You know, I mean, that's kind of… that's kind of it.  I mean, the the story of …It's like for me, it's multiple things, you know.

One is the assumption that all of this music starts in Appalachia which is just not true.

Um, two is that um there were no Black people in Appalachia which is also not true.

So there's are two enormously huge assumptions to make and really skew the story.

But like he wasn't the only one who did that.  I mean, Lomax did it too.

I mean, a lot of people who are looking for a narrative ignore everything that's outside of that narrative because… you know.

And it doesn't take away from the work that they did. It doesn't take away from what they saved.  But it does frustrate you when you think about what they left out.

The journey of the banjo is so interesting and is so hidden in American culture.

You know, you don't have the banjo until you have, um, a lot of people from different parts of, you know, primarily West Africa um coming

Over- not under their own volition, um, being brought over to North America, particularly to the Caribbean which is where, you know, people who are going to be sold into slavery were seasoned., you know, especially if they were going to end up going up to the North America up to North, North America.

So so much of what becomes African-American music and dance is formed, you know, in the Caribbean, in Congo Square in New Orleans.

All of these different cultures didn't speak the same language, weren't playing the same instruments, but were playing in a sort of family of instruments of these lute type instruments you know.

Either the memory [of the instrument was] brought over or the instruments themselves [was] brought over. And then, you know. the syncretization of all of that, you know, forms what becomes known as the banjo the banar the Baner, whatever, banza banza ,um, in the Caribbean and then being brought with people up to the Southern United States or actually just United States in general, you know, because people forget that there was, there were enslaved people all over you know.  From, you know, I think, was like the first European settler  stepped foot on, you know, in North America and like 20 years later is the first African-American, you know.

What I mean, it's like very very intertwined all over the place, you know.  And and that's that's really important to remember because the, the, the image of, you know, slavery in the Deep South leaves out the Tidewater region, the mid Atlantic [region] and all of those folks that were forming these cultures -these enslaved cultures- that then were marched down to the, to the pens in Louisiana and then over to Texas, and Alabama and Mississippi you know. So it's, it's a very much a wide, a wide cultural thing, you know. 

So you have African-Americans with this native instrument, you know, this truly American instrument-the banjo. And it's a plantation instrument for the first hundred years of existence. And not- no White person plays it.  Like people know that's a plantation instrument.  And you, you have this and you also have Black musicians being trained to play for White dances, you know.  So you have these ,um, these dance masters, you know, coming in.  But, then, you know, Black musicians pretty quickly become very prized.

And so they're, they're going back to the quarters.  And they're playing the banjo and they're doing all this, you know, their, their music and dance and then they're going to play for these European dances.  And they're playing fiddle and ,you know, there's all these primary source, sources about you know “that darkie could play a Sprague”, you know.  It's like they're learning Scottish tunes, and English tunes, and all, you know, whoever, you know, whoever owns the plantation, you know.

And then, of course, that's going to come back and it's going to mix.  And you know, the first people to play fiddle with a banjo would be African-Americans.  I mean that's obvious, you know.  It's like they've got the banjo so and they've had the fiddle for hundreds years.

They have these, you know, runaway slave posters saying, you know. “plays the fiddle”, “plays the fiddle”, “plays the fiddle”. It's like “highly prized” So you have all that coming into being. 

And then you have, um, the this form, this sort of String Band form. Of course, there's interactions between, you know, Whites and Blacks particularly poor Whites and Blacks because they're the ones, you know, interacting.  Like, you know, the the aristocracy is not interested in this, you know.

So you've got all this stuff and it starts to, you start getting the first White people playing the banjo -these, these traveling entertainers. Like those are the ones we know about.  I mean, who's to say that there wasn't some, you know, some White people like who didn't, who weren't entertainers, like, you know, who were, you know what I mean.  Who's to say that. But that's what, we know, you know, is, is, is these, these blackface entertainers start playing the banjo. They make some changes to it, um. But, you know, in form it's pretty, it's like the stuff they do is, it doesn't change the basic form of the banjo. There's no adding the fifth string and it was already there  and, you know, all of these sorts of things.

And then so blackface entertainers started taking the banjo, um.  And people go nuts. They're like “What is this thing?! This is amazing!, you know.  And, and it becomes this cultural explosion.  Like they, they travel to Europe. and Australia. and South South Africa.  And it's the whole world's first, uh, encounter with indigenous American music, even done through White people playing in blackface."

****
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A Shared Music Repertoire In The Rural South USA Before Jim Crow

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides an excerpt of Mike Yates's 2011 online article "Blues Jumped A Rabbit". That article provides information and comments about when & where the Blues music genre actually originated.

The portion of that article that is excerpted in this post focuses on a shared pre-Blues music repertoire between Black musicians/singers and and White musicians/singers in the 19th century, particularly in the rural South. Henry Thomas (Ragtime Texas) is one of the singers/musicians who is mentioned in this passage.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Mike Yates and all others who are quoted in this post.

****
FEATURED ARTICLE EXCERPT: BLUES JUMPED A RABBIT by Mike Yates
From http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/blues.htm

[Citations are indicated by numbers within this passage. However, this excerpt is given without citation notes.]

