Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break? / ...Canebrake

Subject: Down in the Canebrake
From: Tristan
Date: 22 Jun 97 - 12:11 AM

Any one have the rest of this song?

Down in the canebrake close by the mill
There lived a colored gal. Her name was Nancy Dill.
I told her that I loved her. I loved her very long,
And when I serenade her, this will be my song:

CHO: Come, my love, come. My boat lies low.
She lies high and dry on the Ohio.
Come, my love, come. Won't you come along with me,
And I'll take you down to Tennessee.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 15-Apr-02.

Subject: Lyr Add: DOWN IN THE CANEBRAKE
From:
Date: 26 Jun 97 - 11:02 AM

Down in the canebrake, close by the mill,
There lived a colored gal. Her name was Nancy Dill.
I told her that I loved her. I’d love her very long.
I'm goin' to serenade her and this will be my song:
Come, my love, come, etc.

Down in the canebrake, there's where I’ll go,
Down where the yella moon is hangin' mighty low.
I know that she'll be waitin' beside the cabin door,
And she'll be mighty happy when I tell her once more:
Come, my love, come, etc.

Down in the canebrake, some happy day,
You'll hear the weddin' bells a-ringin' mighty gay.
There's goin' to be a cabin, and in the trundle bed,
There'll be a piccaninny and all because I said:
Come, my love, come, etc.

Down in the canebrake, there's where I’ll stay,
'Long side of Nancy Dill till we are laid away,
And when we get to heaven, and Peter lets us in,
I'll start my wings a-flappin' and sing to her again:
Come, my love, come, etc.

Subject: Lyr Add: COME, LOVE, COME (Jeff Warner, Jeff Davis
From: Lorraine
Date: 28 Jun 97 - 09:40 AM

Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis on their album “Wilder Joy” (Flying Fish 1987) sing a song “Come, Love, Come” which they report partly (melody and first two verses) came from the Anne and Frank Warner collection from Wanchese, North Carolina. Other parts came from Dan Emmetts “The Boatman.” They found melody and first verse under Nancy Till in minstrel songbooks ca. 1875.

COME, LOVE, COME

Down by the canebrake, close by the mill,
Lived a pretty little girl, her name of ‘Nessa Field.
I knew that she love me, and I knew it was wrong.
Now I serenade her and I sing her a song:

CHO: Come, love, come. The boat rides low,
Rides high and dry on the Ohio.
Come, love, come, and go with me.
We’ll go down to Tennessee.

I never met a pretty gal in all my life
But that she was some boatman’s wife.
Boatman dance and boatman sing
And boatman do most anything. CHO.

Boatman dance and boatman sing
And boatman do most anything.
When the boatman go on shore,
Spend his cash and he work for more. CHO.

When you go to the Boatman’s Ball,
You dance with my wife or you won’t dance at all.
Sky-blue jacket and tarpaulin hat,
Look out, boys, for the nine-tailed cat. CHO.

I’ve come this way and I won’t come no more.
Let me by and I’ll go on shore.
There I’ll turn my passions loose,
And they’ll cram me in the calaboose. CHO.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 15-Apr-02.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: GUEST,helen
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 11:51 PM

I had a teacher who sang a lot with us many years ago and this one was a favourite--not that it would be today.

My memory says the words are:

Down in the canebrake, close by the mill,
There lived a coloured girl. Her name was Nancy Dill.
I told her that I loved her. I loved her there alone.
I'm going to serenade her and this'll be my song:

CHORUS: Come, m'love, come. My boat lies low.
She lies high and dry on the Ohio.
Come, m'love, come. Won't y'come along with me,
And I'll take y'back to Tennessee.

