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"Little Rabbit", also known as "Rabbit Where's Your Mammy?", "Pretty Little Gal",
"Pretty Little Miss", "Brown's Dream", "Herve Brown's Dream",
"John Brown's Dream"
"John Brown's Dream"
or "Walk Along John to Kansas" is an American reel in 2/4 or cut time in D Major
(Johnson, Kuntz) or A Major (Brody, Kaufman, Phillips, Welling). Fiddlers play it
in standard or ADae, AEae, or C#Aea tunings. The parts are played AB (Silberberg),
AABB'CC' (Kaufman), AABBCCDD (Kuntz, Welling), AABBCCDDEE (Brody, Johnson) or
AABBCCDDEE' (Phillips). The melody is related to
"Boatman's Dance".
Most modern versions are based on the Crockett Mountaineers' recording of "Little Rabbit," which is actually a combination of "Little Rabbit" (similar to versions of the "John Brown's Dream" tune family) {'A', 'B' and 'C' parts} and "Rabbit Where's Your Mammy?" {'D' and 'E' parts}. This combination is oft-repeated in modern times, so much so that the 5-part piece is sometimes thought of as only one tune ("Little Rabbit"). The banjo tab is from Josh Turknett's clawhammerbanjo.net website. It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), Johnson's The Kitchen Musician No. 2: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc. (1982, 1988, 2003), Kaufman's Beginning Old Time Fiddle (1977), Kuntz's Ragged but Right (1987), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994), Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002), Thede's The Fiddle Book (1967)(appears as "Rabbit Where's Your Mammy?") and Welling's Welling's Hartford Tune Book (1976). It was recorded by Tom Paley on Folk Banjo Styles, Roger Sprung and Hal Wylie on Bluegrass Blast, Walt Michael and Tom McCreesh on Dance Like a Wave of the Sea (1978), Richard Greene on Duets, Mike Seegar on True Vine (2003), Jim Herd on Old Time Ozark Fiddling, Crockett Mountaineers on The Cornshucker's Frolic: Downhome Music, Mountain Fiddle Music, The Wonderful World of Old Time Fiddlers, Pickin' Around the Cookstove (appears as "Rabbit Where's Your Mammy") and Entertainment from the American Countryside. |