Twelvefret - Posted - 11/26/2008:  04:14:18

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Sam, Gary, and I were messing around with this tune Monday night and we could never get the B part so I have been scouring YouTube listening to everything I could get my ear on.

Here is a quintessental tune for us Scots-Irish decendants and a little idea of the cultrure that existed in the early 1800's

http://www.hangoutstorage.com/fiddl...26112008.mp3

Here are the lyrics as Johnny Cash sang the song.

Back about eighteen and twenty-five
I left Tennessee very much alive
I never would've made it through the Arkansas mud
If I hadn't been riding on the Tennessee Stud

Had some trouble with my sweetheart's Pa
One of her brothers was a bad outlaw
I wrote a letter to my Uncle Spud And
I rode away on the Tennessee Stud
On a Tennessee Stud
The Tennessee Stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
There never was a horse like Tennessee Stud

Drifted on down into no man's land
Across the river called the Rio Grande Raced my horse with the Spaniard's foe
Til I got me a skin full of silver and gold

Me and the gambler, we couldn't agree
We got in a fight over Tennessee Pulled our guns and he fell with a thud
And I rode away on a Tennessee Stud

The Tennessee Stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
There was never a horse like the Tennessee Stud

I rode right back across Arkansas
I whipped her brother and
I whipped her Pa
I found that girl with the golden hair
She was riding on a Tennessee Mare

Pretty little baby on the cabin floor
Little horse colt playing round the door
I loved the girl with the golden hair
And the Tennessee Stud loves the Tennessee Mare

The Tennessee Stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
There was never a horse like the Tennessee

chuck



"Good artists copy. Great artists steal."
Pablo Picasso

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best." - Henry Van Dyke


"Don''t blame me, I voted for Sarah". chuck naill

"A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the banjo... but refrains from doing so."
Mark Twain

You only have power over people so long as you don''t take everything away from them. But when you''ve robbed a man of everything, he''s no longer in your power - he''s free again.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918 -2008 )

stringfever - Posted - 11/26/2008:  05:26:33

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I can remember the first time I heard this song. Doc's version off WTCBU.

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I can''t, I''m going to Winfield

ChickenMan - Posted - 11/26/2008:  06:57:22

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I have a great version on a mix-disc that is has, I think, Tony Rice singing it and someone playing clawhmmer banjo and making great clopping sounds like a horse.

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"Fiddling makes you forget" - my wife

Tennessee Tom - Posted - 11/26/2008:  07:50:21

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YEE-HAW!

You guys sound great on this one. Nice tempo.

I first heard this tune when I was stationed at NAS Memphis in around '83. That "whooped her brother and whooped her pa" line really cracked me up. Not sure who sang it.

This was also covered by Johnny Cash on his first American Recordings release.

Cheers,
Tom

OTJunky - Posted - 11/26/2008:  08:20:39

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This song was was written by Jimmy Driftwood who grew up in Timbo, Arkansas - just west of Mountain View....

quote:

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From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Driftwood

Early life
Driftwood was born in Mountain View, Arkansas on 20 June 1907. Driftwood's father was folk singer Neil Morris. Driftwood learned to play guitar at a young age on his grandfather's homemade instrument. Driftwood used the unique guitar throughout his career and noted that its neck was made from a fence rail, its sides from an old ox yoke, and the head and bottom from the headboard of his grandmother's bed. This homemade instrument produced a pleasant distinctive resonant sound. Driftwood attended John Brown College in northwest Arkansas and later received a degree in education from Arkansas State Teacher's College. He started writing songs during his teaching career to teach his students history in an entertaining manner.


The 1920s and 1930s
During the 1920s and 1930s Driftwood left Arkansas and took to the road, eventually hitchhiking his way through the southwestern United States. In Arizona he entered, and won, a local song contest.

In 1936 Driftwood married Cleda Johnson, who was a former student and returned to Arkansas to raise a family and resume his teaching career. During this period of his life Driftwood wrote hundreds of songs but did not pursue a musical career seriously.

He wrote his later famous "Battle of New Orleans" song in 1936 to help get a high school class he was teaching interested in the subject.

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Jimmy had a long career in country music with quite a few Grammys to his name - before returning to Timbo in the 60's where he helped start the Arkansas Folklore Center in Mountain View. He passed away in 1998....

--OTJ
"I can barely fiddle on four strings. Why would I want five?"

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Edited by - OTJunky on 11/26/2008 08:23:30

rastewart - Posted - 11/26/2008:  09:22:01

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Nice rendition of a great song. And OTJ, thanks for the history.

~Rich

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... in savage and impenetrable darkness with chaos and pandemonium before me, and the demon madness of that night-baying viol behind me.--H.P. Lovecraft