Going Down the River
Notation:
Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
PDF Files:
--- choose file type ---
Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
Tune Sheet
American
Play
MIDI
No audio
available
Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
View
notes
Lyrics:
I had a wife and she was a Quaker.
She wouldn't work and the devil couldn't make her.
I had a wife and she was a weaver.
She wouldn't weave and I wouldn't either.
Oh my little girl if you don't do me better.
I'll build me a boat and I'll sail down the river.
"Going down the River", also known as "Going up the River", "Boating Up Sandy",<br> "Sandy River" (Western N.C. title), "Little Dog Trottin' Down The River",<br> "Little Dutch Girl" (Ozarks title), "Sailing Down the River" and "Davy Davy" is an<br> old-time breakdown in F Major (Dr. Smith's) or A Major (Fraley). It is played in <br> standard or AEae fiddle tuning (J.P. Fraley). The parts are played AABB.<br> The tune can be accompanied by playing a major chord throughout.<br> The lyrics are pretty much an after-thought like those used with<br> "Fly Around / Western Country"<br> and are mainly for fun and to keep the band alert while playing for long dances.<br> The melody is rhythmically similar to<br> "Sally Goodin".<br> "Going Down the River" was recorded for Victor Records in Memphis, Tenn., in<br> September 1928 by the Arkansas group Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers, although<br> it was not released by Victor until 1929. It featured the twin fiddling of Brian Lackey<br> and Clark Duncan on the cut. However, a very similar version had been recorded a year<br> earlier by The Hill Billies (Tony Alderman & Charlie Bowman, fiddles) as<br> "Boating Up Sandy". It is a very different tune from the one in<br> this collection.<br> In some parts of North Carolina and Tennessee the tune is called "Sandy River".<br> The source for this version is the recording of Dr. Smith's Hoss Hair Puller's<br> transposed to A.<br> It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983),<br> Johnson's Kitchen Musician No. 2: Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes (1982, revised 1988, 2003),<br> Kaufman's Beginning Old Time Fiddle (1977),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994).<br> It was recorded by<br> Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers (78 rpm)(1929),<br> Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers on Echoes of the Ozarks, vol. 2 (1970),<br> Western N.C. fiddlers Osey and Ernest Helton (as "Sandy River"),<br> New Lost City Ramblers,<br> J.P. and Annadeene Fraley on Wild Rose of the Mountain.<br>
Click
here
for a full page view.