Sam Chatmon- Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule" (lyrics and comments) Part IV

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest update- August 16, 2026

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 http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/whoa-mule-cant-get-saddle-on-lyrics_17.html for Part II of this series. Part II continues the presentation of information about the history and early examples of the songs "Whoa Mule" and the African American song "Peep Squirrel".

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 entertainment 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.

****
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
Don't you stop till I told you so  [?]
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.

The lyrics "Don't you stop till I told you so" that are given after the line "See that girl with the red dress on" are given in italics because I'm not sure if those are the words that Sam Chatmon sung. However, those words are sung in Chatmon's version of "Little Liza Jane" that is found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us0Uh57v0Tg .

Additions and corrections are welcome.

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This concludes Part IV of this pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Celina Lewis' 1939 & 1950 Rendition Of The 19th Century African American Song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" Part III-Sound File, Lyrics, Auto-Generated Transcript, And My Re-Wording Of That Transcript

American Folk Music (Southern): Whoa, Can't Git de Saddle On

Voices In Time, May 16, 2016

Title: Whoa, Can't Git de Saddle On, Other Title: Whoa, Mule, Can't Git de Saddle On, Contributor Names: Lomax, John A. (John Avery), 1867-1948 (Collector)Lomax, Ruby T. (Ruby Terrill) (Collector)Lewis, Celina (Performer), Created / Published: Livingston, Alabama, May 29, 1939, Genre: Music, Songs, Dance music, Notes: - Venue: On porch of home of Mr. & Mrs. W.P. Tartt- Performer referred to elsewhere as Aunt Celina Lewis

****
Edited by Azizi Powell 

Latest revision -August 16, 2026

This is Part III of a four part pancocojams series about the 19th century African American originated dance song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" and the 19th century originated game song "Peep Squirrel".

This post presents a link to a sound file of a Celina Lewis, a Black American woman, singing "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On") in 1939 (recorded by White folklorists John and Ruby Lomax..
.
This post also includes that song's lyrics and the "as is" auto-generated transcript of Celina Lewis' statements about "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On" that she made during a 1950 recording session with White American folklorist Harold Courlander.

In addition, this post presents my rewording of that transcript into standard American English so that what she was saying could be better understood..

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 http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/whoa-mule-cant-get-saddle-on-lyrics_17.html for Part II of this series. Part II continues the presentation of information about the history and early examples of the songs "Whoa Mule" and the African American song "Peep Squirrel".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/08/sam-chatmons-versions-of-whoa-mule-cant.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of Sam Chatmon singing "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule". That post also presents information about Sam Chatmon and two of his versions of that song.     

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to Celina Lewis, Bessie Jones, Sam Chatmon, and others whose renditions and comments about this song are documented offline and online. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

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LYRICS FOR "WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON)" AS SUNG BY CELINA LEWIS
[These lyrics and my Pancocojams editor's notes about them are also given in Part I of this pancocojams series.]

sound file and citation from https://www.loc.gov/item/lomaxbib000446/ [citation same as the YouTube sound file at the top of this pancocojams post.]

Title

• Whoa, Mule, Can't Git de Saddle On

Names

• Lomax, John A. (John Avery), 1867-1948 (Collector)
• Lomax, Ruby T. (Ruby Terrill) (Collector)
• Lewis, Celina (Performer)

Created / Published

• Livingston, Alabama, May 29, 1939

Genre

• Music
• Songs
• Dance music
  
  Notes

• -  Venue: On porch of home of Mr. & Mrs. W.P. Tartt
• -  Performer referred to elsewhere as Aunt Celina Lewis
• -  Performance Note: "Whoa, Can't Git de Saddle On" performed by Celina Lewis (vocals) at On porch of home of Mr. & Mrs. W.P. Tartt, Livingston, Alabama, on May 29, 1939."
  
  ****
  From a folkways page that was originally given in this pancocojams post is no longer available] August 14, 2026
  "Session with Celina Lewis, (a)Catch That Squirrel, (b)Sangaree, (c) Whoa Mule, Can't Get the Saddle On, from Harold Courlander's Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others Various Artists FW04474 1955
  
   From Harold Courlander's notes:
  
  “The singer was an old woman when these songs were recorded. She had a reputation of having been a fine and spirited singer when she was young."

[Text of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)- Celina Lewis; Alabama, 1950]

All you church folks looking right at me, and they calI on me

to praise ... get up there!