..."W C Handy liked to call himself "the Father of the Blues", but perhaps this was not strictly accurate, because the blues had been born some time before Handy encountered the term. So how do we find out just what it was that the people were singing before Handy began to compose? Well, one way is to examine the recordings that exist of singers who probably picked up some of their repertoire before 1900, and one such singer was Henry Thomas, better known as "Ragtime Tex".

Henry Thomas is believed to have been born in a place called Big Sandy in Texas in 1874. He was a singer who accompanied himself on the guitar and the "quills" - a set of pan-pipes that were carried just under the mouth. During the period 1927 - 29 he recorded a total of twenty-three sides.16. All of Henry Thomas's sides are available on a Yazoo CD Henry Thomas. Complete Recorded Works, 1927 - 1929 (Yazoo 1080/1). I am indebted to Stephen Calt, who wrote the CD's booklet notes, for what is said about Henry Thomas above. 16
Three songs, Arkansas, Honey, Won't You Allow Me One More Chance? and Woodhouse Blues, can probably be traced back to the Minstrel or Vaudeville traditions, while a further eight songs seem to come from an early tradition where verses were shared between both black and white singers. These are John Henry, The Fox and the Hounds, The Little Red Caboose, Run, Mollie Run, Fishing Blues, Old Country Stomp, Charmin' Betsy and Railroadin' Some.

Take, for example, the song Run, Mollie Run which contains verses from a number of songs, including Poor Liza Jane (Roud 825).

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

Liza was a gambler, learned me how to steal
Learned me how to deal those cards, to hold that jack a trey

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

Music in the kitchen, music in the hall
If you can't come Saturday night, you need not come at all

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

Whoa Liza, poor girl
Whoa Liza Jane
Whoa Liza, poor girl
Died on the train

Miss Liza was a gambler, she learned me how to steal
She learned me how to deal those cards, to hold that jack a trey

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

I went down to Huntsville, I did not go to stay
Just got there in the good old time to wear them ball and chain

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

Cherry, cherry, cherry like a rose
How I love that pretty yellow gal
God almighty knows

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

Poor Liza
Poor Liza Jane
Poor Liza, poor girl
Died on the train

I went down to Huntsville, did not go to stay
Just got there to do old time, to wear them ball and chain

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

Miss Liza was a gambler, she learned me how to steal
She learned me how to deal those cards, a-hold that jack a trey

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

She went down to the bottom (field), did not go to stay
She just got there in the good old time to wear that rollin' ball

Run Mollie run (x3)
Let us have some fun

(According to folklorist Mack McCormick, a dealer who holds out a jack and three seriously reduces his opponent's chances of laying down a sequence in Coon Can or similar card games.)

Henry Thomas also recorded a number of what we might call "Rag Ditties", songs which seem to be the forerunners of blues. These are Red River Blues, Bob McKinney, Don't Ease Me In, Lovin' Babe and Don't Leave Me Here. Lovin' Babe includes the following lines and verses:

Lovin' babe i'm all out and down (x3)
I'm laying close to the ground

Look where the evening sun has gone (x3)
Gone, God knows where

The longest day that ever I seen (x3)
The day Roberta died

Just make me one pallet on your floor
I'll make it so your husband never knows

That eastbound train come and gone (x3)
Gone to come no more.

There are also four songs that could properly be called blues, Cottonfield Blues, Bull Doze Blues, Texas Easy Street Blues and Texas Worried Blues. Looking at Bull Doze Blues we can see that most of the stanzas comprise a single line that is repeated three times, as in the song Poor Boy, a Long, Long Way from Home mentioned above.
I'm going away, babe, and it won't be long
I'm going away and it won't be long
I'm going away and it won't be long

Just as sure as that train leaves out of that Mobile yard
Just as sure as that train leaves out of that Mobile yard
Just as sure as that train leaves out of that Mobile yard

Come shake your hand, tell your papa goodbye
Come shake your hand, tell your papa goodbye
Come shake your hand, tell your papa goodbye

I'm going back to Tennessee
I'm going back to Memphis, Tennessee
I'm going back to Memphis, Tennessee

I'm going where I never get bull-doosed
I'm going where I never get the bull-doosed
I'm going where I never get bull-doosed

If you don't believe I'm sinking
Look what a hole I'm in
If you don't believe I'm sinking
Look what a hole I'm in
If you don't believe I'm sinking
Look what a fool I've been

Oh, my babe, take me back
How in the world …
Lord, take me back.

(This song should be titled Bull Dose Blues, the term being a "Southern colloquialism meaning to bullwhip a black person, or to intimidate through threats of violence".17. Stephen Calt, Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary University of Illinois Press, Urban & Chicago, 2009, p.40.17”.

Readers who have got this far may have noticed a slight reticence on my part to go along with the "blues began at the Dockery Plantation, on the lips of Charlie Patton" theory. Here is part of a recorded conversation between two American folklorists, Dick Spottswood and Kip Lornell:

...

