Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?

Subject: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: GUEST,Keven
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 02:37 PM

Anybody know the origins of this song? Wikipedia doesn't help me much and I've been searching the internet for more information but to no avail.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 02:44 PM

See if this helps.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 02:49 PM

thread.cfm?threadid=16793

Related thread.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: Bert
Date: 22 Feb 15 - 10:54 PM

I would guess that it originated as a hoedown tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Mar 23 - 02:40 AM

Late period Kentucky minstrelsy hijacked into school songbooks... maybe... Working back from the wiki:

“"Sourwood Mountain" is most closely associated with the music of Appalachia; however, there are versions native to New England as well.[1]

[1]Faulkner, Anne Shaw (1913). What We Hear in Music: A Course of Study in Music Appreciation and History. The Victor Talking Machine Company. p. 384.” [wiki]

Note: There's nothing on Sourwood Mountain in Faulkner's 1913 first edition. 16 years later the 7th edition reviewed the Victor recordings for Charles A. Fullerton's One Book Course in Elementary Music.

“21751 {Sourwood Mountain Billy Boy} Americana
“Sourwood Mountain” “and “Billy Boy” are American mountain tunes that are found, with a great variety of verses, not only in the Appalachian Mountains, but also in the hills of New England. These particular songs belong to the classification of “Nursery Songs,” for, although there are innumerable verses, there is always a definite refrain to be noted.
        “Sourwood Mountain” is a song for children. The first verse runs:

                “Chickens a-crowing in Sourwood Mountains
                Hey diddy ump, diddy iddy um day
                Get your dogs and we all will go hunting,
                Hey diddy ump, diddy iddy um day.”

“Billy Boy” is a conversation between a mother and her son regarding the qualifications of the maiden he has chosen. This type of “Dialogue Song” is found in the folk music of every country. [Lesson XXXVI, Part I.]”
[Faulkner, What We Hear in Music, Victor Talking Machine Div., 1913, 7th ed., 1929, p.359]
Ralph Crane (Royal Dadmun) & Raymond Dixon (Lambert Murphy); Victor 21751, 78rpm, trk. A3
Recorded Sound Archives
Victor matrix BVE-47811. Away for Rio/Ralph Crane

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Mar 23 - 02:43 AM

John Fox Jr. (1862–1919)

“….and then he veered to something lively, singing words that she could barely hear:

        Chickens a-crowin' on Sourwood Mountain,
        Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedle-dahdy-dee!
        Git yo' dogs an' wwe'll go huntin',
        Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedle-dahdy-dee!”

It had the darky's rhythm and the darky's way of dropping into the minor on the third line, while the swing of the last was like the far-away winding of a horn, and it was to ring in her ears for years to come….”
[Fox, The Kentuckians, Pt.II, Harper's New Monthly, Vol. XCV, No. DLXV, June, 1897, p.360]


“Fact is stranger, Abe Shivers had got Jeb a leetle disguised by liquer, an' he did look fat an' sassy, ef he couldn't talk, a-settin' over in the corner a-plinkin' the banjer an' a-knockin' off “Sour-wood Mountain” an' “Jinny git aroun'” an' “Soapsuds over the Fence.”

“Chickens a-crown' on Sour-wood Mountain,
        Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!
Git yo' dawgs an' we'll go huntin',
        Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!”

An' when Jeb comes to

“I've got a gal at the head o' the holler,
        Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!”

he jes turns one eye 'round on Polly ann, an' then swings his chin aroun' as though he didn't give a cuss fer nothin'.

“She won't come, an' I won't foller,
        Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!”
[Hell Fer Sartain, Fox, 1897]

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Mar 23 - 04:29 PM

I find no trace of the alleged "Sourwood Mountain" in Massachusetts.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Mar 23 - 06:33 PM

Me neither, except for all the Victor records retail outlets of course and their center label reads “Kentucky Folk.” Don't know where Fullerton got it from but “can be found” is not the same as “native to” and thirty+ years apart anyways. Still hunting down the original 1929 school choir songbook.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sourwood Mountain origins?
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Mar 23 - 07:15 PM

"Mountain Minstrelsy," Berea Quarterly (Apr. 1905), with tune. From the Kentucky mountains:

                   Sourwood Mountain.

Chickens a crowin' in the sourwood mountain,
Ho-de-ing-dang, diddle-lal-la-da.
So many pretty girls I can't count 'em,
Ho-de-ing.dang, diddle-lal-la-da.

My true love lives up in the head of a holler,
(Repeat Ho-de-ing, etc.)
She won't come and I won't call 'er.

My true love lives up in Letcher,
She won't come and I won't fetch 'er.

(My true love lives in Magoffin,
She lives so far I can't see her often.)

My true love lives over the river,
A hop and skip, and I'll be with 'er.

My true love, she's a blue-eyed dandy,
A kiss from her is sweeter than candy.

My true love, she's a black-eyed daisy,
If I don't get her, I'll go crazy.

Rack my Jinny up the Sourwood Mountain,
So many miles 'at I can't count 'em.