Arkansas Traveler Skit

Subject: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From:
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 01:09 PM

Does anybody have a version of the Arkansas Traveler skit or know where I can find one (or two)?

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: gargoyle
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 03:37 PM

It is in the forum. Previously, it came up under a discussion for a Cub Scout Den skit. Try "Forum Search" not the DT.

Multiple versions are contained on the Library of Congress site.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: gargoyle
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 03:48 PM

This link should take you to a Real Audio recording of the skit from the Library of Congress collection:

Arkansas Traveler Skit

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Ted from Australia
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 05:47 PM

R Taylor,
Type [I had a little chicken] including the square bracket into the blue Search the DT database squarwe at the top of this page.

Regards, Ted

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arkansas Traveler
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:26 PM

Thread #2998   Message #2449701
Posted By: GUEST
25-Sep-08 - 09:47 AM
Thread Name: Naughty kids' greatest hits II
Subject: RE: Naughty kids' greatest hits II

do you know a story that starts with

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THIS ROAD GOES TO
I DONT KNOW AS IT GOES ANY WHERE ITS ALWAYS HERE WHEN I COME BACK

THE SAYING CARRYS ON ABOUT A LAD ASKING ABOUT A JOB
AND THE MAN ASKS CAN HE MILK AND HE REPLYS I ONCE MILKED A COCANUT

THIS IS ALL I KNOW

---

Anybody know the usual jokes that are told, with "Arkansas Traveler" played between choruses?

One I remember is:
Q: "Pardon me, but Do you know where this road goes?" A: "Doesn't go anywhere. Stays right there."

---

Here are the jokes from the Michelle Shocked Arkansas Traveler CD:

• Hey farmer! You been livin' here all your life?
  Not yet.
  
  
• Hey farmer! Where does this road go?
  Been livin' here all my life, it ain't gone nowhere yet.
  
  
• Hey farmer! How do you get to Little Rock?
  Listen stranger, you can't get there from here.
  
  
• Hey farmer! Thought you said that mud-hole weren't very deep?
  Only comes up to here on my ducks.
  
  
• Hey farmer! When you gonna fix that leakin' roof?
  Ah, stranger, when it's a rainin' it's too wet to fix it and when it's dry it's just as good as any man's house.
  
  
• Hey farmer! You're not too far from a fool, are you?
  Just a barbed-wire fence between us.
  
  
• Hey farmer! You don't know very much, do you?
  No, but I ain't lost.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 02:33 AM

Great recording by David Grisman and Jerry Garcia on the CD ' Not For Kids Only '

eric

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Little Robyn
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 03:30 AM

From the Folkways recording of the Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry concert at Carnegie Hall.

There's an old settler, sitting on his little cabin porch, and the rain is leaking through the roof, and he's fiddling away to beat the band. Down the road, clip-clop, comes a city slicker on his horse and he reins up at the door, and he says:

I say, my good man, can you tell me where this road goes to?
It ain't moved since I've been here!
(Play tune)

What I mean, farmer, I want to know how get to Little Rock?
I don't know about no little rock but there's a whopper down in the spring road.
(tune)

Farmer, how did your taters turn out this year?
They didn't turn out at all, me and Sal had to dig 'em out!
(tune)

I mean, your corn's looking mighty yellow and bad, farmer.
Yep, I planted the yellow kind.
(tune)

Farmer, why don't you mend your roof? It's leakin' mighty bad.
You durn fool, it's raining too hard.
(tune)

Well, why don't you mend it sometime it's not raining?
You're a bigger fool than I thought - it wouldn't be leakin' then!
(tune)

Farmer, there's not much distance between you and a fool, is there?
Nope, just my yard and a fence between us.
(tune)

Farmer, you don't know much, do you?
Nope. But I ain't lost!

"Dramatically speaking, the skit should have ended there, but it kept going for about ten hours. It usually ended up with the city man saying......

For heaven's sakes, why don't you play the second half of that tune? and the farmer says,
I wish I knew it but I can't remember how it goes.
The city man says,
Well, hand me the fiddle, I'll play it for you!
All of a sudden the farmer becomes all hospitality, he says,
Can you play the fiddle? Come right in stranger, set down! Sal set the table!
He hands the fiddle over and the party begins........"
(play both parts of the tune)

The concert/record is undated but it's number FA 2412 and I bought it in 1963 or 64.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: kendall
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 08:17 AM

Marshall Dodge did this on his video "Downeast Smile in."

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:56 AM

This could be the first recorded version. It surely has to be one of the earliest at any rate.