Whoa, mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)

Stop that mule, I can 't get the saddle on, (2)

Whoa mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)

Run mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)

Can't you catch that mule, can't get the saddle on,

Catch that mule, can't get the saddle on, (4)

Yon go that mule, can't get the saddle on

-snip-

Pancocojams Editor's Notes
I believe that the word "yon" that is given in these lyrics is a shortened form of the word "yonder" (meaning "seen from a distance"). In more standard American English, that line would be given as "Yonder goes that mule" (I can see the mule in the distance.)

The "Go that mule" version of that line is the one used by Bessie Jones in the 1972 Step It Down (authors Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes). "Go that mule" is also the line for that song that was given by "an elderly informant" in Harold Courlander's 1963 book Negro Folk Music U.S.A and most websites that I've come across use that wording in their lyrics for that song. However, I believe that "Go that mule" is an example of folk etymology and "Go that mule wasn't the earliest version of those lyrics. The "yon" word may have been dropped from that line because that wasn't the way that Bessie Jones and others learned it. Another possibility is that the word "yon" may have been dropped because that word's meaning was no longer understood. Yet, "go that mule" doesn't make any sense in Standard American English or in the versions of African American Vernacular English that were used when this song was published and afterwards. However, that hasn't stopped people from singing or, at least, from quoting that version of that line.

****
THE AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT OF THE SOUND FILE OF CELINA LEWIS' RENDITION OF "WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON" (given "as is" without time stamps)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx2Yg29W9zY 

"Worm  you can you just at home well you can you to set off get that you can get

a circle get that you can you to send all right em you can you to settle all right at you can use a long run you can

you can run you can you depends on run you can you depend on you can you do

then we're gonna dance to we dance we

skip we kind of walk left to jela just walk up and down the floating on water

oh you know in lockup and we like that love it locked up you're going as long as up and down Toby dance is right

on boiling dirty kill all of us all of them do it together all over camp you

yeah that's a style now dance you don't def not spider filthy dance you got to

hold up you know"

****
MY RE-WORDING OF THAT AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT INTO STANDARD ENGLISH

Additions and corrections are welcome. 

Well, I mean* you just be at home and get how many people together that you can get. And they form a circle. How large the circle is depends on how many people you can get.

With a large circle, you have to run (move some distance) and it depends on whether you can do that or not.

We’re gonna dance to this song. We skip. We kind of walk left to right like we’re floating on water. We’re standing close together (“locked up”) and we like dancing close together **. As long as it’s a up and down Toby dance ***  It’s boiling hot and it’s dirty and the work is killing us. But we do this dance together all over the camp.

Yeah, that’s the style now to dance close. You definitely don’t do any spider filthy dance moves,**** but you got to hold your own ."
-snip-

Here are my explanations for the meanings of certain words and phrases that Celina Lewis used in her 1950 remarks which are documented in that auto-generated transcript.

*My guess is that the word "worm" in that auto-generated transcript may have been how the transcriber heard the words "Well, I mean".

**In the context of Celina Lewis' comments, the phrase "being locked up" probably means [a couple] standing, or dancing very close together. Dancing itself and especially dancing close together was very much frown upon by members of Christian churches during the lae 19th century and in the 20th century. Some church people still retain those attitudes in the 21st century.. 

*** Celina Lewis' referent to "Toby dance" probably came from minstrelsy and the early 20th century American theater (tent shows) as a referent for uptempo jig dances. Here's some information about the old-time meaning of the phrase "Toby dance":

AI Overview (results July 25, 2026)
..."Theatrical and Minstrel Traditions
Toby Shows: Popular 20th-century tent-repertory variety shows across rural America centered around a homespun, comedic "Toby" character who featured in musical interludes, jigs, and walkarounds."...

**
https://festival.si.edu/past-program/1981/a-celebration-of-the-american-tent-show 1981 Festival of American Folklife [no author or publishing date given]

"A Celebration of the American Tent Show

Tent theater developed in America as a popular form in the late 1870s, during a period of profound social change brought about by the shift from a rural agricultural to an urban industrial economy. Burgeoning metropolitan areas had become the principal stages of expressive culture, and their theaters mirrored the ethos and concerns of the urban populace rather than those of their rural neighbors. Those in the small towns viewed the theater with mixed emotions: though the stage was admittedly a vehicle for respectable cultural expression, its urban form was seen as basically disreputable. A rural theater movement that reflected provincial tastes and borrowed heavily from regional folk culture eventually developed out of this tension.

