winecountryfilms1, Published on May 10, 2013
The Reeltime travelers perform "Shout Lula" at The
Hogcaller's Reunion on September 26th., 2004 at Fetzer's barn in Covelo, CA.
Roy Andrade on banjo, Heidi Lambert-Andrade on fiddle,
Martha Scanlan on guitar, Thomas Sneed on mandolin and Travis Stuart on bass
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on Old Time music sources for the large family of "Miss Susie Had A Steamboat" and Miss Lucy Had A Baby" children's playground rhymes.
This post showcase a video of the Old Time Music song "Shout Lula" and presents information, lyrics, and comments about that song. This post also presents information about the meaning of the word "shout" in this context of these Old Time Music songs.
The Addendum to this post presents some information about the music genre that is known as "Old Time Music".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song and thanks to Reeltime Travelers for their rendition of this song. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
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A version of this pancocojams post was originally published in 2013. That post has since been deleted.
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LYRICS: SHOUT LULA
(as sung by the Reeltime Travelers)
Call [lead singer] Shout to sing
Response: Shout Shout
[sing this pattern 4x]
Call: I got a bottle of corn
Response: Shout Shout
[sing this pattern 4x]
I got a pain in my wrist
Shout Shout
[sing this pattern two times]
I got a pain in my head
Shout shout
[sing this pattern two times]
I got a pain in my back
Shout Shout
[sing this pattern two times]
I got slipper shoes
Shout Shout
[sing this pattern two times]
I’m gonna shake it baby
Shout Shout
[Sing this pattern two times]
Aunt Jane’s corn bread
Sweet sweet sweet
Take some leave some
Sweet sweet sweet
Take some leave some
Sweet sweet sweet
[Lead singer sings these entire words.
Responders sing “Take some leave some/sweet sweet sweet”
Instrumental -.054-2:04
Lead singer: Oh little Lula
Oh child
Oh little Lula
Oh child
Oh little Lula
Oh child
Shout little Lula
Shout little babe
Said I’m gonna buy you a little red dress
[Instrumental]
Lead: Oh little Lula
Oh child
Oh little Lula
Oh child
Lead: Shout little Lula
Shout Shout
Tell me what you shoutin ‘bout
[Instrumental]
Lead: Oh little Lula
Oh child
Oh little Lula
Oh child
Lead: Shout little Lula
Shout your best
I’m gonna buy you a red dress
[Instrumental]
Lead: Oh little Lula
Oh child
Oh little Lula
Oh child
Lead: Shout little Lula
Shout and sing
I’m gonna buy you a diamond ring.
[Instrumental]
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This transcription is by Azizi Powell from the video. Additions and corrections are welcome.
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From http://bluegrassmessengers.com/shout-lula--version-3-lomax.aspx
..."Shout Lula/ Hook and Line
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Virginia, Southeast
ARTIST: Source: Duncan Emrich 'American Folk Poetry: An Anthology' Little, Brown and Co p 64. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax from the singing, with banjo accompaniment, by Pete Steele at Hamilton, Ohio, 1938. Library of Congress record LP21.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1844
HOOK AND LINE SONGS: The title for the large family of songs that have originated from the “Old Dad” minstrel song in 1844 including "Shout Lula," "Shout Lou," "Shout Old Lulu," "Hook and Line," “The Shad,” "Banjo Sam," "Mr. Catfish," "Shout Lulu," "Jackfish" "Seven and A Half," "Just From Tennessee," "Shout Oh Lulu," “Fish on a Hook,” and “Buck Creek Gals.”
The “hook and line” songs can be split into two basic categories; the “hook and line” (Fish that catfish by its snout/ Turn that catfish wrong side out) songs that talk about fishing and the “Shout Lula” (Shout, Lulu, shout, Lulu, shout, shout/ What in the world you shoutin’ ‘bout?) songs. “Shout Lula” is a fast banjo version from the Appalachian region.
HOOK AND LINE: The title first appears as a recording by the Dykes Magic City Trio in 1927. George Roark recorded “Hook and Line” in 1928 in Bristol, TN on Vi uniss, while the Hatton Brothers did a version with square dance calls in Richmond Ind., 1933. Here’s an excerpt from the Dykes Magic City Trio version:
Gimme the hook and gimme the line Gimme that girl they call Caroline Shout, Lula, shout, shout What in the world are you shoutin' about. [...]When I interviewed G. B. Grayson's oldest daughter, Lilly Grayson Sturdivant, in 1972 near Rising Sun, MD (with Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton), she told about his compositions. She said he did not write "Shout Lulu" and that she thought it was "an old song." If it was old when Grayson recorded it in the late 1920s, it may be from minstrelsy. It certainly has the feel and rhythm of a minstrel song:SHOUT LULA: Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; east Tenn., southwestern Va., north Georgia, north Carolina, Ohio. G Major. GDAD. AABB. Art Rosenbaum (1989) says "this song is much more current in the tradition than its absence from printed collections would suggest." A banjo piece and dance tune, it was the repertoires of Dock Boggs and John Dykes (of the Dykes Magic City Trio) under the title "Hook and Line." One of the earliest recordings is Samantha Bumgarner’s as “Shout Lou” in 1924 on Co 146-D.
