"Sail Away, Ladies" (Excerpts From Two Mudcat Folk Music Discussion Threads)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of two part pancocojams series about the Old Time Music song "Sail Away, Ladies".

Part I presents information about and lyric examples of the song "Sail Away Ladies" from two Mudcat folk music forum discussion threads. I wrote a number of these selected comments in 2006-2008 when I was an active member of that online folk music forum.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/five-vocal-renditions-of-sail-away.html for Part II on this pancocojams series. Part II presents showcases five YouTube videos of the song "Say Away Ladies".

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

All copyright remains with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

****
ONLINE EXCERPT ABOUT THE OLD TIME MUSIC SONG "SAIL AWAY, LADIES"
Excerpt A
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97649
(Numbers have been added to these selected posts from that discussion thread for referencing purposes only.)
1. Subject: origin and lyr: Sail Away Ladies
From: Richie
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 07:45 PM

"It seem the first version of Sail Away Ladies is found in Talley's Negro Folk Rymes p. 20 from 1920. It can be viewed on-line through a book search. Kuntz also includes them on-line. Here they are:

Sail away, ladies! Sail away!
Sail away, ladies! Sail away!
Nev' min' what dem white folks say,
May de Mighty bless you. Sail away!

Nev' min' what you daddy say,
Shake yo liddle foot an' fly away,
Nev' min' if yo' mammy say:
"De Devil'll git you." Sail away!

Macon's lyric version (not in the DT?) was done in 1927. The Talley rhyme includes lyrics found in Sally Ann, a very similar song. The Hill Billies in 1925 used the line "Shake you little foot Sally Ann." Since Sally Ann also includes the "Sail away" lyric it makes it difficult to separate the two songs.

Are there any earlier, perhaps minstrel lyrics, to "Sail Away Ladies"?"
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's notes:
[added March 29, 2020]
a) Here's the link to a complete online text of Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm.

[added March 30, 2020]
b) In the Mudcat forum, "the DT" mentioned above refers to "the Digital Tradition", a compilation of American folk song lyrics, often with notes. As of the March 30, 2020 date of this pancocojams' post's revision, no one has responded to Richie's question "Are there any earlier, perhaps minstrel lyrics, to "Sail Away Ladies"?" with actual song lyrics. Given the fact that there are no examples of "Sail Away Ladies" earlier than 1922 in any online fiddle/Blues/Old Time Music lyric site such as Fiddlers Companion, the Talley 1922 version of "Sail Away" remains the earliest known version of that song.

**
c) I'm not a proponent of the position that every song that enslaved Black people sang had a coded message about escaping slavery to freedom. However, I believe that this very early version of "Sail Away, Ladies" is one such song. And, because the real meaning of the song was to encourage people to flee slavery, it's highly unlikely that this early version of "Sail Away, Ladies" was known to White folks during slavery or shortly thereafter. Notice that my interpretation of Talley's version of "Sail Away" is different than what I wrote in 2006 (comment #2 given below.)

Fifty seven years after the end of slavery in the United States, African American university professor Thomas W. Talley's now classic book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Otherwise was published. Talley compiled the examples that are found in that book from his own memories and from the memories of his African American students. In the rhyme/song "Sail Away" that is found in that book, "to sail away" clearly meant "to run away" (i.e. "to move away fast"). Furthermore, although the lyrics for that version of "Sail Away" only referred to females, the encouragement to run away from slavery was meant for both females and males.

In later versions of "Sal Away, Ladies"- such as the 1927 version by White American Uncle Dave Macon- "sail away" only has its "dance/move away fast" meaning.

**
2. Subject: RE: origin and lyr: Sail Away Ladies
From: Azizi
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 08:23 PM

"Hello, Richie.

I don't know about any earlier lyrics for "Sail away ladies" than the Talley one you quoted.