Borrowing from circus and minstrel traditions, tent rep companies usually opened the show with a band concert and interspersed variety specialties, ranging from juggling to ventriloquism, between the three or four acts of the play. The dramas themselves were often built around the ideological conflict between country and city life, idealizing the common man in a way that appealed to rural audiences. Certainly the most enduring character to rise out of this dramatic genre was that of Toby, a redheaded, freckle-faced country boy whose humorous antics and recurrent, though at times unwitting, triumphs over the forces of evil made him a favorite. With a personality drawn directly from American folklore, Toby captured the hearts of rural theater-goers and became so popular that many tent rep companies regularly included a Toby bill in their weekly fare. (The 1969 Festival featured a Toby show from Iowa.)

Whereas these tent shows were largely made up of white performers, a distinct Afro American entertainment tradition also thrived under canvas. From the 1920s through the 1940s, large troupes of black musicians, dancers, and comedians traveled through the South in variety shows such as the Silas Green or Florida Blossom minstrels. Using a format that merged minstrelsy with vaudeville, these tent spectacles presented fast-paced revues of classic blues singers, jazz bands, tap and eccentric dancers, comedy teams and choruses of dancing girls. Blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith and comics such as Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham and Butterbeans and Susie spent much of their careers on the tent show circuit, performing material firmly rooted in black folk culture to enthusiastic Afro American audiences."...
-snip-
I added italics are added to highlight these sentences.  

**** The words "spider filthy dance" probably refers to "dirty" (sexually suggestive) dancing  

****
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Visitor comments are welcome

"Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" In Some Versions Of The Game Song "Peep Squirrel"

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest update- August 15, 2026

This is Part II of a four part pancocojams series about the 19th century African American originated dance song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" and the 19th century originated game song "Peep Squirrel".

Part II continues the presentation of information about the history and early examples of the dance song "Whoa Mule" and the African American singing game "Peep Squirrel". This post is is an updated version (with additions and corrections) of a 2013 pancocojams post that is no longer available. 

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.

 Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/08/sam-chatmons-versions-of-whoa-mule-cant.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of Sam Chatmon singing "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule". That post also presents information about Sam Chatmon and two of his versions of that song.        

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to Celina Lewis, Bessie Jones, Sam Chatmon, and others whose renditions and comments about this song are documented offline and online. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song.

****
EXAMPLES OF WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON)
(The numbers assigned to these examples continue from Part I of this series).

Example #3:
From Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes Step It Down, Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage University of Georgia Press, 1972; p. 214.

Peep Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum

Peep Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum

Hop Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum

(each line is repeated as above)

Run Squirrel

Come here, mule.

Whoa, mule
I can’t get the saddle on.

Hold that mule,
I can’t get the saddle on.

Go that mule
I can’t get the saddle on.

Go that mule
Ya di da di deedy dum, a
Ya di da di deedy dum, dum!
-snip-
Comment written by Bess Lomax Hawes:
“You can sing “Peep Squirrel” while the children dance, or while you’re bouncing a child on your knees; or at a slower pace, it makes a fine song for a tired baby and a warm lap and a rocking chair. Mrs. Jones said that the “Ya di da di deedy dum” is the sound of the squirrel’s feet scuffling in the leaves"...
-snip-
The Cd Put Your Hand on Your Hip and Let Your Backbone Slip includes a recording of Bessie Jones singing "Peep Squirrel".
http://www.last.fm/music/Bessie+Jones/_/Peep+Squirrel

The length of that song is given as 2:32.

A 30 second mp3 sample is provided on that website. That sample is a recording of Bessie Jones explaining why the mule is including in the "Peep Squirrel" song. My summary of her comments is that a man trying to get a mule to catch a squirrel, but he’s too little to put the saddle on the mule and the saddle was too heavy.

****
Example #4
From Harold Courlander Negro Folk Music U.S.A, Courier Dover Publications, 1963, p. 160 [Google Books]

Whoa Mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
“One song taken from an elderly informant was described as “as real grown up playparty”. Other than that it was “a kind of wild game that could get you thrown out of church”, no no information was given about the activity that accompanied the song.

Whoa mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Stop that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Whoa mule Can’t Get The Saddle On(2x)
Run mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Catch that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (4x)
You go that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
Go that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
-snip-
Speculation about the risque nature of the performance of "Whoa Mule: Saddle" is given in the Addendum below.

