At the Old Time Fiddlers Gathering at Battleground IN in the mid-1970's, a very lively "old-time" string band with twin fiddles from Dayton? Ohio called the "Corn Drinkers" did a song called "A Change in Business." Fans and musicians alike are aquainted with the feeling of instant fascination with a song. I, foolishly perhaps, fell under the spell of their quaint rendition of "A Change in Business:"


I think it's nothing but right, to mention here tonight
To all you good folks in this here town;
If a man would stay at home, leave the single girls alone,
There'd be a change in business all around.

Chorus.
It's all around, (It's all around); It's all around, (It's all around);
Up in the air and on the ground (on the ground)
If every man's mother in law had a padlock on her jaw,
There'd be a change in business all around.

They come home drunk at night, cause a ruckus and start a fight;
And call you every thing except a clown;
If a man would stay at home, leave the single girls alone,
There'd be a change in business all around

Chorus.

The lyrics were quoted by memory and through the filter of a festival sound system so may have succumbed to the folk process! But, every time I dust off and play the old festival tapes, the song still "jumps out at me." Another one of their songs: "Sweet Sunny South" using the twin fiddles effectively, does the same.

In the folk process, I have tried to use the tune and rhyme scheme to add more lyrics, but I am still looking for words that rhyme twice in the first and third lines.

Jane Keefer catalogs a song, "A Change All Around" or "Changin' Business, (All Around)" in her database at: http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/folkindex/index.html

A Change All Around - Mainer, Wade/Morris, Claud
1. Hutton, Bruce. Old-Time Music - It's All Around, Folkways FA 2402, LP (1978), cut# 14
2. Mainer's Mountaineers (J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers). J. E. Mainer's Crazy Mountaineer's, Vol. 1, Old-Timey LP 106, LP (197?), cut# 12

Changin' Business (All Around)
1. Thomas, Lois "Granny". In An Arizona Town, AFF AFF 33-3, LP (196?), cut# 18

The Folkways FA 2402 LP and Arhoolie Old Timey LP 106 listed below must be both out of print, and not released on CD as it didn't come up in a search of the Folkways or Arhoolie Websites.

Though I saw J. E. Mainer here in Chicago, I can't remember if he did "A Change All Around."
Does anyone have knowledge of, experience with, or opinion about the "Corn Drinkers" or about this song?

Tom Jones