Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams series about the 19th century African American originated dance song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)".
This post showcases a YouTube video of guitarist/singer Sam Chatmon* singing "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule". That title is another referent for the song "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On."
This post also presents information about Sam Chatmon and presents lyrics for two versions of that song that Sam Chatmon sung.
Some of Sam Chatmon's memories of this song are also included in that post.
*Sam Chatmon's last name is sometimes erroneously given as "Chatman".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/07/blog-post.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post presents a general overview of this song.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/07/sound-file-lyrics-auto-generated.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III showcases a 1950 sound file of Celina Lewis singing "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On"). That post also includes the lyrics for that rendition and Celina Lewis' comments about that song. In addition, that post includes my re-wording into standard English of Celina Lewis' comments.
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The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to Sam Chatmon, Celina Lewis, Bessie Jones, and others whose renditions and comments about this song are documented offline and online. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song.
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INFORMATION ABOUT SAM CHATMON
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Chatmon
"Vivian "Sam" Chatmon (January 10, 1897 – February
2, 1983)[1] was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer who was a member
of the Mississippi Sheiks.
Life and career
Chatmon was born in Bolton, Mississippi.[1] His family was
well known in Mississippi for their musical talents; he was a member of the
family's string band when he was young. He may have been Charley Patton's
half-brother.[2] In an interview he stated that he started playing the guitar
at the age of three, laying it flat on the floor and crawling under it.[3] A
year older and he recalled singing a song including the lyrics "Run down
to the river thought I'd jump an' drown / I thought about the woman I lovin'
and I turn around".[4] He regularly performed for white audiences in the
1900s.[5]
The Chatmon band played rags, ballads, and popular dance tunes. Two of Sam's brothers, the fiddler Lonnie Chatmon and the guitarist Bo Carter, performed with the guitarist Walter Vinson as the Mississippi Sheiks.[1]
Chatmon played the banjo, mandolin and harmonica in addition to the guitar. He performed at parties and on street corners throughout Mississippi for small pay and tips. In the 1930s, he recorded with the Sheiks and also with his brother Lonnie as the Chatman Brothers.[1]
Chatmon moved to Hollandale, Mississippi in the early 1940s and worked on plantations there.[6] He was rediscovered in 1960 and started a new chapter of his career as a folk-blues artist.[1] In the same year he recorded for Arhoolie Records. He toured extensively during the 1960s and 1970s. While in California in 1970, he made several recordings with Sue Draheim, Kenny Hall, Ed Littlefield, Lou Curtiss, Kathy Hall, Will Scarlett and others at Sweet's Mill Music Camp, forming a group he called "The California Sheiks".[7] He played many of the largest and best-known folk festivals, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., in 1972, the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto in 1974, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1976."...
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EXCERPT FROM FOLKSTREAM FILM TRANSCRIPT
Pancocojams Editor's Notes:
The YouTube video that is given at the top of this pancocojams post is from this Alan Lomax film.
The name "Alan" in this transcript refers to (White American) folklorist Alan Lomax.
The name "Sam" in this transcript refers to (African American) guitarist/singer Sam Chatmon. (Sam Chatmon's last name is sometimes given as "Chatman".)
I added the words given in italics as explanations.
From https://www.folkstreams.net/contexts/dreams-of-the-noble-old-transcript,1991
Dreams of the Noble Old [film transcript
"[Alan] “America has a patchwork culture of the dreams and
songs of all its people This is Alan Lomax. Come with me now on an adventure in
our marvelous patchwork culture. Folklorists like myself spent a great deal of
time with old people, people of the early generation. What we're looking for
though is not the old things, but basically the roots of the culture. We're
looking for the keel of the culture so that we can, in them we find the things,
the values, the forms, the shapes, the songs, the ceremonies, which go back as
far as the living memory can take us into the past and we establish therefore
the actual baseline keel of the cultures.
[…]
- This is the heart of the Delta. Hollandale, Mississippi,
and we're at the home of a member of one of the royal families of the blues,
Sam Chatman. The Chatman family was here when the blues began, almost a 100
years ago. They helped to make them and popularize them, and when you think
about it, it was almost a miracle that occurred then, deep in the heart of the
Delta.
