The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54404   Message #842837
Posted By: Richie
07-Dec-02 - 12:19 AM
Thread Name: Steamboat coonjine songs
Subject: RE: Steamboat coonjine songs
Here's another Roustabout song with info from the "Far in the Mountains" site.

Roustabout: Dan Tate

Roustabout, my bare-footed child,
Take your boat to the shore.
There's a hundred dollar bill and I've got no change.
Oh don't you want to go?

Walkabout, on Sunday my boys,
What pleasure can I see?
When I've got a woman in New Orleans,
And she won't write to me.

So roustabout, my bare-footed bums,
Take your boat to the shore.
There's a hundred pretty women on the other side,
Oh, don't you want to go?

Notes: Sung by Dan Tate at his home in Fancy Gap, Carrol County, Virginia.

A roustabout was an unskilled labourer, especially one who worked on the oil rigs, and, according to Cece Conway (notes to Black Banjo Songsters - Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40079) the tune Roustabout 'is one of the most important showpiece tunes in the Black banjo repertory'. It seems that the tune probably originated in Virginia, under the title Long Steel Rail, and is nowadays equally well-known among both black and white musicians. Dink Roberts performs a good version on the above mentioned Smithsonian Folkways CD, while Fred Cockerham can be heard playing his version of the tune on Rounder CD 0439. (Mike Yeats)

-Richie