"Grasshopper Sittin' on a Sweet Potato Vine" is an Old-Time breakdown in D Major.
The parts are played AB (Silberberg) or AABB (most versions).
Galax, Grayson County, Virginia, area fiddler Luther Davis (1887-1986) is usually
credited as the source for most versions of this tune. African-American collector
Thomas Talley printed a song by this title in his 1922 work Negro Folk Rhymes
(reprinted in 1991, edited by Charles Wolfe). His lyric (which seems to scan with
this tune) goes:
Grasshopper a settin' on a sweet tater vine,There are some similarities to the Irish melody "An Comhra Donn" ("The Brown Chest"). There are also melodic similarities in parts to some versions of the song "John Brown's Body / Battle Hymn of the Republic". The banjo tablature is by John Letscher. It was printed in Johnson's The Kitchen Musician No. 2: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc. (1982, 1988 & 2003), Levenson's Old Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo (2006), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994), Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002) and Songer's Portland Collection (1997). It was recorded by Grand Picnic on Grand Picnic (2003) and Liz Slade on Old Time Friends (1987). |