Here's some minor corrections:

"Nev' min' what you daddy say", is given as "Nev' min' what yo' daddy say"

This is in the 1968 Kennikat version of Fisk University's [Professor]Thomas W. Talley's "Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise & Otherwise with a Study"

The title of the book is usually given as "Negro Folk Rhymes", and was first published by The Macmillan Company in 1922.

**

I'm wondering if "sail awy" referred to dance moves [moving away from your partner] instead of actually getting on a boat and sailing away [from slavery or otherwise]. If so, the lines "never mind what your master, daddy, mama says" [to convert those lines to contemporary English}, would suggest that the girl shouldn't mind that these folks frowned upon dancing.

In this excerpt from the Study section in his now clasic book, Talley notes that

"Many Negro Folk Rhymes were used as banjo and fiddle {violin} songs. It ought to be born in mind, however, that even these were quite often repeated without singing or playing. It was common in the early days of the public schools of the South to hear Negro childern use them as declamations. The connection, however, of Negro Folk Rhymes with their secular music production is well worthy of notice...

The Negro Folk Rhymes ,then furnished the ideas about which the "old time" Negro banjo picker and fiddler clustered his best instrumental music thoughts. it is too bad that this music passed away without unrecorded save by the hearts of men."

[pps. 235; 237,238]

-snip-

I take it "declamations" means poetry or speeches. Is that correct?"

**
3. Subject: Lyr Add: SAIL AWAY LADIES (from Uncle Dave Macon)
From: Richie
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 08:42 PM

"Hi Azizi,

The "declamations" were probably sung without accompaniment (group singing). Or maybe they were early "poetry slams."

Here's what I hear Uncle Dave Macon singing:

SAIL AWAY LADIES
Uncle Dave Macon and His Fruit Jar Drinkers Vo 5155
Banjo and lead vocal- Uncle Dave Macon; Fiddle- Maizi Todd;
(Fiddle w/banjo intro)

Ever I get my new house done,
(Sail away Ladies, sail away)
Give my old one to my son.
(Sail away Ladies, sail away.)

*[one line of chorus by fiddle]
Chorus: Don't she rock die-dee-o,
Don't she rock die-dee-o,
Don't she rock die-dee-o.

[instrumental chorus/ verse]

Ever I get my new house done,
(Sail away Ladies, sail away)
Give my old one to my son.
(Sail away Ladies, sail away.)

[one line of chorus by fiddle]
Chorus: Don't she rock die-dee-o
Don't she rock die-dee-o
Don't she rock die-dee-o.

[instrumental chorus/ verse]

Ain't no use to grieve and cry,
(Sail away Ladies, sail away)
You'll be an angel by and by,
(Sail away Ladies, sail away)


[Three lines of chorus by fiddle]
Don't she rock die-dee-o.

[instrumental chorus/verse]

Come along boys and go with me
(Sail away Ladies, sail away)
We'll go back to Tennessee
(Sail away Ladies, sail away)

[one line of chorus by fiddle]
Chorus: Don't she rock die-dee-o
Don't she rock die-dee-o
Don't she rock die-dee-o.

[instrumental chorus/verse]

[one line of chorus by fiddle]
Chorus: Don't she rock die-dee-o
Don't she rock die-dee-o
Don't she rock die-dee-o.

[instrumental]

*the unusual thing is Uncle Dave doeesn't sing on the first line of the chorus."

**
4. Subject: RE: origin and lyr: Sail Away Ladies
From: Azizi
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 10:23 PM

... "here's the Kingston Trio- "Sail Away, Ladies" lyrics.:

"Ain't no use to sit and cry. You'll be an angel by and by.

Chorus:
Can't she rock 'em, can't she rock 'em, can't she rock 'em, daddy-e-o (Repeat)

I got a home in Tennessee (Sail away, ladies. Sail away.) That's the place I wanna be. (Sail away, ladies. Sail away.)
If I ever get my way (Sail away, ladies. Sail away.) Tennessee is where I'll stay. (Sail away, ladies. Sail away.)