****
ADDENDUM

Example #2 (in Part I of this series) and Example #4 (above) allude to people labeling the way that "Whoa Mule:Saddle" was performed as being risque (sexually suggestive). Example #4 indicates that if the "wild" behavior that adults did while singing that song were known- it would get them thrown out of their church. It seems likely that that performance activity verged on sexualized horse play. Perhaps the men and women couples did piggyback rides when they sung "Ride the mule". Unless there is more documentation out there, we'll never know what was so risque about the movements that were done while singing that song that before singing her version (Example #2) Celina Hall had to basically tell church people to mind their own business.

I don't think that "Peep Squirel" or "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" are still being sung or played by children or by adults since at least around the mid 1960s. However, I'm intrigued by the possibility that the circle game song "Here We Go Ride That Pony" may be an updated version of one or both of these songs.

The earliest online example of the singing game "Ride That Pony" in the United States that I've come across s of August 9, 2026 is from 2006. Unfortunately, the YouTube video of this game song that was published in 2006 is no longer available. 

i have also come across several YouTube videos and one (word only) post about "Ride That Pony" performed as a children's singing game in Jamaica and in the Virgin islands. [A pancocojams post on these examples will be published ASAP and the link to that post will be added here.]

I'm not sayind that the performance activities of either of those 19th century songs are the same as the performance activity of "Ride That Pony". But all three of those songs include references to players doing specific movements such as running, chasing, trying to catch something or someone, trying to put a saddle on a pony (or on someone who represents a pony), and/or dancing in front of, back to back with someone, or besides someone else.
-snip-
The original Addendum for this 2013 post included information about and an example of the 21st century singing game "Ride That Pony". That portion of that Addendum will be added to a pancocojams post about sexualized And sexualizing children's singing games. The link to that post will be added here when it is published.

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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.    

"Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" (Part I: General Overview & Information About Lyrics For This Song In Versions Of Several Folk Songs

Whoa Mule! Can't Get The Saddle On

Mike Seeger - Topic

Sep 5, 2019

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group

Whoa Mule! Can't Get The Saddle On · Mike Seeger

Animal Folk Songs For Children

℗ 1992 Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update -August16, 2026

This is Part I of a four part pancocojams series about the 19th century African American originated dance song "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On)". 

Part I presents a general overview about this 19th century Southern Black American song.

In addition to presenting general information about ""Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On)", this post introduces two other 19th century songs of African American origin that sometimes include lyrics from :Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On"- "Chicken In The Bread Pan" (also known as "Chicken In Tne Bread Tray") and "Little Liza Jane".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/whoa-mule-cant-get-saddle-on-lyrics_17.html for Part II of this series. Part II continues the presentation of information about the history and early examples of the songs "Whoa Mule" and the African American song "Peep Squirrel".

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.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/08/sam-chatmons-versions-of-whoa-mule-cant.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of Sam Chatmon singing "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule". That post also presents information about Sam Chatmon and two of his versions of that song.   

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to Celina Lewis, Bessie Jones, Sam Chatmon, and others whose renditions and comments about this song are documented offline and online. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube..
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It's important to note that the song "Whoa Mule, Can't Get The Saddle On" isn't the same song as "Whoa Mule" (also given as 'Whoa Mule Whoa".)  "Whoa Mule" is largely performed in the 21st century as fiddle tune without any lyrics.

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INFORMATION ABOUT "WHOA MULE (Can't Get The Saddle On)" 
"Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" is an up-tempo late (?) 19th century dance song that online sources credit to African Americans from the United States south. 

"Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" is a song with a short varying line & a repeated refrain, a format which lends itself to it being sung using a call & response pattern. 

Floating verses from "Whoa Mule.Can't  Get The Saddle On" versions are found in some versions of "Chicken In The Bread Pan", "Lil Liza Jane" and "Peep Squirrel".

All of these songs originated in the 19th century among African Americans from the United States South.

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AN ONLINE SUMMARY ABOUT 'WHOA MULE" 
From "https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Whoa_Mule_(1)
"WHOA MULE (WHOA) [1]. AKA and see "Kicking Mule." American; Song and Breakdown (2/4 time). USA; Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia, southwestern Va., western North Carolina. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Whoa Mule" or "Whoa Mule Whoa" is a widespread song and tune played throughout the south, midwest and southwest in a variety of styles and genres, by both black and white musicians, as a song, instrumental and a combination. There is much varaition between versions, especially in tempo, and song lyrics are often imported from other songs or are "floaters" in the tradition.’…
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The song "Whoa Mule. Can't The Saddle On" (also given as "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule") is a variant form of the song "Whoa Mule".

