Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco

Subject: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: GUEST,Red Hot's Fan
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 09:39 AM

Tom Riccio's singing is less than intelligible (part of the charm)
but I really would like to know the lyrics...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 11:58 AM

I think the song you refer to is on one of Bob FLESHER's "Early Banjo Classics" albums - all done on Minstrel gut-strung Banjo played in the old "Stroke" style.

I have one of Bob's instructional books, but he does not give lyrics, unfortunatley, and I'm not sure I could transcribe it all that well.- don't have time to at the moment.

You might be able to contact him.

Have you tried a LEVY search?

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/advancedsearch.html

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE I AM AS YOU DISKIVER
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:10 PM

Is this the song (from America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets)?

HERE I AM AS YOU DISKIVER

Here I am as you diskiver,
All de way from roaring river;
Here I cum, as you must know,
For to play de ole banjo.

CHORUS.

O lud gals, gib me chaw tobacco,
O lud gals, fotch on de whiskey,
My head swims, and I feel a little tipsey

Way down by de Indian Nation,
Dar's pretty little gals from de wild goose nation
My wife's dead, and I'll get annudder,
Pretty little yaller gal jest like the todder.

O lud gals, gib me chaw tobacco, &c.

Ole Masca Miller goes out a preachin',
'Bout de world coming to pieces,
An' if you want to do what's right,
Go an' join de Millerite.

O lud gals, gib me chaw tobacco, &c.

Summer time has come at last,
Old cold winter's gone and past;
Fourth July we'll have a lark,
And see de sojers in de Park.

O lud gals, gib me chaw tobacco, &c.

Fourth July, without any flattery,
Is a great day down on de battery;
De coannon roar, and so loudly clatter,
Get your eye put out wid a fire cracker.

O lud gals, gib me chaw tobacco, &c.

Andrews Printer, 38 Chatham St. [n.d.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:16 PM

Also at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads.

HERE I AM AS YOU DISKIVER

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: GUEST,Red Hot's Fan
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 12:54 PM

Don't think it's Here I am as you diskiver

And actually I know most of the lyrics as sung by the The Red Hot's
it's just a couple I can't make out and I was hoping that there might
be more verses.

At any rate this is what I can make out:

C'mon babe you know what I'm afta
Just give me a little chaw tobacca

I had a dog his name was Rover
When he died, ?????????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 03:55 PM

Listened to "Gimme Chaw Tobacco" by the Red Hots- incomprehensible. Mostly an instrumental, not the old minstrel song. Hear it here:

Gimme Chaw Tobacco

Also recorded by Carter Brothers and Son, Mississippi String Bands, vol. 1, 1928-1935, Document DOCD-8009, 1997 (1928) cd.
Also Dillards, Chaw T'baccer, Elektra EKS-7265, 1964 LP.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 07:42 PM

"Give Me A Chaw Tobacco" by Carter Brothers & Son is on Mississippi String Bands, Vol. 1: 1928-1935 [with sound clip].

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:17 PM

One I have on tape somewhere here has a chorus that contains words something like.

And a chaw of tobacco and a little drink
Won't send your soul to hell.

Does that sound familiar?

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:18 PM

The Carter Brothers & Son side is mostly incomprehensible to me. It seems to consist of 3 couplets, the first - and not the same as posted by Guest above - is repeated several times. The second, the dog couplet, is clear enough:

Had a little dog and his name was Rover
When he died, he died all over

The final couplet sounds like:

? gals oh how I love ya
? gals give me chaw tobacca

The Dillards track, cited by Q, has no lyrics. It is part of a 2-tune harmonica solo by Rodney Dillard: 'Taters in Sandy Lane/Gimme Chaw T'Baccer'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Gimme Chaw Tobacco
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:29 PM

A search on Fiddler's Companion gives a cross-reference to 'Bear Creek's Up'. This clarifies the first line of the missing couplet in the Carter Bros & Son side:

Bear Creek's up and the Bear Creek's muddy
Bear Creek gals all raise my ? ?

It doesn't sound like 'Bear Creek gals' in the final couplet.

--Stewie.