Banjo Sam
Wilmer Watts was born at Mount Tabor in Columbus County, North Carolina shortly before the turn of the century, and was a textile worker in Belmont, near the center of the Gastonia labor troubles. He played fiddle, guitar and banjo inventively, finally turning to gospel music; his daughters are still singing as the Watts Gospel Quartet. He died at St. Paul, N.C. in 1943, having produced some of the most unusual, galloping, rusty-sounding, powerful flatlands music ever recorded, including this. It is an elaboration of Hook and Line, one of the dozen or so basic pieces considered to be starters for kids learning to play oldtime banjo in the South. It also borrows from Old Dan Tucker and the Jaw Bone song family, with Samson's favorite weapon changed to mine.

BANJO SAM
(Wilmer Watts)

My name is Banjo Sam.
Hello, Banjo Sam.

Banjo ring, banjo sing,
Banjo tell me everything.

Banjo walk, banjo talk,
Banjo eat with a knife and fork.

Gimme the hook, gimme the line,
Gimme the girl they call Caroline.

Throwed my hook in the middle of the pond,
And the catfish got my hook and gone.

Yon comes Ezell, dressed for town,
Ridin' a billygoat, leadin' a hound,
And the hound bark, billygoat jump,
And throwed ol' Ezell up straddle of a stump.

Throwed my hook to catch me a shad
But all I caught was my old Dad.

Throwed my hook in the middle of the hole
And the catfish got my hook and pole.

My wife died in Tennessee,
Sent my banjo back to me,
Hung my banjo on the fence,
And I ain't seen nothin' of my banjo since.