"Mole in the Ground", also known as "Kempie", "Tempie" or "Kempie/Tempie Let Your Hair Hang Down"
is an old-time lyric song. The title of this song appears
in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist
Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
It was also collected by North Carolina lawyer and musician Bascomb Lamar Lunsford.
Lunsford said of this song:
"The title of this mountain banjo song is 'I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground'. I've known it since 1901 when I heard Fred Moody, then a high school boy, sing it down in Burke County."Lunsford considered himself an archivist. He traveled the western mountains of North Carolina and learned this song from the "locals" as it was his goal to archive songs that he heard growing up for historical reference. It was also recorded by Doc Watson, Tommie Jarrell, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger and Bob Carlin. I learned it from the Lunsford recording in the Anthology of American Folk Music. |