Origin: Rolling to Cairo Town / Roustabout Song

Subject: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 18 Jul 01 - 08:44 PM

Okay, I know Joyce and Danny McLeod sing it and I thought I first heard it from Betty and Norman McDonald (but I can't find it on their tapes), and we've found it in the DT, so no problem with the lyrics. (Oh, yeah, Jeri says she hears Ed Tricket in her head, but they have support groups for that.)

Can anybody tell me any more info about the song and who else has recorded it? I know Cairo (pronounced Kay-ro) is in Illinois. (I'm a midwesterner myself, back in the mists of pre-history...)

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 18 Jul 01 - 08:57 PM

Jeri smacked me and I lost consciousness, I'm sure I added something about how she was going to hit me with a something heavy or strangle me, but the line and my sign off disappeared.

Bat Goddess
(Sorry this didn't actually show up in the last post)

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Jul 01 - 09:48 PM

Note to self: next time, smother victim with 6' tall pink flamingo.

Cairo Town (in case the green shop thingie kicks in) - we were going nuts trying to figure out who we've heard do it. I could think of worse people to have in my head than Ed Tricket, but I could be completely wrong.

It's here in the DT. I believe the actual title is "Roustabout" and, the song was written by Dillon Bustin.

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Jul 01 - 10:16 PM

I'll betcha Art Thieme would know something about this. Being in his neck of the woods and all.

You two play nice, now!**BG**

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Jul 01 - 10:57 PM

I recorded it on "New Harmony" (Folk-Legacy C-100). Ed may sing it, Jeri, but he hasn't recorded it. Wally Macnow and Ken Shatz both sing it, but IMHO they take it too fast, but they haven't recorded it either (yet). We learned it from Dillon Bustin, who wrote it, one week at Pinewoods during which he let us tape a pile of his fine river songs. A real gift for an oldtime river rat like me.

Ain't much left of Cairo these days. Dragged Caroline down there a few years ago. You'd think a spot at the junction of two of the major river highways of America would have remained a significant town site, but after it served as Grant's headquarters during the western river phase of the Civil War, the place just seems to have faded into oblivion. Empty buildings, empty streets, nothing left but memories.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 19 Jul 01 - 10:06 AM

I've heard Bob Walser sing it

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Jul 01 - 10:32 AM

Sandy, it sounds like the song went from Dillon Bustin to you, and then made its way out into the world from there.

This really is bugging me. I'm familiar enough with the song to know the chorus, but I don't know WHY I know it. I think I've been aware of it since (possibly) Fox Hollow days in the mid-70s. Maybe I've just heard different people, including Sandy & Caroline, sing it over the years. Could be you did it once at Fox Hollow or Niskayuna, and it just stuck in my head...

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 Jul 01 - 07:12 AM

Yeah, but where do I know it from? I knew it last fall when Danny and Joyce sang it -- and I also knew I had heard Wally sing it sometime within the past few years. I really thought it was on the McDonald's tape. Sandy, it's possible, too, that I've heard you and Caroline sing it. But I'm flummoxed.

Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 21 Jul 01 - 04:24 PM

Jeri: I think I heard Ken (and maybe Wally) singing it in the dining room at Camp Freedman. We didn't know it during Niskayuna or Fox Hollow times. I doubt that Dillon had written it that long ago. Last year, in the Dutch Barn at Old Songs, I sang it, and then Phil Shapiro arrived late and also sang it. He had learned it from me when we sang on his radio show in Ithaca the year before. A good song deserves to be spread around as much as possible, and it's a good one.

Re: tempo. When Dillon presented it at a workshop at Pinewoods, the first time we heard it, he sang it unaccompanied and "briskly." Later that evening, in a most generous private session with us, he did it with what we call "lazy river" banjo accompaniment, and it was much more leisurely paced. We feel "leisurely" is the appropriate tempo, considering the text.

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jul 01 - 05:08 PM

Sandy, did you do this at bbc's gathering? (I feel like I'm playing a game of 'Clue' - The Patons, in bbc's living room, with a guitar...)

Also, what does to "coonjine" mean? As in:
"I load all of this freight by bale and by sack
I slow coonjine the plank, I fast coonjine it back

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 Jul 01 - 05:00 PM

Okay, mystery solved. I rechecked the McDonald's tapes. The song is there under its alternate title "Roustabout Song" , the first cut on side B of "Cuddle In." And they credited Wally in the notes. I just missed it when I was looking the other night. (The margaritas had nothing to do with it!)