Rufus Crisp, Woody Wachtel, Roscoe Holcomb, Pete Steele, Ralph Stanley, and Fiddlin' Cowan Powers 1877-1952 (Russell County, southwest Va.) played it as well as Uncle John Patterson (Carroll County, Ga.), a sometimes Skillet Lickers hanger-on who learned to pick the tune on the banjo "on his mother's {champion banjoist Bessie Patterson} lap when he was three years old" (Rosenbaum). Here’s a short excerpt from “Shout Lula:”
Shout Lula shout, shout, what in the world you shoutin' bout, (Banjo fill) Shout Lula shout, shout Grandma's done run out. (Banjo fill)Since "Shout Lula" seems to related to blues and work "hollers" perhaps the "Lula" originally refers to Lula, Mississippi or the Lula women from that town. Here's an excerpt of the lyrics to "Dry Well Blues" by Charlie Patton:
Lord, the Lula womens, Lord, puttin' Lula young mens down Lula men, oh, puttin' Lula men down Lord, you outta been there, Lord, the womens all leavin' townBrown "222 Lulu" gives this information: A medley, as are so many of the traditional songs of the Southern mountains. Since our text was published in 1909 Henry has reported a briefer version from Avery county (JAFL xlv 167-8, FSSH 436-7). Perrow (JAFL xxvi 127) prints a song from Kentucky containing our first stanza with "Dad's old lip" for "my old ad" and suggests that our "ad" should be "dad" — the granddaddy of
all fish."Lulu.' Reported in JAFL xxii (1909) 248 by Louise Rand Bascom from the mountain country of North Carolina, without more definite location. Miss Bascom notes that the last two lines are "like the popular song which used to be sung everywhere,
Johnnie get your hair cut,
Johnnie get your hair cut,
Johnnie get your hair cut
Just like mine."
Louise Rand Bascom 1909 lyrics:
Love you fur a nickle,
Love you fur a dime.
Lulu get your Haircut,
Just like mine."....
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Here's a comment about the Grayson/Whittier recording of "Shout Lula" from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.music.country.old-time/ATTT1UtigL8 "rec.music.country.old-time › Ralph Stanley and Old-Time Music"
posted by Oldtime1 (Joe Wilson) 5/29/97
"Little Lula/Lulu/Lulie"
"Paul asked if there are two Lulu songs. Yes. The "Bang Away Lulu" lyric he quoted is not at all like "Shout Lulu.
"Takes a nickle, takes a dime, To see Little Luly, cut a shine." Has anyone checked minstrel texts?"
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/grayson-and-whitter-shout-lula-example.html for another example of "Shout Lula".
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WHAT "SHOUT" MAY MEAN IN THE SONG "SHOUT LULA"
Here's an explanation about the word "shout" from
Subject: RE: Lyr. Req: Hook and Line
From:kytrad*
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 05:15 PM
This may be relevant...Bessie Jones and I used to share stages together, from early sixties into seventies, and we used to do play-party games- she'd sing hers and I'd sing one from our family that matched it. She had many "shout" songs, and always explained that the word, "shout" in a game or song meant, "dance." Younger members of her family and community would sometimes be with her, and as she sang they'd sing with her, clap hands and dance or "shout."
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* "kytrad" is the screen name for White American folk music singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player Jean Ritchie (ngwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ritchie for more information about Jean Ritchie.
Bessie Jones (February 8, 1902 - July 17, 1984) was an African American singer who is best known for forming & performing as soloist for the Georgia Sea Isle Singers, a group whose repertoire consists of Black old time secular & religious songs. Along with Bess Lomax Hawes, Bessie Jones co-authored a collection of Georgia Sea Isle children's recreational songs & rhymes entitled Step It Down. Click http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bessie-jones-mn0000051492/biography for more information about Bessie Jones.
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ADDENDUM: INFORMATION ABOUT OLD TIME MUSIC
Excerpt #1: From http://www.folkways.si.edu/classic-old-time-music-from-folkways/american-folk/album/smithsonian: "Old-time music features playing styles that pre-date bluegrass, emerging from the string band tradition stretching back to the early years of United States history. Both African-American and Anglo-American ingredients are at its core, the banjo having African origins, the fiddle European."
**
Excerpt #2
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-time_music
"With its origins in traditional music of Europe and Africa, old-time music represents perhaps the oldest form of North American traditional music other than Native American music, and thus the term "old-time" is an appropriate one. As a label, however, it dates back only to 1923."
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ADDENDUM:
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT THE COMPOSER/S OF THIS SONG
Like other Old Time tunes & songs, "Shout Lula" was known in Black American & non-Black American communities.
This song almost certainly originated among African Americans, given the call & response pattern of some examples of "Shout Lula", its two line rhyming pattern, the inclusion of certain Black vernacular terms, and inclusion of floating verses that are found in other African American originating old time songs.
That said,there was a lot of cross pollination (folk processing) from Black and from White populations who both performed, sung, and danced to "Shout Lula" and other Old Time Music songs.
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