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The song "Simon Slick" that is found in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise is also a variant form of the song "Whoa Mule".

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AN EXAMPLE OF 'WHOA MULE. CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON" LYRICS IN THE SONG "CHICKEN IN THE BREAD PAN". 

“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
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zswLahjLb7 "Sam Chatman "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gay Mule", published by Lomax Film Collection, 1978
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This is my transcription of those lyrics. I'm not sure about my transcription of the words that are given in italics.

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AN EXAMPLE OF 'WHOA MULE. CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON" IN A VERSION OF "LIL LIZA JANE" 
From Margaret McKee Beale and Fred Chisenhall's book Black & Blue: Life and Music on Black America's Main Street, p. 189, published October 1,1981 [Louisiana State University Press]

[In this excerpt an African American Bluesman talks about the way that enslaved Black people used songs during slavery to express feelings that the couldn't openly express, and to make coded comments about their treatment by White people & about their oppressive living conditions.]

“I’ll tell you why the blues come about. It’s an expression that a person have –he want to tell you something, and he can’t tell you in his words, he’ll sing it to you. See back in-well, I’ll just bring it right out plain where anybody can see it, in olden days, if a white man do a colored man wrong, he couldn’t tell him he was wrong. He’d go off on a mule or something, and sing back to that man, the blues, like, singing it to him. That’s the way a plenty of them songs come up.

Take my daddy. When he playing his fiddle in the slavery time, he wouldn’t want to play, but he had to play. So he’d go along and make things up and holler it out in the fields where the old boss man could hear him, just singing away. Now that’s what he meant – he’s tired of playing nearly every night and then working in the daytime.
[Asked for an example, he sang]

“Hey Liza, little Liza Jane.
Oh Liza, little Liza Jane,
Can’t get the saddle on the ole gray mule
Can’t get the saddle on the ole gray mule.
Whoa, whoa, mule, can’t get the saddle on the ole gray mule.

He’s saying that the white man done worked him so ‘til he can’t even put a saddle on the ole gray mule.* That’s what he’s talkin about.
Chicken in the bread pan
Pickin at the dough
When he gets through picking
He stratch for more.

That’s what they be singing to the white folks what wasn’t giving ‘em enough to eat. Yeah, in slavery time. All them things come out of slavery time. All that happened in them days."
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*I think that some words are implied in this sentence. For instance, the above sentence would read “the white man done worked him so hard ‘til he can’t [even] get the saddle on the ole gray mule."

"Get the saddle on" means "to put the saddle on" (the mule).

On another page of this book the man speaking indicates that his father carried his fiddle to the fields. I believe that the implication is that his father was required to play the fiddle during the night for the White master’s entertainment, and then also required to play the fiddle during the day to help pace the work of other field hands.
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From AI Overview (result retrieved on August 15, 2026)
"Early recordings of "Little Liza Jane" frequently incorporated floating verses from "Whoa Mule," demonstrating a shared 19th-century folk tradition. These interchangeable lyrics are well-documented in collections like Ira Ford’s and performances by artists such as Mike Seeger."
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Read these quotes from the section "Selected list of recordings (in chronological order):from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%27l_Liza_Jane :
"Note that some records (e.g. Silas Leachman's song "Whoa Dar Mule" and Henry "Ragtime" Thomas’s song "Run, Mollie, Run") are considered to be part of the "Liza Jane" family as they contain significant "Liza Jane" content....

Silas Leachman. "Whoa Dar Mule." Victor A-801, 1901."
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There are numerous versions of the song "Whoa Mule". The song "Whoa Dar Mule" that is cited in that particular Wikipedia page is one of those versions.

The multiple examples of the song "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" are also part of the large "Whoa Mule" song family.

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NOTE ABOUT 'WHOA MULE. CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON" IN SOME VERSIONS OF "PEEP SQUIRELL" SONGS

"Peep Squirrel" is largely described by researchers as a "play-party motion song; a game for chasing".
It seems likely that "Whoa Mule:Saddle" was also sometimes performed as a motion/chasing song. However, there are allusions to the performance of "Whoa Mule:Saddle" being risque.

One hint of that is found in prefacing comments that the singer Celina Lewis made in 1950 before she sang a version of "Whoa Mule:Saddle" that is included in folklorist Harold Courlander's Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others Various Artists FW04474. Another hint of the risque nature of "Whoa Mule:Saddle"'s performance is found in another online quote which is found in Part II of this post.