Don Richardson, 1916. http://www.archive.org/details/Don_Richardson-Arkansas_Traveler

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:59 AM

Oops, sorry. That's not the version I meant to post. This one is an instrumental only. I'll be back if I find the other.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 11:17 AM

I have it on recording, but it's at home, not on the laptop I am using at the moment. I'm fairly certain that it is a Len Spencer recording from about 1908.

Here's the Return of the Arkansas Traveler by Len Spencer and Billy Murray from 1910, but there's not much of interest there. Worth a listen, though. http://www.archive.org/details/LenSpencerwithBillyMurray

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 11:34 AM

Well, there are a bunch more old versions, but this is enough for now. Len Spencer, 1902, from Cylinder. http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder6642

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 11:38 AM

Shoot, I seem to be carrying on a rather disjointed monologue. In the interest of accuracy, UCSB claims a date of 1910 for that particular version rather than 1902. I am done . . . for now.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 11:59 AM

Boy, that brings back fond memories of my Dad reciting those jokes when I was a kid. He must have known it all by heart.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Arkie
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 01:45 PM

While not a reference to Arkansas Traveler, the jokes are just as corney and there is a lot more of them find a copy of the book "Slow Train Through Arkansas". One sample: Passenger is complaining about the slow speed of the train. Conductor says, "Why don't you get off and walk". Passenger says: "I would but no one is expecting me until the train gets in the station."

Back to the Arkansas Traveler, the Arkansas Traveler Theater in Hardy, Arkansas has be reopened and presents the skit and more in a two hour show. If there are any diehards out there who find themselves in north Arkansas, I am sure you would be welcome.

Here is a link to what the Encyclopedia of Arkansas has to say about the Arkansas Traveler:

Arkansas Traveler

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: fretless
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 03:10 PM

Wonderful thread, puts me in mind of that other fine piece of Arkansas lore, supposedly from the state legislature during the 1800s in response to a suggested name change for the state:

Gentlemen, you may tear down the honored pictures from the halls of the United States Senate, desecrate the grave of George Washington, haul down the Stars and Stripes, curse the Goddess of Liberty, and knock down the tomb of U.S. Grant, but your crime would in no wise compare in enormity with what you propose to do when you would change the name of Arkansas! Change the name of Arkansas? Hell-fire, NO! Compare the lily of the valley to the gorgeous sunrise; the discordant croak of the bullfrog to the melodious tones of a nightingale; the classic strains of Mozart to the bray of a Mexican mule; the puny arm of a Peruvian prince to the muscles of a Roman gladiator - but never will you change the name of Arkansas! Hell, NO!

Hear me, gentlemen - The man who would CHANGE THE NAME OF ARKANSAS is the original iron-jawed, brass-mounted, copper-bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of the Ozarks! Sired by a hurricane, dammed by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the small-pox on his mother's side, he is the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation! He takes nineteen alligators and a barrel of whiskey for breakfast, when he is in robust health; and a bushel of rattlesnakes and a dead body when he is ailing. He splits the everlasting rocks with his glance, and quenches the thunder when he speaks!

Change the name of Arkansas? Hell, NO! Stand back and give him room according to his strength. Blood's his natural drink! And the wails of the dying music to his ears! Cast your eyes on the gentleman, and lay low and hold your breath, for he's 'bout to turn himself loose! He's the bloodiest son of a wild-cat that lives, who would change the name of Arkansas! Hold him down to earth, for he is a child of sin! Don't attempt to look at him with your naked eye, gentlemen; use smoked glass. The man who would change the name of Arkansas, by gosh, would use the meridians of longitude and the parallels of latitude for a seine, and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales! He would scratch himself awake with the lightning, and purr himself to sleep with the thunder! When he's cold, he would "bile" the Gulf of Mexico and bathe in it! When he's hot, he would fan himself with an equinoctial storm! When he's thirsty, he would reach up and suck a cloud dry like a sponge! When he's hungry, famine follows in his wake! You may put your hand on the sun's face, and make it night on earth; bite a piece out of the moon, and hurry the seasons; shake yourself and rumble the mountains; but, sir, you will never change the name of Arkansas! Hell, NO!

The man who would change the name of Arkansas, would massacre isolated communities as a pastime. He would destroy nationalities as a serious business! He would use the boundless vastness of the Great American Desert for his private grave-yard! He would attempt to extract sunshine from cucumbers! Hide the stars in a nail-keg, put the sky to soak in a gourd, hang the Arkansas River from a clothesline; unbuckle the belly-band of Time, and turn the sun and moon out to pasture; but you will never change the name of Arkansas! The world will again pause and wonder at the audacity of the lop-eared, lantern-jawed, half-breed, half-born, whiskey-soaked hyena who has proposed to change the name of Arkansas!