Down in the canebrake, there's where I'll go,
Down where the yella moon is hangin' mighty low.
I know that she'll be waitin' beside the cabin door,
And she'll be mighty happy when I tell her once more...CHORUS

Down in the canebrake
[THE NEXT COUPLE OF LINES HAVE ESCAPED ME.]
And in a trundle bed
There'll be a piccaninny, and all because I said...CHORUS

Down in the canebrake, there's where I'll stay,
Along the side of Nancy Dill until we're laid away.
And when we gits to heaven, if Peter lets us in,
I'll start my wings a-flappin' and sing to her again...CHORUS

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 15-Apr-02.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Metchosin
Date: 18 Feb 00 - 02:25 AM

You can also find reference to the song if you click here

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Metchosin
Date: 18 Feb 00 - 02:37 AM

Helen and Frank, I have been searching for more information on this song since I came to the Mudcat last October. It was one sung by my grandfather and until I got the information from Jeff Warner, I had never heard anyone else sing it besides our family.

My mother is still trying to track down where my grandfather was in the US during the early 1900's. We know he wasn't in the Carolinas. What part of the US did you learn this song in, it might help us?

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From:
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 08:38 AM

I have been trying to get a copy of this song for many years. It was written in 1851, and titled "NANCY TILL" I first heared it in the 1950's, but don't recall who sang it. I believe it was also titled COME LOVE, COME. I would be very grateful if somebody out there could email me a copy if they have one. Cheers, Robert Taylor (Australia)

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 09:27 AM

Sheet music is at Levy (click on the title):

Title: Nancy Till. The Favorite Ethiopian Melody.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Composed & Arranged for Piano Forte.
Publication: New York: Firth Pond & Co., No.1 Franklin Sq., 1851.
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: Down in de canebrake close by de mill, dar lib'd a yaller gal her name was Nancy Till
First Line of Chorus: Come love come, de boat lies low, She lies high and dry on de Ohio

Several edition are also at American Memory.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 11:03 AM

Please !! Define CANE BREAK????

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 11:05 AM

e-mail sent to Robert.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 06:57 PM

Cane break is mis-spelled cane brake.

A cane brake is a thicket of cane, sugar, etc. (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)

This was worked over in another thread not too long ago- I think it dealt with a number of terms, so probably hard to find.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 07:13 PM

canebrake also canebreak: a thicket of canes; esp: a dense growth of the giant cane
    --Webster's Third New International Dictionary

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 07:34 PM

There're 9 broadside editions of "Nancy Till" at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads.

      nancy till [title]

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 09:18 PM

Midi & lyrics of the 1851 edition are at Public Domain Music: Music from 1800-1860 (scroll down to "1851").

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 12:26 AM

According to Meade, the earliest recording of this was by Frank Crumit on 5 April 1928 in NYC. Released in June 1928 as Victor 21430.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Little Robyn
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 03:30 AM

Nancy Till is also known as Nancy Dill and was played on Geordie pipes by Pat Jennings and Jack Armstrong who was the official piper to the Duke of Northumberland. It's on their record from about 1969/70.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 04:24 AM

I have on cassette tape the Frank Crumit album "Around the Corner", on which this song appears, entitled "Down In De Cane Break". The attribution on that is "Traditional, arranged Crumit". The words are as per Frank Maher's post of 26 Jun 97 above (and chorus as per Tristan's original post). The only other note about the song's history is "Recorded in New York, 5 April 1928".

Joan

Subject: Lyr Add: NANCY TILL
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 04:43 AM

For comparison, masato's link above gives these words from 1851 (attribution: anon). The tune on the midi is altogether more ponderous than Crumit's light, fast-moving version. And while there are similarities, I don't think the melodies are the same.

"Nancy Till" (1851)
Written for and Sung by White's Serenaders.

[Source: pages 88-89 of
"Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883)]

1.
Down in the canebrake close by the mill,
There liv'd a yellow girl, her name was Nancy Till;
She knew that I lov'd her, she knew it long,
I'm going to serenade her and I'll sing this song.

CHORUS
Come, love, come, the boat lies low,
She lies high and dry on the Ohio;
Come, love, come, won't you go along with me?
I'll take you down to Tennessee.