(Chorus)

Ever I get my new house done. Give my old one to my son.
Ever I finish this porch and stairs, lie around in my rockin' chair.

(Chorus)

Ain't no use to sit and cry. You'll be an angel by and by.
Won't be a long time 'round this place. So get a look at my funny face.

(Chorus) "

-snip-

Note that "di-dee-o" has changed to "daddy-o". I wonder if this is one source of the vernacular phrase "daddy-o"?

And, for what it's worth, the line "So get a look at my funny face" doesn't sound very authentic to me. My guess is that this line was written as a substitute for a line that was considered to be politically incorrect. But that's only a guess."

**
5. Subject: RE: Origin: Sail Away Ladies
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 04 Jan 07 - 10:50 AM

"On the other hand, some versions of Sail Away Ladies differ in melody and treatment, too. Parker and Dodd's 1932 "Sail Away Ladies" has a tune closer to "Tideo," and these verses. Some sound a trifle concocted, and may have been made up for the recording session; others may stem from playparty use in the singers' childhood....

SAIL AWAY LADIES

Christmas comin' down the road,
Christmas comin' down the road,
Christmas comin' down the road,
Gonna get married, don't you know

CHO Sail away ladies, sail away (3x)
God's gonna get you some day.

Cut that wood and pile it high (3X)
Winter's comin' by and by.

Possum up a simmon tree (3x)
Big fat sump'm for you an' me.

Rubbed my dog with turpentine (3x)
Now that dog is hard to find.

Cook that bacon good and brown (3x)
Saddle my horse and go to town.

Swing your partner round and round (3x)
Spit your 'backers on the ground."
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: Another commenter -not me- had written in that discussion thread that "Sail Away Ladies" had similar lyrics as "Tideo". Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/online-excerpt-about-old-time-music.html for a 2020 pancocojams post about the Old Time Music/play party song "Tideo" .

**
6. Subject: RE: Origin: Sail Away Ladies
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 04 Jan 07 - 11:18 AM

"Azizi, re declamations:

These were "set pieces" the grade school child was supposed to "declaim," that is, speak elegantly if possible, before the class. They were usually short, and were intended to improve the student's ability at public speaking ... analogous to book reports and such for a later generation. This was common practice in schools of both racial groups.

They might be a few lines of poetry, or an anecdote, or almost anything from the school text (or, lacking textbooks, the teacher's memory) that the child could memorize -- training memory skills was important, too, in a rural and often backwoods world where, for the most part, reference material was not going to be common. "The Boy Stood On the Burning Deck" was frequently excerpted for this, as were hokey lines from the Iliad to James Whitcomb Riley and back again.

The practice was sometimes extended into exhibitions before parents and members of the community. The best pupils would get a prize, usually something improving like a tract, or even a Bible."...

**
7. Subject: RE: Origin: Sail Away Ladies
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 04 Jan 07 - 06:58 PM

"I think it should be fairly obvious that songs like "Sail Away Ladies" and many of the old-time Appalachian songs done by Uncle Dave or Gran'pa Jones, Stringbean etc. emanate from the Minstrel Show tradition and the performances of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" popular throughout the South for a short period of time. "Old Dan Tucker", "Angelina Baker" and many variants of these started on the Minstrel Show stage. The words to "O Susannah" would be unacceptable to most audiences today.

It's significant that these songs survive mainly because of white performers in blackface who caracatured the "negro" in the Minstrel Show.

It's ironic that some of those songs were entertaining...and they were and are.

Karen Lin mentions in her book on the banjo that this instrument was largely popular because of the Minstrel Show whereas the popular instrument on the plantation was the fiddle not the banjo."

**
8. Subject: RE: Origin: Sail Away Ladies
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:01 AM

"In addition to that "RE: Lyr Req: You'll be an angel by and by" thread, I just find this thread on the song "Sail Away Lady":

thread.cfm?threadid=102897
Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o

And the funny thing is that I'm the one who started that thread on June 28th, 2007."...