[…]
- [Alan] Do you remember how the tunes he played to you? [“He”
refers to-Sam Chatman’s father]
[Sam]- Yeah, I remember practically all of 'em, all of 'em is
just old things about can't get the saddle on the old gray mule, Little Liza
Jane.
♪ Whoa, mule ♪
♪ Whoa, mule ♪
♪ Whoa, mule ♪
♪ Can't get the saddle on the
old gray mule ♪
♪ Can't get the saddle on the
old gray mule ♪
♪ Chicken in the bread pan ♪
♪ Pickin' up dough ♪
♪ Everybody time for more ♪
♪ Can't get the saddle on the
old gray mule
♪ Can't get the saddle on the
old gray mule ♪
♪ Can get the saddle on the old
gray mule ♪
♪ Whoa, mule ♪
♪ Whoa, mule ♪
♪ Can't get the saddle on the
old gray mule
[…]
[Alan]- In Chatman, we meet a real professional, and that was characteristic of the blues very early. It was a chance for the talented Black musicians of the Deep South to become professional and in doing so, they made a transform of folk music into something that could live and grow in an urban setting, and the Chatman family was very important in all this, as he'll tell us.
[Chatman]- Peter Chatman up here in Memphis, they
called him Memphis Slim, that's one of my sister's boys. And if you ever heard
of Charlie Patton? Well, Charlie Patton's my brother.
- [Alan] Charlie Patton and others in the Chatman connection were among the first to record the blues. "Sugar Blues" was one of the early commercial ones.”…
-snip-
This concludes the reference to Sam Chatmon in this article except for the
lyrics to the song “Sugar Blues”.
Sam Chatmon's mention of "Little Liza Jane" near the beginning of this transcript was probably because some versions of "Little Liza Jane" includes floating verses from "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule" (also known as "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On").
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LYRICS FOR "CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON THE OLD GRAY MULE"*
This comments preface this rendition of that song. Words given in italics are my addition to this transcription for explanatory purposes.
”Square dance. Calling figures, stealing partner.
[Music]
[Sam Chatmon] Yeah, my daddy used to play them. So, we’d be in the house. We’d be in the
house playing. We’d make like a made like a mistake, playing them. So he’d tell
us “Play me [Bring me] that fiddle boy.
You didn’t play that right”. So he could [would] play it for us.
We tried to get him to play, and we couldn’t get him. “I don’t feel like
playing.”
We going out the next night and come and make mistakes. He’d say “That ain’t
right.”
So, Branch, let me show you how to play it. He could play it too.”
-snip-
I don't know who "Branch" was. (I think that it was a referent for Alan Lomax.)
The sentence “He could play it too” means “He was really skillful in the way he played that song.
-snip
This song begins around .45 in this video. The words in italic are my guess about what he sung.
LYRICS:
“Chicken in the bread pan, pickin up dough
[How he got there.] I didn’t know.
Can’t get the saddle on
Hold that mule.
Can’t get the saddle on
Hold that mule.
Whoa mule!
Whoa, mule!
Can’t get the saddle on.
Whoa, mule!
Hold that mule.
Whoa mule
Can’t get the saddle on
Hold that mule.
Can’t get the saddle on.
See that gal with the red dress on
???
If you get there before I do
Just tell ??? I’m comin to
Can’t get the saddle on
Hold that mule.
Can’t get the saddle on.
Hold that mule
Can’t get the saddle on.
Whoa mule
Whoa mule
Can’t get the saddle on
Hold that mule.
Can’t get the saddle on.
Hold that mule.
Can’t get the saddle on.
Chicken in the bread pan
Pickin up dough
Everybody time for more
Whoa mule
Can’t get the saddle on
Hold that mule.
Can’t get the saddle on.
Hold that mule.
Hold that mule
Can’t get the saddle on.
Hold that mule.
-snip-
*Part of this transcript is from the auto-generated transcription of the YouTube video that is given at the top of this pancocojams post and part of this transcript is what I believe I heard Sam Chatmon speaking and singing.
(?) means that I was unable to decipher what was being sung.
Additions and corrections are welcome.
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This concludes Part IV of this pancocojams series.
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