2.
Open the window, love, O do,
And listen to the music I'm playing for you,
The whisp'rings of love, so soft and so low,
Harmonise my voice with the old banjo.

(CHORUS)

3.
Softly the casement begins for to rise--
The stars are a shining above the skies;
The moon is declining behind yonder hill
Reflecting uts rays on you, my Nancy Till.

(CHORUS)

4.
Farewell love, I must now away,
I've a long way to travel before the break of day,
But the next time I come, be ready to go,
A sailing on the banks of the Ohio.

(CHORUS)

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 05:18 AM

From The Fiddler's Companion:

Result of search for "nancy dill":

CANE BREAK, THE [2]. AKA and see "Nancy Dill." English, Reel. G Major. Standard. AB. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 1, 1951; No. 43, pg. 22.

NANCY DILL. AKA and see "The Cane Break." English, Reel. G Major. Standard. AB. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune Book), Vol. 1, 1951; No. 43, pg. 22. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 170.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 12:25 PM

Unless they are referring to some other type of cane,
Sugar Cane is a commodity crop in Louisiana in the coastal areas from about I-10 south (middle lower Louisiana). How this fits with the rest of the song is beyond me.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 30 Sep 03 - 05:42 PM

WE had this 78 at home when I was a boy, sung by the incomparable Frank Crumit. Being a wee lad it always puzzled me how the boat could 'lie low' and be 'high and dry' at the same time. Crumit's singing style sounds so easy, but just you try to sing along with him, matching his tone,phrasing,diction and his impeccable sense of rhythm, which probably came from his years as a dance band singer. I loved his stuff back then and I still do. It's good to see him remembered so fondly in Mudcat threads.

Subject: RE: Down in the Cane Break
From: belfast
Date: 01 Oct 03 - 10:42 AM

I have a dim memory of Bob Davenport, on some radio programme or other, naming Frank Crumit's singing of this song as one of his favourite recordings. He may have been just trying to irritate the "purists" or perhaps he was just displaying impeccable taste. I recently required a CD of Frank Crumit, "Everybody's Best Friend". It has some wonderful stuff (and some rubbish) but not, unfortunately, "Down By The Canebrake".

It is strange to listen to his singing of "Frankie and Johnny" and realize that it was recorded at roughly the same time as, say, Mississippi John Hurt's "Frankie and Albert". They seem to come from different planets.

Subject: Spelling and implications of Cane Break
From:
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 12:12 PM

I am researching canebrakes for a book, and would point out that the spelling of "canebrake" (a patch of cane) is a convention - correct only because the dictionary spells it that way. I suspect that the people in the South spelled it however they wanted... it is the same word, spelled "canebrake" or "canebreak", one word or two.

Point two is the implication of Nancy living down by the canebrake. Canebrakes grew in moist lowlands near the river. They were traditionally the home of fierce animals, escaped slaves, renegade Indians, outlaws and marginalized people. The singer of the song isn't courting a fine lady, he is begging a poor colored girl to get on the boat and run away with him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From:
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 07:20 AM

If anybody is interested, I have several versions of Nancy Till (Down In The Canebrake) on mp3. I am only too happy to send them via email on request.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: GUEST,Sarah
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 11:13 AM

I posted on both of these threads. My mother is turning 80 this year and we are putting together a CD of music she used to sing to us. If anyone has a copy of this on mp3 I would be most obliged if they would forward. It would truly be appreciated.

Cheers,

Sarah
[e-mail]

p.s. I tried emailing Robert as per the post above mine, but his email is no longer valid :(

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 01:14 PM

1851 sheet music for "Nancy Till," written for White's Serenaders, at American Memory.
Words posted above by Joan from Wigam have had the dialect removed, but otherwise are correct.

More than one melody is found in the modern transcriptions; the original sheet music may not be used in them.