DS: Lonesome Road Blues I guess is the revisionist title. And I think in the 19th century a lot of those songs were in three quarter time a la Down In The Valley or Birmingham Jail and that they began being in four quarter time, and once you drop the third line of the stanza, instead of singing "Going down the road feeling bad" three times, you only sing it twice. Or Takes a worried man to sing a worried song which you always have to sing that line three times too, right? As soon as you drop that third line you've got something approaching the classic blues stanza.

KL: I also think of those songs as having roots in white culture too.

DS: Sure.

KL: I think there was a very strong shared repertoire in the nineteenth century between blacks and whites, especially in the rural South, and a lot of songs we think of as blues songs now, and certainly that's true of black fiddle and banjo playing, they have common ancestry in both black and white rural traditions.18. For recordings of black musicians playing tunes from a common black/white repertoire, see Black Fiddlers (Document DOCD-5631), Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia (Smithsonian-Folkways SFW 40079, Altamon - Black Stringband Music (Rounder 0238) and Deep River of Song - Black Appalachia. String Bands, Songsters and Hoedowns (Rounder 1823). 18

DS: Yeah, it almost seems as though those two worlds sort of split apart and became the musics that we know them around the twentieth century. Ma Rainey telling John Work that she encountered the blues in southwest Missouri in 1902. She maybe had heard something like that before but clearly she encountered something at that point that she experienced as something entirely new musically.19. As previously mentioned, 1902 was the year when W C Handy started travelling around Mississippi. 19

KL: And I think a lot of that has to do with the Jim Crow laws of the 1890's kind of reinforcing what was once freedom or a semblance of freedom for blacks, all of a sudden the Jim Crow laws come in in the mid 1890s and zap, it's like being back towards slavery again. I think that really signals a sea change in American culture.

DS: Well the desired effect was to push the races apart physically and it certainly had that effect. Maybe that gave black culture the chance to put some flesh on those skeletal blues bones.

KL: It certainly happened right around the turn of the century and that seems to be the main legal and social impetus for that happening at that time.

DS: But even after that blues was always sort of crossing the street of the racial divide. Hart A Wand's Dallas Blues and all the Handy's Memphis Blues and Beale Street Blues of the teens kept pushing those songs back towards white culture again still even with the earliest recordings that we know, which is actually all that we can still hear. Mamie Smith is still singing something that has a distinctively racial component and it's not really until you get to Jimmie Rodgers in 1927, and this time exclusively via phonograph records, that you have somebody deliberately dragging blues back across the racial street again.20. Jimmy Rodger's recordings are available on several reissue CD sets. 20

KL: Yeah, there are a few earlier examples but Jimmie Rodgers was the one who put blues in the American mainstream.

DS: I think you'd have to say Handy and Rodgers both.

KL: And Handy especially through the publishing ... the sheet music starting about 1912, 1913, really helped, for people who could afford sheet music, who were interested in sheet music and I'm willing to guess that was many, many more white people than black people.

In truth, it seems almost impossible to tie the blues down to any one place or person. In 2010 Peter C Muir showed that while the term "blues" became especially popular in the period 1912 - 1920, the term had existed long before these dates.21. Peter C. Muir Long Lost Blues. Popular Blues in America, 1850 - 1920 University of Illinois Press, Urbana & Chicago. 2010.21 And one writer, Max Haynes from Lancaster University, managed to show that many blues singers actually used phrases, lines and even whole songs which had originally come from, of all places, the 19th century British Music Hall.22. Max Haymes's The English Music Hall Connection can be found, in several parts, on: www.earlyblues.com 22”...

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RELATED LINK:
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/fishin-blues-and-four-other-pre.html for a pancocojams post that provides information about Henry Thomas ("Ragtime Texas") and showcases "Fishin' Blues" and four other YouTube sound file examples of his music.

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Visitor comments are welcome.

"Colored Aristocracy": The Old Time Music Tune & How It Got Its Name

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - March 16, 2026

This pancocojams post showcases the Old Time Music tune entitled "Colored Aristocracy" and provides information about that tune, how it got its name, and what that name means.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to those who composed this song and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the performers in these videos and the publishers of these videos.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE TUNE ENTITLED "COLORED ARISTOCRACY"
From http://tunearch.org/wiki/Colored_Aristocracy traditional tune archive*

[Update: March 16, 2026:  Although this traditional tune archive link is still active, this content is no longer available on that page. However, that same quote can be found in a June 23, 2009 Mudcat discussion thread comment about that tune.https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=24017.]

"COLORED ARISTOCRACY. AKA and see "Southern Aristocracy." Old-Time, March. USA, West Virginia. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AA'BB' (Brody). This late 19th century or c. 1900 tune is more correctly categorized as a cakewalk (which suggests ragtime from its syncopated rhythms) rather than a fiddle tune though the popular version played by 'revival' fiddlers has been sourced to old-time fiddler Sanford Rich, a resident of Arthurdale, West Virginia, collected in August of 1936. Arthurdale, according to Kerry Blech and Gerald Milnes, was a resettlement camp for displaced persons during the depression, a project of Eleanor Roosevelt's, and it was there at a festival of folk heritage that musicologist Charles Seeger (father of New Lost City Ramblers member Mike Seeger) recorded the Rich Family for the Library of Congress (AFS 3306 B2). 