Thanks, everybody, for your assistance.

Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From:
Date: 23 Jul 01 - 06:32 PM

I think the song is great and sing it. It is good for getting a good chorus sing

I'll repeat Jeri's request what does 'i fast*coonjine* it back' mean?

Sheila

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 03:26 PM

I learned a great old time fiddle tune from Garry Harrison couple years ago at FiddleTunes called "Going down to Cairo" (I believe where the Illinois Ohio rivers meet in an area called little Egypt. I wonder if its the same tune. cheers Petr.

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 04:25 PM

"Coonjine" was the term used by roustabouts for the hurried, but very carefully balanced walk used when carrying a heavy load to or from the decks of a steamboat. Some informant described it to Mary Wheeler (author of Steamboatin' Days) as resembling the movement of a raccoon on a slender branch. Too much bouncing up and down on a quite springy plank was likely to toss the roustabout and his load into the river. Alternate derivation, possibly -- I picked up a book about cajun life and discovered a term used in reference to a dance with possible connections to Africa via the slave population: something like "cunjaille" (I don't have the book here and my Louisiana French is every bit as bad as my Parisian).

Sandy

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 25 Jul 01 - 08:16 AM

Now I suppose I'll have to finish learning the song (considering I've had it in and out of my head for most of the past few weeks).

Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: GUEST,Jimmycracked
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 02:29 PM

We play a fiddle tune called "Goodby Liza Jane", and never had words to go with it. It was the same melody as "Goin' Down To Cairo", but the "A" and "B" parts were in a reverse order and played AA BB. I just recently ran across "Cairo", but only have two verses for it. Are there more?

Subject: Lyr Add: ROLLING TO CAIRO TOWN (Dillon Bustin)
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 04:03 PM

Words from the DT. Also sung in England by Alison Younger and Chris Harvey (when in First Priciples I should think) who said that they learned it direct ftom Dillon Bustin.
^^^
Rolling to Cairo Town (Roustabout Song) (Dillon Bustin)

I'm rolling, flowing, around these hills
I must take a rest, but this river never will
Rolling, flowing, to Cairo Town
Just give me time to lay me down

Boat's up the river, she won't come down
I believe it in my soul, she is water-bound
Back her, slack her, bring her round
Give me time to lay me down

Come, Rosianna, the boat is lying low
On a sandy bar, out in the Ohio
Roustabouts are pulling, pulling mighty slow
To give me time to lay me down

I work these steamboats. a dollar bill a day
I buy a dress for Rosianne, drink the rest away
Captain, he just told me to call lead line today
Lord, I got no time to lay me down

All of the rich folks out on the promenade
Twirl their parasols, drink their lemonade
I got hot steam to drink, I got smokestack for my shade
And I got no time to lay me down

I load all of this freight by bale and by sack
I slow coonjine the plank, I fast coonjine it back
A hundred eighty pounds a bale, a hundred ninety pounds a sack
Two hundred pounds'd break your back

copyright Moonbow Music

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 05:10 PM

Old fiddle tune, often called "Black Them Boots." Related to Liza Jane.
See versions in Bluegrass Messengers: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/master/blackthemboots.html
Black Them Boots
Verses 2 and 4 of the Bustin version, as well as some of the other lines, often appear in other versions.

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 07:36 PM

Here's an excerpt from Lynne Fauley Emery's book "Black Dance from 1619 to Today" {second edition; Princeton Book Company, 1988, pps 1146-147}:

"The Coonjine, another of the river dances, was still "remembered in scattered areas through the Antilles" as late as 1963. In the Caribbean, however the dance was performed during carnival time and called the "Counjaille", while in the United States the Coonjine was performed on the waterfront by the black roustabouts and "was a rhythmic shuffle affected to expedite loading and unloading..." Harold Courlander reported:

'The term Counjaille, or Coojine is still used in southern United States waterfront areas to mean moving or loading cotton, an activity that once, in all probablility, was accompanied by Counjaille-type songs and rhythms. Negro children on the docks and levies sand such songs as:

Throw me a nickle, throw me a dime
If you want to see me do the Coojine.'