The text of the broadside printed at "Catnach Press by W. Fortney, Bloomsbury" (London), (Harding B 11 (365), is accurate, complete with dialect.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 11:05 PM

email sent.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: GUEST,Charles
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 10:49 AM

My mother, who came from Alabama, sang this song to my sister and myself, when we were small. In my turn I have sung this to both my own children and grand children.

I see someone has suggested that a canebrake applies to middle lower Louisiana. In fact I believe that this term applied all over the Southern States where sugarcane was grown.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:14 PM

Correct, Guest, Texas (and elsewhere) had large cane brakes. A part of the farming operations at the Texas State Prison Farms well-known to Iron Head Baker, Lead Belly and many other prisoners. Land holdings of the prison system was 100,000 acres in 1972, but of course this includes grazing, forest and land devoted to other crops.

Cutting cane 'on the Brazos' ended in 1928 when disease killed the crop, and after that, raw sugar was imported for the mill.

In Hawai'i, driving by the sugarcane fields there, we would stop when the cane was ready and steal a cane to cut up and chew on. There I think they call them 'fields,' not 'brakes.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Joy Bennett
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:41 PM

Recorded as "Come Love Come" on the Johnson Girls' debut CD - available from Folk Legacy at www.folklegacy.com

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: GUEST,al newt in Wales
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 03:12 PM

Down by the cane-brake
By the waterside
She swore that she loved me
One day would be my bride

Come, my love, come
My boat lies low-
etc.

I've singing this tune to myself for fifty odd years not knowing where it came from.. thanks to all the posters, I now twigged it,- Frank Crummit, Donald the Dub one side of a war-time 78 played over and over on a wind-up gramophone! This must have been on the 'B' side.
I was about 7 or 8 years old at that time.
The words above are those I sing....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 05:10 PM

The "Geordie" version referred to in the thread above seems to be an example of reverse migration of tunes from America to this country.
Either Jack Armstrong learnt it from Peter Kennedy in the 1950s when Kennedy was active in NE England, or from Burl Ives when he was invited to Hollywood.

It has now passed into Northumbrian piping repertoire, and I have even heard its name being attributed to connection with a local river - the Till.

Paws

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:32 PM

Fwiw, here's some random comments about some of the lines from the version posted by Lorraine-28 Jun 97 - 09:40 AM:

"Boatman dance and boatman sing
And boatman do most anything."

'sounds' a like like this verse from the 19th century African American dance song "Juba"

"Juba dance and Juba sing
Juba cut the pigeon wing"

**
Which came first?

"Down in the canebrake, close by the mill,
There lived a coloured girl. Her name was Nancy Dill".

or

"Down in the canebrake close by the mill,
There liv'd a yellow girl, her name was Nancy Till"

or

"Down by the canebrake, close by the mill,
Lived a pretty little girl, her name of 'Nessa Field."


I bet the earliest adjective was 'yella' or 'yellow' {referring to an African American woman with light skin color}. "Colored" was probably a later 'politically correct' substitution. "Pretty girl" removes any racial referent and is probably an even later substitution for 'yella girl'.

**
"Sky-blue jacket and tarpaulin hat,
Look out, boys, for the nine-tailed cat"

See this excerpt from http://www.mwart.com/xq/ASP.product/pid.183/qx/cat-of-nine-tails.htm about the "nine tailed cat":

"The Cat of Nine tails is a whip made of usually nine knotted lines or cords fastened to a handle. An ancient design whip of 9 braided black leather 'tails' was popular through the centuries. The Cat of Nine Tails' overall length is 23 inches."

-snip-

If the singer is a Black man who is asking his lady love to come with him to escape being beated by the cat of nine tails, it would be more reasonable for him to say "Come, love, come, won't you go along with me?/I'll take you away from Tennessee."

-snip-

Given this point, unless the chorus was changed, I don't think this is an authentic African American folk song, not that anyone posting to this thread said that it was.

However, imo, the "Come Love Come" version posted by Lorraine on 28 Jun 97 - 09:40 AM seems to follow the African American dance song tradition of mixing & matching verses that don't need to follow the same story line but serve to extend the length of the song.