He's just starting to climb the political banister, and wants to knock the hay-seed out of his hair, pull the splinters out of his feet, and push on and up to the governorship. But change the name of Arkansas? HELL, NO!

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 03:18 PM

Hi, Arkie-
Most of the slow train jokes I know, are in conjunction with the song, The Dummy Line.
-Joe-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER (Len Spencer)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 11:29 AM

Here's my transcription from The UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive:


THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER [sic]
As recorded by Len Spencer [and George Schweinfest], Columbia Phonograph Co. 11098, between 1904 and 1909.

[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Why, how do you do, boss? What might your name be?
—Say, what made you think I was boss here?
—Well, I just guessed it.
—Well, guess what my name is! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—How far is it to the next crossroads?
—Well, just follow your nose and you'll come to it! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Uh, just one moment, now. Where does this road go to?
—Why it don't go anywhere. Stays just where 'tis! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Why see here. I'm a lawyer, and a pretty smart one, too. Do I look it?
—Well, yes. Now I had a lawsuit about this here house about a year ago.
—Well, did you have a smart lawyer?
—Yes, you just bet I did. He owns the house now! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—See here, there's a leak in the roof of your house. Why don't you get it fixed?
—'Cause it's been a-raining lately.
—Yes, why don't you get it fixed when it's not raining?
—'Cause when it don't rain, it don't leak! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Well for pity's sake, play the rest of that tune.
—Well, I just reckon there's no man living smart enough to do that.
—Oh, yes there is. I can, if you'll let me.—Oh, thank you.
[Plays remainder of tune.]
—By …, why you're the smartest man a-living. Come right in! Come right in! ... Aw-haw-haw-haw!

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER (Len Spencer, 1909)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 01:02 PM

Here's my transcription from The UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive:


THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
As recorded by Len Spencer, Edison Amberol 181, 1909.

[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Why, how do you do, boss? What might your name be?
—Well, it might be Abe Lincoln but it ain't. What made you think I was boss here?
—Why, I just guessed it.
—Well, just guess what my name is! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Uh, did you see a fellow go by here this morning with one eye, named James?
—No. What was the name of his other eye, hm? Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Well, uh, how long have you lived here?
—You see that hill over there?
—Yes.
—Well, that was here when I come! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Why, you don't mean to tell me you've lived here your whole life?
—Not yet! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Are you, uh, married?
—No; no bad habits.
—No bad habits? Well, what do you chew that tobacco for?
—For nothing; nobody's fool enough to pay me for it! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Well, uh, how far is it to the next crossroads?
—Just follow your nose and you'll come to it! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Yes, but where does this road go to?
—It don't go nowhere. Stays right where 'tis! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Say, uh, down the road I saw a horse with a broken leg. Now, why don't you kill it? People generally kill a horse with a broken leg.
—Well, I swan! Around here, we generally kill a horse with a shotgun! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Say, you're a pretty smart fellow, ain't ya?
—Ain't half as smart as my brother Bill.
—Why, who is your brother Bill?
—Why, my mother's son, o' course! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Say, come now, tell me: what is your name?
—George Washington.
—You don't mean to tell me you're the George Washington that chopped down the cherry tree?
—Oh, no. I ain't done a lick o' work for a year and a half! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Say, uh, that's a very fine apple orchard you have. When's the best time to pick apples?
—When they ain't no dogs about! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
Say, uh, what are you doing hereabouts, stranger?
—Oh, I'm just after a little local color.
—Local color! Well, I reckon you're a-gittin' it. That fence you were sittin' on was just painted this morning! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Say, uh, now, I'm a lawyer, and a pretty smart one. Do I look it?
—Well, yes. Now, I had to go to law not long ago, about this house here.
—Did you have a smart lawyer?
—You just bet I did. He owns the house now! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Uh, I notice a hole in the roof of your house. Why don't you have it fixed?
—'Cause it's been a-raining lately.
—Yes, but why don't you get it fixed when it's not raining?
—'Cause when it don't rain, it don't leak! Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays beginning of tune, until interrupted.]
—Say, for pity's sake, why don't you play the rest of that tune?
—I just reckon there ain't no man living smart enough to do that.
—Oh, yes there is. Now, I think I can if you'll let me.—Ah, thank you. Now—
[Plays remainder of tune.]
—Well, by chowder, stranger, why, you're the smartest man a-living, you be! Well, you can have anything in my place. Come right in, … come right in! Aw-haw-haw-haw!

