Ryestraw

Subject: Ryestraw
From: GUEST,Ron Williams
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 12:05 AM

I'm looking for the lyrics for the fiddle tune "Ryestraw". An old fiddler who I did field recordings of from 1975-1981, Eldia Barbee (Soddy, TN) and released on the Pine Breeze label used to tell the joke: "Two boys were arguing over who's daddy was the best fiddler. One boy says, 'My Daddy can play "Free Little Bird" so good you can see them little birdies just a flutterin' about. The other boy says, "That ain't nothing. My Daddy can play "Ryestraw" to stink 'em out of the room!" (Eldia was talking about and playing a tune called "Did you ever see Lulu make water", and sort of wandered into Ryestraw, another tune whose lyrics he considered 'off-color'.)

Subject: RE: Ryestraw
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 12:23 AM

Go to honkingduck.com. Clayton McMichen and Riley Puckett, 1930, in real audio. Honkingduck
Click on 78s and go to R in titles. Also version by Fiddlin' Jim Burke, also 1930.

Subject: ADD: Ryestraw
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 03:10 AM

There's not much to the McMichen and Puckett lyrics - probably Riley was taking note of his conscience as indicated in the opening remarks:

Dog eat a catfish, dog eat a minnow
Dog eat a catfish big enough for dinner Dog in the rye patch, dog in the holler
Bring him here little boy, give you half a dollar

In his notes to Rounder LP 1005 'Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers', Mark Wilson noted that it was known by both northern and southern fiddlers as 'Ryestraw' or 'Old Ryefields' and other titles. Tunes like this, such as 'Old Mollie Hare' or 'Black-eyed Susan', carried scatological stanzas, but unfortunately Wilson quotes only one:

Dog shit a ryestraw
Dog shit a fiddlebow
Dog tore his asshole
Trying to shit a grubbing hoe

The Fiddler's Companion site gives some others as follows:

Dog shit a rye straw, dog shit a needle
Dog shit a little boy playing on a fiddle

** Dog shit a rye straw, dog shit a minnow
Dog shit a catfish big enough for dinner

** Dog shit a rye straw, dog shit a fiddle bow
Dog shit a little boy working with a grubbing hoe
.
** These lyrics were sung to the "Pigtown Fling" melody by a Michigan fiddler (via Paul Gifford), but are clearly a variation of the above

** Dog shit a rye straw, dog shit a riddle-o
Dog shirt a rye straw longer than a fiddle bow

** Dog shit a catfish longer than a minner-o
Dog shit a catfish big enough for dinner-o

**

--Stewie.