According to Mary Wheeler. The Coonjine was a combination of song and dance connected with frieght handling on the steamboats.

'The "plank walk" springs under a heavy weight or even under the lighter step of the rouster when he trots back again empty handed for more freight. To avoid jarring, the feet are dragged along the stage plank accompanied by a song that takes its rhythm from the shuffling feet and swaying shoulders.'

Allen, Ware, and Garrison mentioned the Coonjai and described it as a sort of Minuet, Unfortunately, although the authors spparently saw the dance, they described the musical accompaniment rather than the movements".

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 07:49 PM

Here is an online reference to the Counjaille well as to other
pre & post emancipation Black dances:

"Creole Songs Cable Sang
[The Century Magazine
Feburary 1886}

"There were other dances. Only a few years ago I was honored with an invitation, which I had to decline, to see danced the Babouille, the Cata (or Chacta), the Counjaille, and the Calinda. Then there were the Voudou, and the Congo, to describe which would not be pleasant. The latter, called Congo also in Cayenne, Chica in San Domingo, and in the Windward Islands confused under one name with the Calinda, was a kind of Fandango, they say, in which the Madras kerchief held by its tip-ends played a graceful part."

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/hfcreole.html


Btw, this article also mentions a song that includes the lyrics
""Calalou," says the song, "has an embroidered petticoat, and Lolotte, or Zizi," as it is often sung, "has a--heartache. ..."Poor little Miss Zizi! ..."She has pain, pain in her little heart."

I found that name to be particularly interesting.

:o}

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Barry Finn
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 08:09 PM

"Come here, dog an' get your bone
Tell me which shoulder you want it on"

Allen Lomax spends a chapter (lonesome Whistles) on Roustabouts in his "The Land Where The Blues Began" 1992 pub. by Dell.

Barry

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 09:32 PM

See thread 54404 for information on Steamboat coonjine songs and information on the rousters (pronounced roosters).

As noted in that thread, Bustin took his information from Mary Wheeler, "Steamboatin' Days."
Steamboat Coonjine Songs

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 09:57 PM

Here's another online reference to the Counjaille:

"Counjaille.
One of the popular tunes in Guadeloupe «Counjaille O Counjaille etc...) and is proof of a Congolese presence in the country. This term describes a dance from the Congolese ritual, traces of which can be found in Guadeloupe and Santo Domingo in 1807/1809 at a time when ethnic groups were travelling from these countries to New Orleans to escape from the Napoleonic wars.

In the same way as the bamboula, Calinda, Chacha etc., these dances were performed from French Guiana to New Orleans as well as Santo Domingo and all of the French West Indies. …

It is important to specify that in the Creole language, this word can mean several different things. The same word describes the music, dance, group gathering, etc"

http://svr1.cg971.fr/lameca/dossiers/gwoka/references/glossaire/glossaire_eng.html

Given the antiquity of the Counjaille dance, it appears that the roustabouts may have adapted those dance steps to fit their needs rather than independently created the Coonjine dance.

Also, similar to the glossary, in the United States, the word Coonjine apparently came to be used as a referent for the roustabouts' particular movements, and the dance that Black children and others imitated from those movements, the songs which accompanied that dance, and the dock workers themselves.

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 10:32 PM

It's not surprising that "Coonjine" has come to be known as "Coonshine".

Here's the lyrics to the children's song "Coomshine Baby" as found in Bessie Jones' and Bess Lomax Hawes' book "Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage"; p. 131

Coonshine, coonshine baby,
Coonshine on the sly,
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly.

Coonshine, coonshine baby,
Coonshine, coonshine baby,
Coonshine, coonshine baby,
Coonshine on the sly,

Someday I'm gonna coonshine,
Coonshine anyhow
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly.

Coonshine, coonshine baby, etc.


http://books.google.com/books?id=nTWTyVFBipkC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=counjaille&source=web&ots=IYiVs4jJOf&sig=ZRRHuFwm-MGE4rsmiA_

Subject: RE: Rolling to Cairo Town/Background
From: mick p r.m s.c
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 02:56 AM

We have just recorded it as one of the tracks on our new c.d.
It is on MYSPACE.COM (music) WALTON ON THE NAZE SHANTY CREW.


                   Cheers Mick.