Subject: Lyr Add: RETURN OF THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER (1910)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 02:37 PM

Here's my transcription from The UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive:


RETURN OF THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
As recorded by Ada Jones and Len Spencer, Indestructible Record: 3108, 1910.

[Plays middle part of tune.]
MANDY: Hiram?
HIRAM: Yes.
MANDY: Hiram!
HIRAM: Yes!
MANDY: Ain't you started for that sugar and 'lasses yet?
HIRAM: No. Ain't got but one egg.
MANDY: Then get one egg's worth o' sugar, and tell the store man the black hen's settin', and to trust you for the 'lasses till she cackles.
HIRAM: All right. Why, how-d'ye-do, stranger?
STRANGER: Stranger? Why don't you remember me? Look again.
HIRAM: No, don't recollect ye, but your umbarelly looks mighty familiar.
STRANGER: Why I've had this umbarella the Lord knows how long.
HIRAM: Well, I reckon it's just about that long I ain't had mine. Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays middle part of tune.]
STRANGER: Say, you gonna play that old fiddle forever?
HIRAM: Not quite. I don't think I'll live that long. Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays middle part of tune.]
STRANGER: Say, uh, what's become of that horse you used to drive?
HIRAM: Well, he got so thin that when the circus came to town, I painted him and sold him for a jayraffe.
MANDY: Ha! How's that for...?
HIRAM: Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays middle part of tune.]
STRANGER: You don't want to buy a good horse, do you?
HIRAM: Well, how good?
STRANGER: Goes ten miles without stopping.
HIRAM: Guess not. It's only seven miles to town. I'd have to walk back three every time I went there. Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays middle part of tune.]
STRANGER: Well, how do you manage to live here the way you do?
MANDY: He don't manage at all. I do the managin'.
HIRAM: That's what she does.
[Plays middle part of tune slowly.]
STRANGER: What do you do for exercise?
HIRAM: See that big oak as you come around the bend?
STRANGER: Saw a tree lying across the road. What of it?
HIRAM: Chopped it down this mornin'.
STRANGER: I see, but what'll you do for exercise tomorrow?
HIRAM: Chop it up.
MANDY: Well, see that you do.
[Plays middle part of tune slowly.]
STRANGER: I notice that you have a bad cold. Are you doing anything for it?
HIRAM: Coughin'. [Coughs.]
STRANGER: Why don't you take something for it?
HIRAM: 'Cause nobody's fool enough to give me anything for it.
MANDY: Ha! That's a good get off! Here, chick-chick-chick-chick! Come, chick-chick-chick-chick!
STRANGER: Is there any way of telling a hen's age?
HIRAM: Yes.
STRANGER: Why, how?
HIRAM: By the teeth.
STRANGER: But a hen has no teeth.
HIRAM: Well, I have. Aw-haw-haw-haw!
[Plays middle part of tune.]
STRANGER: I see you fixed that leak in your roof.
HIRAM: No, sir, that's Joe Miller's roof you're a-lookin' at.
STRANGER: Why, how's that?
HIRAM: Cyclone blowed down here some time ago and swapped roofs. I got Joe's and he got mine.
MANDY: Our'n, you mean.
HIRAM: That's right.
STRANGER: Well, that was good.
HIRAM: No, that was bad, 'cause our roof had a fifty-dollar harness hangin' to the rafters.
STRANGER: Well, that was bad.
HIRAM: No, that was good, 'cause our horse died the day before.
STRANGER: Well, that was good.
HIRAM: No, it was bad, 'cause the horse and harness belonged to my father-in-law, and he cut me out o' his will.
STRANGER: Well, that was bad.
HIRAM: No, that was good, 'cause he made his will in favor of his only daughter and she's my wife.
MANDY: That's who I be.
STRANGER: Well, surely that's good.
HIRAM: No, it's bad, 'cause all he left was his darned ol' … he owned—
HIRAM AND MANDY TOGETHER: And we had to bury him!
[Plays middle part of tune.]
STRANGER: Say, for goodness sake, why don't you play the first part of that piece?
HIRAM: Well, I will.
[Plays a few notes.]
Now, now, now, wait a minute.
[Plays a few notes.]
Nope, that's the second part.
[Plays a few notes.]
Say, stranger, I ain't played that for years, and I clean plumb forgot it.
STRANGER: Well, now you let me have the fiddle a minute. I think I can play it for you.
[Plays entire 'A' part of tune.]
HIRAM: Well, by hooky, I remember you now, stranger. You are the fella that showed me the second part o' that tune ten years ago, and by heck, Mandy, that is my umbrelly!