Gerald Milnes has located Sanford's son, Elmer Rich, an elderly man who still fiddles and who remembers the event. Mike Seegar learned the tune at a young age by playing the aluminum recordings in his parent's house. It became one of the first tunes recorded by his group the New Lost City Ramblers in the early 1960's, and introduced the song to "revival" era fiddlers.

The second chord in the accompaniment has been variously played as both an E minor and an E major..

HOW THE TUNE "COLORED ARISTOCRACY: GOT ITS NAME

[This is a continuation of the http://tunearch.org/wiki/Colored_Aristocracy excerpt that is quoted above.] *

"The origin of the title remained obscure, although it was speculated that it derived from Reconstruction sentiments (or resentments) about the perceived attitude (either within or without the black community) of some African-Americans (i.e. that "Colored Aristocracy" was a gentrification of "Uppity N....r"). However, Peter Shenkin tracked the title to a piece of sheet music from a 1902 revue entitled "In Dahomey," which starred the famous African-American vaudeville duo Williams and Walker. The music (entitled "Leader of the Colored Aristocracy") is credited to Will Marion Cook, words by James Weldon Johnson (later of Harlem Renaissance fame), published by Tin-Pan-Alley composer Harry Von Tilzer.

Another "Colored Aristocracy" dates from 1899 credited to one Gus W. Bernard (published by the Groene Co.); it is listed as a "Cake-walk" on the cover. Neither the Bernard tune or the one published by Tilzer is the "Colored Aristocracy" played by modern fiddlers, however. Bob Buckingham reports that a fiddling preacher of his acquaintance named Buck Rife (originally from the Beckley WV area) calls the tune "Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn (The)" and gave that he had it as a youngster learning clawhammer banjo from an uncle."...

-snip-
This excerpt is reformatted to enhance its readability.

I made minor spelling corrections for several names and for one word in this quote. However, "the n word" is given that way in this quote.

The word "uppity" means "to act bigger (better) than what you really are"

"to put on airs" means "to act (behave) like someone who is of a higher social class than you are".

While that Mudcat discussion thread makes for interesting reading, it also includes what I consider to be disturbing, cringe worthy comments alluding to or openly chuckling about the "uppity Ni--er" term that is still sometimes used to refer to upper class, affluent Black people instead of the referent "Colored aristocracy". For example, one commenter indicated that she refers to "Colored Aristocracy" tune as "the US president's song" - alluding to African American President Barack Obama being an "uppity Ni--er".

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORD "COLORED" IN THE NAME OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION NAACP 
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAACP
"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans...Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people, referring to those with some African ancestry."

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From AI Overview
"The NAACP has retained its name primarily to honor its1909 founding history, legacy, and established brand recognition. While "colored" is now considered outdated, the organization maintains the name to respect its roots and because the acronym "NAACP" is globally recognized. It is viewed as a historical, rather than contemporary, term.

Key reasons for retaining the name include:

Historical Legacy: The NAACP was founded in 1909; the name reflects a crucial era in American civil rights history.

Brand Recognition: The NAACP is a globally recognized, established brand.

Respect for Founders: Retaining the name is seen as a way to honor the legacy of its founders, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, and Mary White O..

"Colored" meant something else: At the time of founding, "colored" was considered appropriate and polite, with some arguing the historical context makes it less offensive in this specific context.

While some critics argue that the term "colored" is outdated, as mentioned by a writer in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, others maintain that the name is a proud symbol of the organization's fight against discrimination, which started in a very different social context."
-snip-
This AI Overview writeup is a result of my March 16, 2026 Google question "Why hasn't the NAACP changed its name?"

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE BOOK "COLORED ARISTOCRACY OF ST. LOUIS"
From http://press.umsystem.edu/(S(hv5mgvi403quknfhxrggcqyr))/catalog/productinfo.aspx?id=446&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
About the Book "The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis" by Cyprian Clamorgan, Edited with an Introduction by Julie Winch (University of Missouri Press, 1999, originally published in 1858)
"In 1858, Cyprian Clamorgan wrote a brief but immensely readable book entitled The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis. The grandson of a white voyageur and a mulatto woman, he was himself a member of the "colored aristocracy." In a setting where the vast majority of African Americans were slaves, and where those who were free generally lived in abject poverty, Clamorgan's "aristocrats" were exceptional people. Wealthy, educated, and articulate, these men and women occupied a "middle ground." Their material advantages removed them from the mass of African Americans, but their race barred them from membership in white society.

"The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis" is both a serious analysis of the social and legal disabilities under which African Americans of all classes labored and a settling of old scores. Somewhat malicious, Clamorgan enjoyed pointing out the foibles of his friends and enemies, but his book had a serious message as well. "He endeavored to convince white Americans that race was not an absolute, that the black community was not a monolith, that class, education, and especially wealth, should count for something."

Despite its fascinating insights into antebellum St. Louis, Clamorgan's book has been virtually ignored since its initial publication"...

