The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151284 Message #3529821
Posted By: GUEST,Fred McCormick
24-Jun-13 - 11:58 AM
Thread Name: another man done gone to the county farm
Subject: RE: another man done gone to the county farm
Another Man Done Gone was collected from the magnificent Vera Hall Ward of Livingstone, Alabama in 1940 by John Lomax and in 1947 by Alan Lomax. A third recording of her singing it dates from 1950 and was collected by Harold Courlander.
It appears to be a pretty rare song and the only other version of it I've been able to trace was recorded by Harold Courlander from Willie Harris, also of Livingstone, Alabama, again in 1950.
The text of Mrs Hall's 1940 recording is as follows.
Another man done gone x3
From the County farm,
Another man done gone.
I didn't know his name x4
He had a long chain on x4
He killed another man x4
I don't know where he's gone x4
I'm gonna walk your log (?) x4.
Clearly, as far as Vera Hall's text is concerned, the song is about a prisoner breaking out of the county farm, or conceiveably dying while inside, rather than someone being sent to prison.
You can find it on Rounder CD 1500, A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings. It also appears on the Alan Lomax produced radio programme, Blues in the Mississippi Night.