"Old cow died. Wasn't that a pity?" (or "Wasn't it a pity?")
to my ears is correct, but recording freq response precludes sibilance, so

"Old cow died. Was in Mississippi" can't be completely ruled out; plosive "p" is definitely there, "t" phoneme should occur several times in "...pity."...unclear

I used to sing:

"Dang old cow won't behave
bad old cow she dropped dead
does not strike me on the foot
does not drive me in the woods"

but I also hear "...just like me..." in line 3

Fraizer's banjo mastery is astonishing on the R hand; in this and other recordings he demonstrates up-pick and down pick clawhammer, thumb lead "clawhammer" (minstrel), 2 and 3 finger thumb and possibly finger lead, thumb riding the 5th string while downpicking, irregular metrics; L hand is pretty static, but I hear occasional pull-offs, banjo may be fretless (Corrina, Corrina)...

The "Paddy" lyrics are far fetched, but F. demonstrates a good understanding of racial discrimination in Bile Them Cabbage...

steve senderoff