Subject: Lyr Add: EARL JOHNSON'S ARKANSAW TRAVELER
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 05:54 PM

EARL JOHNSON'S ARKANSAW TRAVELER
As recorded by Earl Johnson Dixie Entertainers, 1927.

—Well, I believe I've got tired o' this place. I'll go over to Arkansas to see my old friend Red a while.

Say, old man, where's this road go to?
—Boy, I been livin' over here three years and I have never seen it go nowhere yet.

—I know you don't understand me. I want to know where that thing forks at.
—Well, it don't fork; it splits all to pieces on top o' that hill over thar.

—How 'bout this creek over here? Is it very deep?
—Water all the way to the bottom.

—How did your potatoes turn out?
—Hell, they never turned out; me and Sal dug 'em out.

—I declare your corn looks mighty little and yeller.
—Well, I planted the yeller kind.

—I know but it looks... you'll only get half a crop out of it.
—Well, fool, I'm workin' on halves.

—Red, you got any ice(?) around your house?
—Well, there's plenty o' water over there; get it and wet it.

—Ain't you got no knives?
—No, sir.
—Ain't you got no forks?
—No, sir.
—How do you do then?
—Very well, thank you. How are you?

—How long you been livin' in here anyway?
—You see that mountain over there?
—Yes, sir.
—Well, it was a hell of a hole in the ground when I come here.

—Mighty windy; does this wind blow this way all the time?
—Why, hell, no, it blows the other way sometimes.

—I wish you'd head that cow for me please.
—She's done headed.

—Well, turn her then; turn her!
—Fool, she's done turned; her hair side's out.

—[Seems]'s like you could speak to her.
—Good mornin', cow!

—Red, … much between you and a fool no way, I'll tell you the truth.
—Well, just a guitar is all I see between me and Earl Johnson.

—I see, sort of a cutup, ain't you?
—No, sir, I'm a Ford cutout, wide open.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: cnd
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 06:10 PM

Hey, I need your help with this. I was browsing on Youtube a while back when I ran across a song that went like these. It was a black-and-white live video from the late 50s/early 60s with jokes almost exactly like these, but almost never an actual song plated. Each time they finished a joke they'd play for a couple seconds and then move to the next joke. If I remember correctly, the name wasn't Arkansas Traveler, but it called something like "A Slow Walk In the Country." Sorry this is so broad, but thanks for the help.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Nov 15 - 03:11 AM

Cnd: Could it have been "On a Slow Train through Arkansaw"? There was a joke book by that name. I happen to own a reprint of it. You can read the original here:

On a Slow Train through Arkansaw by Thomas W. Jackson (Chicago: Thos. W. Jackson, 1903).

It wouldn't surprise me if someone had adapted it into a comedy routine with music.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: 12-stringer
Date: 13 Nov 15 - 04:24 AM

In the Earl Johnson recording, the ? words are:

"Red, you got mighty dry eats around your house," hence the invite to "Get it and wet it."

Len Spencer recorded a variant of AT called "Hickory Bill," teamed with Fred Van Eps on gut-strung banjo. Spencer does both voices, a yokel and his visitor, a banjo picker. Van Eps provides short quotes from Arkansas Traveler, Dixie, and a tremolo-strummed Old Black Joe. The surprise ending is telegraphed from the first crank of the cylinder player. The recording is also available at UCSB.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 13 Nov 15 - 01:13 PM

Think the rain will harm the rhubarb?
Not if it comes in cans.
I didn't know rain came in cans.

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: Felipa
Date: 14 Nov 15 - 08:30 AM

your wife's dress is mighty short

it'll be mighty long till she gets another one

The version I heard was on a folk box compilation set. Either the Vanguard or the Electra one, both 4 lp collections. Vanguard I think, but I'm not sure who the artist was but maybe Jimmy Driftwood. I remember learning Driftwood's version of the the Very Unfortunate Man from thos records. We had a different version, Damsel of 19 years old, on a Theo Bikel lp. [anyone with these records, esp. the Vanguard 4 record folk compilation - I'd love to get cd copies!]

When the traveller asks the man why he doesnt play the rest of the tune, it's because he doesnt know it, so the traveller takes the banjo and plays part two of the tune and they are friends from there on

Subject: RE: Arkansas Traveler Skit
From: cnd
Date: 26 Dec 15 - 12:10 AM

The Stanley Brothers do this tune as "How Far to Little Rock"

They have 2 recordings available on Youtube, both of which have the same jokes.

Version 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3MmxabQ_-4
Version 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn4De2_eD_4