****
Excerpt B
(Numbers have been added to these selected posts from that discussion thread for referencing purposes only.)
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=102897
1.Subject: RE: Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o)
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Jun 07 - 10:43 PM

"My first {or at least most influential} introduction to folk music-beyond children's rhymes and African American spirituals & gospel songs-was an Odetta album that my high school history teacher gave me around about 1964.

Even before I listened to that record, I was impressed by the photo on the album's cover of a brown skinned afro-wearing Black woman. Afros {wide or closely cropped "Black people's hair" worn without any chemical or heat treatment to straighten its tight curls} was a new style in those days. About three years later, I got up the nerve to have my shoulder length hair cut and wear it in an afro style. I've worn my hair in an afro style ever since {though I started out with an Angela Davis wide afro look, and now wear my hair short but not as short as I remember Odetta wearing her 'fro.}

One of the songs that I remember Odetta singing on that album my teacher gave me was "Sail, Away Ladies". I loved that song then. I love it still.

Odetta's version is quite similar but not exactly the same as the version found in Mudcat's Digital Tradition.

http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/?m=199909 McGuinn's Folk Denn has an Mp3, the lyrics, and commentary about Odetta's performance of this song "in the mid '50s in the Gate of Horn, Chicago".

In Odetta's version {or at least in this one that McGuinn remembers, the chorus is "Don't you rock 'em die-de-o"

"Die-de-o" ist is probably a regional pronunciation for "daddy-o".

I checked out YouTube to see if anyone had posted a video of Odetta singing "Sail Away, Ladies". No such luck."...
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: Since I wrote that comment, a Odetta singing "Sail Away, Ladies" has been published on YouTube and is one of the showcase examples on Part II of this pancocojams post.

A portion of that Roger McCuinn's Folk Denn article about "Sail Away Ladies" is given in this post's discussion thread."

**
2. Subject: RE: Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o)
From: Azizi
Date: 29 Jun 07 - 08:58 AM

"Here's a 2005 post from Joe Offer about the song "Sail Away Ladies" that was published in The Traditional Ballad Index:

thread.cfm?threadid=84871#1569679 "RE: Lyr Req: Sail Away Ladies . . ."

Here's a brief excerpt:
"DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "Ever I get my new house done/Sail away, ladies, sail away/Give the old one to my son/Sail away...." "Don't you worry, don't you cry... You'll be angels by and by" Etc. "Chorus: "Don't'ye rock 'em, di-de-o (x3 or x4)".
AUTHOR: Words assembled by Uncle Dave Macon"

**

In the beginning post of the "Origins: Sail Away Ladies" thread on Dec 31, 2006, Richie notes that "It seems the first version of Sail Away Ladies is found in Talley's Negro Folk Rymes". Though Richie gave 1920 as that book's publication date, it was actually 1922.

In that same thread Ritchie shared the lyrics to a version of Sail Away Lady that was recorded by Van Morrison.

thread.cfm?threadid=97649#1923684

Ritchie indicated that he got those words from an online site.

I found that site {or another similar one}. Here's that link: [link no longer active]

I want to focus on Van Morrison's and others' indication that this song is "traditional".

I don't dispute the fact that this song is traditional. But "traditional to whom?" Or what kind of traditional?" If the citation was given that this is a traditional American {meaning UnitedStater} song, I would further ask, from which population or populations did this song come.

It seems to me that the origins of this "traditional" tune is likely to have been African Americans.

**
In one of those other threads listed above I saw some mention of this song coming from ministrel traditions. And in the description of a YouTube clip in which fiddlers played this tune, the writer describes "Sail Away, Ladies" as a bluegrass tune.

All of these descriptors can be correct at the same time. However, given the fact that there were Black "blackfaced" minstrels, and that White "blackfaced" ministrels lifted much of their material from Black people, and given the fact that bluegrass music owes a huge debt to 19th century Black secular dance music, it seems to me that failure to mention the probable Black roots of this song in folk music indexes and summaries is to do a great disservice to this song's creators.