Also, Georgia Sea Isles folk singer Bessie Jones recorded a version of "Peep Squirrel" that includes lines from "Whoa Mule: Saddle".

Read more about the song "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" and "Peep Squirrel" in in Part II of this pancocojams series.

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TWO TEXT (WORD ONLY) EXAMPLES OF "WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON)"

Example #1: 1:15 minute sound file

"Whoa Mule! Can't Get the Saddle On"

From the album Animal Folk Songs for Children by Mike, Peggy, Barbara & Penny Seeger

© 1992 Rounder

http://www.amazon.com/Whoa-Mule-Cant-Get-Saddle/dp/B0010XJ700

"Whoa mule

Can't get the saddle on [repeat both lines 2x]

 

[using that same pattern]

 

Catch that mule

 

Ride that mule

 

Run mule

Can't get the saddle on [repeat both lines 4x]"

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My description: This is an uptempo, call & response song.

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Example #2
[Note that the YouTube sound file for this rendition of "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" is showcased in Part III of this 2026 pancocojams series.]

From http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=11578

FW04474_201

Session with Celina Lewis, (a)Catch That Squirrel, (b)Sangaree, (c) Whoa Mule, Can't Get the Saddle On, from Harold Courlander's Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others Various Artists FW04474 1955

 From Harold Courlander's notes:

“The singer was an old woman when these songs were recorded. She had a reputation of having been a fine and spirited singer when she was young."

[Text of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)- Celina Lewis; Alabama, 1950]

All you church folks looking right at me, and they calI on me

to praise ... get up there!

Whoa, mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)

Stop that mule, I can 't get the saddle on, (2)

Whoa mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)

Run mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)

Can't you catch that mule, can't get the saddle on,

Catch that mule, can't get the saddle on, (4)

Yon go that mule, can't get the saddle on

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Pancocojams Editor's Notes
I believe that the word "yon" that is given in these lyrics is a shortened form of the word "yonder" (meaning "seen from a distance"). In more standard American English, that line would be given as "Yonder goes that mule" (I can see the mule in the distance.)

The "Go that mule" version of that line is the one used by Bessie Jones in the 1972 Step It Down (authors Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes). "Go that mule" is also the line for that song that was given by "an elderly informant" in Harold Courlander's 1963 book Negro Folk Music U.S.A and most websites that I've come across use that wording in their lyrics for that song. However, I believe that "Go that mule" is an example of folk etymology and "Go that mule wasn't the earliest version of those lyrics. The "yon" word may have been dropped from that line because that wasn't the way that Bessie Jones and others learned it. Another possibility is that the word "yon" may have been dropped because that word's meaning was no longer understood. Yet, "go that mule" doesn't make any sense in Standard American English or in the versions of African American Vernacular English that were used when this song was published and afterwards. However, that hasn't stopped people from singing or, at least, from quoting that version of that line.

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REPRINTED VISITOR COMMENTS AND MY REPLY (from pancocojams' now deleted Part II "Whoa Mule, Can't Get The Saddle On" that was published in 2013:

Dan FosterJanuary 7, 2022 at 9:03 PM

A fascinating version of this tune was played by the African American fiddler Teodar Jackson (1903-1966) from Austin Texas:

https://fieldrecorder.bandcamp.com/track/whoa-mule-4


African American fiddler Elijah Cox (1842-1941) was recorded playing the tune in 1935 in San Angelo, Texas.

White fiddler Bill Chitwood was recorded playing the tune in the 1920s with the Georgia Yellow Hammers, a white string band from North Georgia that had a close association with African American fiddler Andrew Baxter.

The tune also shows up in the Texas Style fiddle tradition with great renditions by Major Franklin, Terry Morris, Matt Wyatt, Garland Gainer, Wes Westmorland, Gary Lee Moore and others.

Reply

Azizi PowellJuly 24, 2026 at 4:52 PM

Thanks Dan Foster for sharing that great example of "Whoa Mule Can't Get The Saddle On"

My sincerest apologies to you for the long time it has taken me to respond to your comment.. I've just revisited this pancocojams post almost five years after your comments and am just reading it on July 24, 2026.

Here's the link to that online sound file of African American fiddler Teodar Jackson (1903-1966) from Austin Texas:
https://fieldrecorder.bandcamp.com/track/whoa-mule-4

Best wishes!

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This concludes Part i of this pancocojams series.

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