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From the book Slave Life in St. Louis
http://www.nps.gov/jeff/historyculture/african-american-life-in-saint-louis-1804-through-1865.htm
"Urban slaves [in St. Louis, Missouri] were not isolated. In 1835 an African American church was founded in St. Louis. Slaves and free blacks began to attend their own church, away from whites and white influences. Sundays were days of rest for the city’s slaves, and they gathered together not only to attend services but also to spread news, gossip, and even hear readings from the newspaper given by free persons of color. In addition, many of the city’s elite persons of color owned barber emporiums where important and wealthy white males gathered....

In addition to the over 1,000 free blacks in St. Louis who owned small businesses, were laborers or worked odd jobs, a certain elite group of African-American St. Louisans styled “the Colored Aristocracy” were large landowners and businesspersons, many descended from some of St. Louis’ earliest residents. Several owned the large barber emporiums, while others owned drayage businesses which moved goods from steamboat to steamboat on the levee. Still others, like Madame Pelagie Rutgers, owned huge tracts of land which they sold at great profit as the city expanded. The “Colored Aristocracy” of St. Louis had its own social season and debutante balls. A member of this social class, Cyprian Clamorgan, wrote a book in 1858 called the Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis, in which he profiled the group.”...

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Here's a comment from the discussion thread about the tune "Colored Aristocracy" from the  folk music forum Mudcat
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=24017 Origin: Colored Aristocracy, posted by Q, Date: 24 Jun 09 - 01:58 PM
"Clamorgan, "Colored Aristocracy in St. Louis," further note. Publication date 1858.
This from the discussion of the University of Missouri reprint of 1999.
"When Cyprian Clamorgan wrote The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis" in 1858, he described what it took to "make it" as an anomaly in that city. He recognized that, in St. Louis as in antebellum communities throughout the United States, to be free and of African descent meant that one did not fit into a society that assumed that black people were meant to be slaves and that only white people could know freedom. Yet Clamorgan observed that there existed in the Mound City "a certain circle: a peculiar class- the elite of the colored race" who attained their high status through "wealth, education or natural ability". And the greatest of these was wealth.

Julie Winch, who annotated the reprint of the Clamorgan book, [indicated that it] "makes a valuable contribution to the study of free blacks."

Clamorgan was a mulatto, a descendant of the voyageur and slave trader Jacques Clamorgan and one of his "Negro wives." A grandson of this man, Cyprian Clamorgan "sought to benefit financially from the sale of Jacque's land claims and the marketing of a literary challenge to the "white notion that black people were all alike because they were black.".

Colored Aristocracy [This title was given as a hyperlink to that book.]

St. Louis of the 1850s was a boom city, a gateway to the west and to the Mississippi, with industry and monied families.

As a side note, some years ago I was at an auction of American coin silver, in which I was interested at the time. Work of St. Louis silversmiths of the 1850s was a feature, and I remember several pieces- tableware, pitchers, candlesticks- marked with the initials of one of the black societies of the time. A dealer friend if [sic] mine bought most of the pieces, for resale in the States."
-end of quote-
Since at least the 1950s In the United States the term "mulatto" has been generally considered to be an outdated and offensive term for a Black American who is of first generation Black/White ancestry.

While that Mudcat discussion thread makes for interesting reading, it also includes what I consider to be disturbing, cringe worthy comments alluding to or openly chuckling about the "uppity Ni--er" term that is still sometimes negatively used by non-Black people] to refer to upper class, affluent Black people. (In contrast, to my knowledge, the referent "Colored aristocracy" is no longer ever used by non-Black people or by Black people.).

For example, one commenter in that Mudcat discussion thread indicated that she refers to the "Colored Aristocracy" tune as "the US president's song" - alluding to African American President Barack Obama being an "uppity Ni--er".

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FEATURED VIDEOS OF THE TUNE "COLORED ARISTOCRACY"

Example #1: Colored Aristocracy - Elmer Rich fiddle



Old Time Fiddle Music from West Virginia, Uploaded on Nov 17, 2008

Elmer Rich at the 2008 WVU Mountaineer Week fiddle contest.

Elmer played the tune Colored Aristocracy. He and Tom O'Brien tell the story of how this tune spread from Elmer's Uncle Sanford Rich to being played by musicians around the world.

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Example #2: taj on banjo.MOD [Taj Mahal]



manomite01's channel, Uploaded on Aug 19, 2010

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Example #3: Sankofa Strings perform Colored Aristocracy in Saxapahaw, North Carolina



ccdrops Uploaded on Jun 28, 2006

-snip-
From http://www.amazon.com/ss/customer-reviews/B000W9EKFA/ref=?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 a review of the album & record "Colored Aristocracy" by Sankofa Strings [2007]
By Andre M. "brnn64"on March 9, 2010
"This is actually by the Sankofa Sounds, the predecessor to the CCDs [Carolina Chocolate Drops] who formed in 2005 after their meeting at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone NC (as Black history fans know, "Sankofa" is a Ghanaian word that loosely translates into the appreciation of the past being the foundation of the future). The title refers to a song from the 1890s that was performed in one of the legendary Bert Williams' musical comedies about the emerging Black middle class and the cover pictures are of the groups' direct ancestors. My only minor complaint is that this instrumental version does not include the original thought-provoking lyrics. But this is no real big deal as the album itself is so enjoyable. This album also has heavy input from charter member Sule Greg Wilson, who would later make occasional appearances on the CCD cds"...
-snip-
There are no lyrics to the tune "Colored Aristocracy" although some performers have made up lyrics to that tune. I read a comment in the above linked Mudcat discussion thread that the song "Devil Woman Marie" was sung with the "Colored Aristocracy" tune, However, that song "seems to be a modern lyric composed by Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders".