I believe that Black folks have to do a better job of claiming and reclaiming our heritage.

Since the 1980s, the Ghanaian Akan adinkra symbol "Sankofa" has joined the Egyptian "ankh" and Akan "kente cloth" as a widely used pictograph that represents African American pride in African culture. Since the 1980s, "Sankofa" has also been used as the name for all kind of afrocentric African American cultural, community, and arts groups. Sankofa is a symbol of the importance of learning from the past. In one of its picture forms, Sankofa is shown as a bird who is facing forward but whose head is turned backwards. This is an illustration for the proverb that is often given as "It is never to late to go back and claim it". http://www.welltempered.net/adinkra/htmls/adinkra/sank.htm [link no longer active]

-snip-

I take this charge seriously because I grew up in a time when all kind of folks denied that Black people created anything of value, or all kind of folks limited African Americans musical creative products during the centuries of slavery to spirituals.

Some people {who are non-Black and who are Black} still believe that to this day."...

****
3. Subject: RE: Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o)
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 29 Jun 07 - 11:17 AM

Azizi, thanks for reminding me that the first time I heard this song was Odetta's singing. (Was that the LP "Odetta and Larry?" Joen Baez covered the Odettta arrangement exactly. It was some years later that I heard Uncle Dave's ur-text and years later that I found out that he had more or less put it together from floating rhymes that he had heard from blacks while growing up. I like whoever used that verb "Words ASSEMBLED by Uncle Dave"

Uncle Dave, David Harrison Macon. is an Interesting Character. Born 1870, son of a Confederate officer who ran a boardinghouse/hotel; he was one of the best banjo-playing entertainers of all time. His music so clearly shows the black influences that Jon Pankake quotes a story of an elderly black man in the 1940s (remember, the Opry is radio only!) on being told that DeFord Bailey was the only black on the Grand Ole Opry, said, indignantly, "What about Uncle Dave?" Since we have such fragmentary records of what black people were singing and playing in those years (and thanks to Talley for giving us all that he found!) much of what we know is filtered through Dave Macon.

**
4. Subject: RE: Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o)
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Jun 07 - 10:21 PM

"Here is the entry from Fiddler's Companion site:

SAIL AWAY LADIES [1A]. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Kentucky, Tennessee. G Major. Standard. ABB (Brody, Ford): AABB (Spandaro): AABBCC (Phillips). The tune is related to the numerous versions of "Sally Ann" played in the keys of A and G Major. According to Guthrie Meade (1980), the tune is identified with the south central Kentucky and middle Tennessee locals. The title also appears in a list of the standard tunes in the square dance fiddler's repertoire, according to A.B. Moore in his 1934 book "History of Alabama." Southern Kentucky fiddler Henry L. Bandy recorded the tune for Gennett in 1928, though it was unissued, however, the earlest recordings were Uncle Bunt Stevens (1926-without words) and Uncle Dave Macon (1927-with words). Paul Wells (Middle Tennessee State University) states that the song was collected around the turn of the 20th century and seems to have been common to both black and white traditions. Tom Paley (former New Lost City Ramblers member) believes the verses of "Sail Away Ladies" to be typical floating verses, and go:
***
If ever I get my new house done,
(I'll) give my old one to my son.
***
Children, don't you grieve and cry.
You'll be angels, bye and bye.
***
Come along, girls, and go with me.
We'll go back to Tennessee.
***
(I) got the news from Shallow (or "Charlotte") Town.
Big St. Louis is a-burning down.
***
I chew my tobacco and I spit my juice.
I love my own daughter but it ain't no use.
(Paul Mitchell and others believe the words in Macon's last line sometimes heard as own daughter is really Dona, pronounced Dough-nee in the American South, a Spanish/Italian word for a mature love object, a woman.).
***
Another version of this last couplet goes:
***
I chew my tobacker and I swaller my juice
Sail away, ladies, sail away.
I'd like to go to Heaven, but it ain't no use.
Sail away, ladies, sail away.
***
African-American collector Thomas Talley, writing in his book Negro Folk Rhymes (reprinted in 1991, edited by Charles Wolfe), printed a similar but different text:
***
Sail away, ladies! Sail away!
Sail away, ladies! Sail away!
Nev' min' what dem white folks say,
May de Mighty bless you. Sail away!
***
Nev' min' what you daddy say,
Shake yo liddle foot an' fly away,
Nev' min' if yo' mammy say:
"De Devil'll git you." Sail away!
***
Kentucky fiddler H.L. Bandy sang the following lyric to "Sail Away Ladies", usually associated with the tune "Old Miss Sally":
***
I asked that girl to be my beau
She hacked at me with a garden hoe
***
I asked that girl to be my wife,
She took at me with a butcher knife
***
Uncle Dave Macon also included a chorus which went, "Don't she rock, Die-Dee-Oh?" but Paley notes that other old recordings have variants like "Don't she rock, Darneo?" and even "Don't she rock 'em, Daddy-O?" (which seems to harken to the beatnik era). Some unknown "revival" wag re-interpreted Macon's lines as:
***
Don't sheetrock the patio (x3)
Sail away, ladies, sail away
***
Wolfe (1991) finds the song in several older collections: Brown (1:153), Brewer (165) and a 1903 collection by William W. Newell, Games and Songs of American Children (170). It also appears in a modern collection of African-American songs and games, Jones and Hawes's Step It Down (174, as "Horse and Buggy"). Sources for notated versions: Highwoods String Band (N.Y.) [Brody]: Uncle Bunt Stevens (Tenn.) [Phillips, Spandaro]. See Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, #1, 1968; Linda Burman - "The Technique of Variation in an American Fiddle Tune (Sail Away Lady)." Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 241. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 35. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 207. Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 32. Columbia 15071-D (78 RPM), "Uncle Bunt Stevens" (Tenn.) {1926}. County 521, "Uncle Dave Macon: Original Recordings 1925-1935." Folkways FA 2395, New Lost City Ramblers- "Vol. 5." Folkways FA-2951, Uncle Bunt Stevens - "Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 2, Social Music" (1952). Gennet Records, Master #14361, Henry L. Bandy (1928. Not released). Kicking Mule 213, Susan Cahill- "Southern Clawhammer Banjo." Morning Star 45004, H.L. Bandy (southern Ky.) - "Wish I Had My Time Again." Rounder 0074, Highwoods String Band- "No. 3 Special" (1976. Learned from Uncle Dave Macon's recording). Rounder 0193, Rodney Miller - "Airplang" (1985). Vocalation 5155 (78 RPM), Uncle Dave Macon (1927).


[...]

SAIL AWAY LADIES [2]. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. G Major. Standard. AABB. Little relation to "Sail Away Ladies" [1], the tune that usually goes by this title. Some have suggested that the tune may be related to Ed Haley's "Indian Ate a/the Woodchuck," but others do not hear the resemblance. Source for notated version: J.P. Fraley (Rush, Ky.), learned from his father, Richard Fraley, also a fiddler, who called the tune by the "Sail Away" title. According to Betty Vornbrock, Fraley remembers hearing Arthur Smith's version ("Sail Away Ladies" [1]) on the radio long after he learned his father's version [Brody, Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 242. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 207. Rounder 0037, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley- "Wild Rose of the Mountain."

SAIL AWAY LADIES [3]. AKA and see "Chinquapin." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Round Peak, North Carolina. E Minor/G Major. Standard. AA'B. This melody, almost entirely played over an E minor chord (with a G major cadence in the 'B' part) is unrelated to the "Sally Ann" tune family, unlike so many other tunes with the title "Sail Away Ladies." The source for the tune, Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell, learned this single tune from Round Peak fiddler Preston 'Pet'/'Pat' McKinney, whom he chanced to meet in the road when Jarrell was age sixteen and on his way to a dance with his fiddle. McKinney, on his way to get some whiskey, hailed him and noting the instrument said "They say you fiddle, son." Jarrell handed him the fiddle which was in ADAE tuning (the 'normal' tuning for Jarrell) and McKinney re-tuned it to standard tuning and played "Sail Away Ladies." Jarrell asked him the title and to play it again, and by the end had it fixed in his mind (see Peter Anick, "An Afternoon with Tommy Jarrell, 1982," Fiddler Magazine, Spring 1995, and notes on the tune appearing with Jarrell's recording on County 756). Source for notated version: Tommy Jarrell (Mt. Airy, N.C.) [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994; pg. 207. County 756, Tommy Jarrell- "Sail Away Ladies" (1976). Heritage V, Roscoe Parish (Galax, Va., under the title "Chinquapin"). In the repertoire of Luther Davis, Galax, Va.


Meade's earliest printed citation in respect of this piece is to W.C. Handy's 'A Treasury of Blues' NYC, Simon & schuster Inc 1926, p44. His first recorded reference is to Uncle Dave Macon and Sid Harkreader's recording of 'Girl I Left Behing Me' Vocalion 15034, 1925. I can't understand this - it seems to bear no relationship to 'Sail Away Ladies'. His second recorded version is Uncle Bunt Stephens on 29 March 1926, issued as Columbia 15071-D in July 1926. Uncle Dave recorded it with his Fruit Jar Drinkers on 7 May 1927, issued as Vocalion 5155 in May 1928.

The paragraph on Uncle Bunt's version by the late Charles Wolfe in his 'A Good Riot: The Birth of the Grand Old Opry' at pp95-96 is also of interest:

Next to Texas fiddler Eck Robertson's classic solos of 'Leather Britches' and 'Sallie Gooden' dating from 1922 and 1923, Bunt Stephen's efforts are probably the finest examples of traditional American solo fiddling recorded. Students of fiddle music have described Uncle Bunt's masterpiece 'Sail Away Ladies' as probably similar to much American dance music in the period between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and ethnomusicologist Linda C. Burman-Hall, in a well-known study entitled 'The Technique of Variation in an American Fiddle Tune', spends over twenty pages transcribing and analysing the complex musical patterns of the piece. Uncle Bunt, whose neighbours described as 'that nice little feller that never amounted to much', would have been quietly amused.

Henry Bandy, cited in the first paragraph of the Fiddler's Companion entry above, was born in 1876 and was taught 'Sail Away Ladies' by his father who was a farmer and blacksmith. Bandy was a direct link to nineteenth century display fiddlers and was much more important to the Grand Ole Opry that his slender recorded legacy suggests. [Info from Wolfe].

--Stewie."

**
5. Subject: RE: Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o)
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Jun 07 - 10:25 PM

"The reference to Dr Wolfe's book on the Grand Ole Opry in my above post should read 'A Good-Natured Riot', not 'A Good Riot'.

--Stewie."

**
6. Subject: RE: Lyr: Sail Away Ladies (Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-o)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Dec 11 - 04:19 PM

"bluegrassmessengers.com gives lyrics to nine versions of this old fiddle tune.

[...]

First on records, melody only, Uncle Bunt Stevens 1926; First record with lyrics, Uncle Dave Macon 1927; it and many subsequent lyrics filled with floaters. Detailed information at bluegrassmessengers.com"
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's note: I've deleted the old link that was given in this comment for bluegrassmessengers.com's page on "Sail Away Ladies" and replaced it with the current link http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/fiddle-lyrics-s.aspx. Hyperlinks to individual versions of fiddle tunes beginning with "s" including "Sail Away, Ladies" are given in the left hand column of that page-which also includes a very informative overview of bluegrass fiddle tunes -that I refer to as "Old Time Music".]

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This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.

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