The lyrics to that song are included in that Mudcat discussion thread on "Colored Aristocracy" that is given above.

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"Sally In The Garden" (Siftin Sand) Lyrics & Comments

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents the lyrics for the well known old fiddle tune & sea shanty "Sally In The Garden".

This post is a companion to the previous pancocojams post http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/various-somewhat-discreetly-worded.html Various (Somewhat Discreetly Worded) Meanings Of "Hog-Eye" and "Hog-Eye Man".

Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63007#1020844 for information about "Sally In The Garden", and "Hog Eye Man" songs.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the collectors and the featured performers of this song. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES
[The first "Sally in the garden sifting sand" line in these examples is italics to highlight it.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Marianne (from Harry Belafonte)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 05:46 PM

re: "sifting sand"

1906 Gilchrist, Annie G., Frank Kidson, Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp, and J.A. Fuller-Maitland. "Sailors' Songs, Collected by Annie G. Gilchrist." Journal of the Folk-Song Society 2(9): 236-249.

Gilchrist got this chanty ca.1906-06 from a Mr. W. Bolton, a 66 yr old retired sailor of 35 yrs (merchant and navy), last voyage in 1887.

THE HAWK'S-EYE MAN. Capstan Chanty.

Oh, the 'awk's-eye man is the man for me,
And when he comes ashore he has a jolly spree,
And the 'awk's-eye—
Roll the boat ashore, And the 'awk's-eye—
Roll the boat ashore, And the 'awk's-eye, Ho!
She wants the 'awk's-eye man.

Scraps of other verses were recollected as follows:

Sally in the garden sifting sand,
And Jenny in the house with the hawk's-eye man.

With his hawk's-eye ...
And when he comes ashore
He rattles at my door,
Oh, Johnnie is my hawk's-eye man.

1917 Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: IV." The Bellman 23(577) (4 Aug. 1917): 123-128.

It's possible that the words of this one were edited for publication.

The Ox-eyed Man.

The ox-eyed man is the man for me,
For he is blind and he cannot see,
With his ox-eye,
[cho.] I knew an old ni&&&r* with an ox-eye!
Row the boat ashore, with the ox-eye,
All she wants is the ox-eyed man!
…
"The girl on the shore, whose name is Sall,
Is waiting there, for the ox-eyed man.

"Sall is in the garden, picking peas,
Here long brown ringlets hang to her knees.

"Sall is on the beach, a-sifting sand,
And is thinking much of the ox-eyed man.

"Go home, Sall, he will come no more,
For he got drowned, as he rowed ashore."
-snip-
*This word that is commonly known now as the "n word" is fully spelled out in these lyrics.

Source: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=9916#3207494
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Example #2

Chicken in the bread tray, pecking that dough (or kicking up dough)
Sally will your dog bit, no sir no
(then straight into)
Chorus 1: Sallys in the garden, sifting, sifting
Sally’s in the garden, sifting sand

Sally’s in the garden, sifting, sifting
Sally’s in the garden sifting sand
Chorus 1: Sally’s in the garden sifting, sifting
Sally’s upstairs with the hogeye man

Sally’s in the garden, sifting, sifting
Sally’s in the garden sifting sand
Chorus 1. Sally’s in the garden sifting, sifting
Sally’s upstairs with the hogeye man

Sally will your dog bite, no sir, no
Daddy cut his biter off a long time ago
Chorus 2 Sally’s in the garden sifting sand
Sally’s upstairs with a hog-eyed man

Source: http://moldfarm.com/category/banjo/old-time-lyrics/page/2/
-snip-
This version is also known as "Granny Will Your Dog Bite" and "Chicken In The Bread Tray". A text version of that song is included in Thomas W. Talley's now classic 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise. Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123317#2714299 for that example.

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COMMENTS ABOUT THESE SONGS
The colloquial meaning of a woman "sifting sand" is an allusion to prostitution with the location of those acts being on the beach. Early examples of the Calypso song [All Day All Night] "Mary Ann" refer to Mary Ann down by the sea side sifting sand". Those examples were much more bawdy than the folk version that is most commonly known today. Read examples of those versions in the Mudcat thread on "Marianne" whose link is found above.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/various-somewhat-discreetly-worded.html for information, comments, and examples of the phrase & song "Hog Eye Man".

I believe that the most relevant definition that fits the above songs is that a "hog eye man" (or "hawk eye man" or ox eyed man") is a womanizer, a man who is very sexually active (with women), similar to "Jody", the African American folk character & the military cadence character.
-snip-
[Revised September 13, 2018] Notice that this song likely refers to a sexual relationship between a Black man and a White woman or to a relationship between a mixed race woman and a Black man (i.e. "Here [sic] long brown ringlets hang to her knees.") [end of revision]:

There are a number of banjo & other instrumental versions of "Sally In The Garden" (sifting sand) that can be found online. Among those videos are https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcxAPN4ozJQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipavVrFgvYg.

However, I've not yet found any vocal renditions of this song on YouTube or anywhere else online.

There are numerous parodies of the song "Sally In The Garden". Among those parodies is one that was popularized by author Kurt Vonnegut http://izquotes.com/quote/275942

Sally in the garden,
Siftin' cinders,
Lifted up her leg,
And farted like a man,
The bursting of her bloomers broke sixteen winders,
The cheeks of her ass went (blam, blam, blam)”
―Kurt Vonnegut

Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63007 for [earlier?] examples of that parody.

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Visitor comments are welcome.

Various (Somewhat Discreetly Worded) Meanings Of "Hog-Eye" and "Hog-Eye Man"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides discreetly worded definitions and excerpts from online discussions about the meanings of the vernacular American English terms "hog-eye" and "hogeye man".

This post also provides comments about the meaning of the word "navvy" as found in the song "Hog Eye Man" and in other folk songs.

In addition, this post showcases two YouTube examples of the song "Hog Eye Man".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/sally-in-garden-siftin-sand-lyrics.html for the companion pancocojams post "Sally In The Garden" (Siftin Sand) Lyrics & Comments.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the collectors and the featured performers of this song. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.

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DEFINITIONS
There are several definitions for the American English terms "hog-eye" and "hog-eye man". These meanings range from socially correct to what some consider to be quite obscene. I've presented these definitions in the chronological order that I think they were coined [based on my admittedly limited online reading on this subject.]

Hog eye & Hog-Eye Man
1. a barge used on the canals and rivers of the United States at the time of the Gold Rush in California (1850) ...hog-eye man being one of the crew of a hog-eye) [Captain Whall, "Sea Songs and Shanties", first printed in 1910, is perhaps the best collection of 19th c. sailors work songs. quote by Q in http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11353 [23 May 08 - 01:56 PM]

2. Hog eye- a female's sexual parts (vulva or vagina); An equivalent African American Blues/Jazz vernacular term is "jelly roll".

Hog-eye man: a womanizer, a man who is very sexually active (with women) [These definitions & comments are found in the Mudcat post whose link is given above.]
-snip-
This description is very similar to "Jody", the African American folk character & the military cadence character.

3. hog-eye - a squint (eye) appearance; "Hog-eye man": a man who had a squint eye (similar to "popeye" and bug-eye - a person who has bulging eyes
From http://hogeyenavvy.com/the-band
Garry still swears by his grandfather's definition that sailors were called 'hogeyes' because they squinted in the sun (like pigs, and like Popeye!)."
-snip-
Read that article for more definitions of "hog-eye" and the word "navvy". That article and others mentions that "Hog-eye" is used as place names in the United States and elsewhere.

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Navvy - a semi skilled laborer [from the word "navigation"]

Subject: RE: I give up. What's a HOGEYE?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 07 Jun 99 - 07:44 AM

The term Navvy has been around since the beginning of the 19th century, and has always been used to refer common laborers on any project which requires digging/excavation: canals, earthworks, pipelines, levees, railroads. Later, when a machine was developed to do this work, it was called--as one might expect--the steam navvy. The term was, indeed, taken from the word navigator, but not in any way limited to seafaring--more having to do with surveying.
The tow-path driver responsible for the draft animals which towed barges and canal boats on the old canal systems was known as the HOGGY; that possibly might be the basis for the term hog-eye, through folk etymology.
-snip-
Read Q [23 May 08 - 04:22 PM] in the above linked Mudcat post for a related song and term "ox-eyed man". And read the comments in that post about the sexualized meaning of "one eyed" and "dead-eye".

Also, read this comment about the racialized meaning of the term "hog-eye man" and the substitution of the terms "navy man" or "railroad man" for what is now known as the "n word" in other versions of the song.

Subject: RE: I give up. What's a HOGEYE?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 12 - 07:26 PM

I first heard this song a hell of a long time ago and it was sung as "railroad ni&&&r* with his sea-boots on". (Although why a railroad man be wearing sea-boots is beyond me!) The song was referred to as a "ni&&&r* shanty", lumped in with others like "Bullgine" and the cotton-screwing songs as being of African-American origin.
I always understood the Hogeye Man to be, firstly, Black. And secondly, one adept at getting some hog-eye.(more power to him!)
So many shanties have been sanitized. Agree with Guest, lighter, above that "navvy" was just cleaning it up.
Don't know the origin of the word but a navvy is a laborer.
-snip-
This word was fully spelled out in this quote.

That comment refers to these lines in versions of the song "Hog Eye Man":
"Railroad navvy with his hog-eye" and "railroad navy with his big boots on" or "railroad navy with his sea-boots on".

It's likely that the "sea boots on" phrase was coined to conform with the misapprehension that "navvy" meant a sailor.

However, read the comment by Matthew B : 06 Jun 99 - 08:43 PM who wrote that he was surprised to read that "railroad navy" was the original description that was used in that song.

I'm not sure which phrase whether "railroad navy" or "railroad ni&&&r" was the earliest phrase. However, "big buck ni&&&r with his sea boots on" was likely a later coinage.

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COMMENTS ABOUT THE TERMS "HOGEYE" AND "HOG-EYE MAN"
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11353
Subject: RE: I give up. What's a HOGEYE?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 19 Apr 12 - 01:18 PM

...To sum up: "hog's-eye" and "hogeye" had a both clean and dirty meanings. The various Mudcat minds that have discussed the matter over many years are essentially unanimous in their belief as to what the dirty meaning was.

I'm inclined to agree with Gibb's suspicion that at the moment of its creation, "The Hogeye Man" (or just a line about the "hogeye man") simply referred to a barge sailor. (If that meaning had not been both natural and probable, I can't imagine the strait-laced Whall publishing the shanty in any form.)

Dirty interpretations presumably didn't take hold for some singers till at least ten minutes later. If a sexual "hog's-eye" actually predated the shanty, that would only make reinterpretation inevitable.

**
Subject: RE: I give up. What's a HOGEYE?
From: Kim C
Date: 28 Mar 00 - 02:05 PM

I am a HUGE fan of shanties and this is one of my favorites. My, what a lively discussion! My conclusion is, like so many bawdy songs of old, hog-eye has a double meaning and those who get it, get it, and those who don't can still enjoy the song and not feel like they're out of the loop...
-snip-
Read that post for more comments about these terms song and also for various lyrics for the song "Hog-Eye Man".

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FEATURED EXAMPLES OF THE SONG "HOG EYE MAN"
Example #1: Martin Carthy & Family: Hog-Eye Man



wolfgpunkt, Uploaded on May 31, 2009

From: Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, ANTI- 2006.

Explanatory liner notes by record label ANTI-:
A hog-eye was apparently a type of barge used in the canals and rivers of America from the 1850's onward. Thus, "hog-eye man" was used in derogation by the deep water sailors who used this chantey at the capstan. Many of the original verses to this chantey were far too obscene to have ever found their way into print.

Image: Miss Marjorie Joesting: Rock On: 1926.
Marjorie, the future Mrs. Arthur Lange, was both Miss Washington, D.C., and a Miss America runner-up at Atlantic City in 1926.
National Photo Company Collection glass negative, August 2, 1926.
Via Shorpy: http://www.shorpy.com/node/4282

Lyrics and annotations in http://ismaels.wordpress.com/2009/06/

Lyrics:

1. Oh, hand me down my riding cane,
I’m off to meet my darlin’ Jane.

Chorus: And a hog-eye!
Railroad navvy with his hog-eye,
Steady on a jig with a hog-eye-o,
She wants the hog-eye man!

2. Oh, the hog-eye man is the man for me,
Sailin’ down from o’er the sea. – Chorus.

3. Oh, he came to the shack where Sally did dwell,
He knocked on the door, he rung a bell. – Chorus.

4. Oh, who’s been here since I been gone,
Railroad navvy with his sea boots on. – Chorus.

5. If I catch him here with Sally once more,
I’ll sling me hook, go to sea once more. – Chorus.

6. Oh, Sally’s in the garden sifting sand,
Her hog-eye man sittin’ hand in hand. – Chorus.

7. Oh, Sally’s in the garden, punchin’ dough,
The cheeks of her arse go chuff, chuff, chuff! – Chorus.

8. Oh, I won’t wear a hog-eye, damned if I do,
Got jiggers in his feet and he can’t wear shoes. – Chorus.

9. Oh, the hog-eye man is the man for me,
He is blind and he cannot see. – Chorus.

10. Oh, a hog-eye ship and a hog-eye crew,
A hog-eye mate and a skipper too. – Chorus.

Explanatory liner notes by ANTI-:
A hog-eye was apparently a type of barge used in the canals and rivers of America from the 1850′s onward. Thus, “hog-eye man” was used in derogation by the deep water sailors who used this chantey at the capstan. Many of the original verses to this chantey were far too obscene to have ever found their way into print.

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Example #2: The Morris Brothers - "Hog Eyed Man"



Cridantis Videos, Uploaded on Dec 1, 2009

I found this record, dusty and badly warped, in a box from the attic. According to my mother it was my older brother's favorite childhood record.

Arranged by John and David Morris
-snip-
Unfortunately, I don't feel capable of transcribing this rendition of "Hog Eyed Man".

Here are two comments from that sound file's discussion thread:
TamarZucker, 2012
"LOVE IT!!!! This is a sea shanty. Hog eyed man refers to the same thing as a one eyed snake.-a sexual allusion. I wonder if joining the Morris Brothers was Jim Carter (of Johnny Cash 's wife's family I believe) did the animal noises as he was well known for them?

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TamarZucker, 2012
"and "Cindy's in the bed with the hog eyed man." I love this recording!."

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