It appears to me that the first verse of that song really doesn't have anything to do with the subsequent boatman verses. And-besides mentioning the shore, the last verse of that song:

"I've come this way and I won't come no more.
Let me by and I'll go on shore.
There I'll turn my passions loose,
And they'll cram me in the calaboose"

has little to do with the first verse or the other verse.

If this song were sung in true folk fashion, it would be open ended with no fixed verse order-except possibly the first verse.

But, that last verse {of this rendition of that song} seems newer than the other verses. However, this may be because I think the term word 'calaboose' seems much more recent than the mid 19th century when this song purportedly was composed.

Here's a reference for calaboose meaning caboose meaning jail:

http://en.mimi.hu/dreams/jail.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:18 PM

Cane need not be sugar cane. All over the south, if you didn't already have a pole, you would go down to a thicket of cane (bamboo) and cut yourself a free pole and then go to the fishing hole. Some still prefer them, and I think especially if you like your poles extra long.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 10:42 PM

"De Boatmen Dance" is an old minstrel song by Dan Emmett ('Emmit') of the Virginia Minstrels, 1843. Nancy Till is 1851, also minstrel (she was yaller in the sheet music).

The song posted by Lorraine (--97) is cobbled together from several minstrel songs- the minstrels often mixed and matched so the song is 'in character.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 02:31 PM

Picking up on Azizi's post, cobbling together of verses from different songs also is a characteristic of African-American songs. Revitalization of existing material seems to be a universal human characteristic.

Were the songs by minstrel composers? The performed and printed versions were, but Emmett, Foster and others noted that some of their ideas were picked up from the singing of slaves and freedmen.
Conversely, minstrel songs were picked up by African-Americans. Lacking evidence, it is not easy to determine where particular ideas came from.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break
From: Goose Gander
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 03:35 PM

The "cobbling together of verses" seems common in American folksong, both black and white. See Pretty Little Pink for example, also Charming Betsy and Alabama Bound and so many others.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,Eileen in Dorset
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 01:30 PM

My father used to sing this song to us when we were children. He always sang "There lives a little coloured girl, her name is Nancy Dill" and he told me it was a slave song. I have been trying for years to find out who wrote it. I was told it was by Stephen Foster but research has yielded nothing positive so far. Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 03:03 PM

Eileen, the song is "Nancy Till," 1851, White's Serenaders" and other minstrel groups.
Many variations, a popular tune and subject.
See post by Joan from Wigan, way up above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,dustyhaze
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 09:45 PM

My cousin and I used to sing this around the campfire with our parents and grandparents during the 40's in Mississippi. When we compared notes, he said his version contained yalla girl. If so, I'm sure the reason I sing pretty girl is because my parents tried to teach me respect toward the Blacks who lived and worked for us. I am glad to see your as I have been looking for the words since I heard James Coburn sang a version several years ago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,James Hay
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 05:25 PM

I sing this to my kids every night as my father sang it to me We had the 78" Frank Crumit disc but it got broken unfortunately. Can we download it from anywhere?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,Gulliver
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 05:51 AM

I've got a recording of friends singing this song on my YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGsyDeLLygg

Just the end of the song got cut off by YouTube.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,GuestBryant
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 07:56 PM

My mother used to sing this to me (in New Brunswick Canada during the 50's. She was born in 1907. Her version went like this:

Down in teh canebrake close beside the mill
There lives a little yeller girl
Her name is Nancy Till.
I love my Nancy I love her long
I'm going to serenade her I'll sing her this song.

Come love Come
the boat lies low
It lies high and dry on the Ohio.
Come love come
Won't you come along with me,
And I'll take you down to Tennessee.

Open your window love oh do
And listen to the music
I'm playing for you.
dah dah dah dah (forgotten words by mother)
and in a trundle bed
There'll be a little pickanin
when all the prayers are said.

Chorus again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,Guest, Tom
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 04:23 PM

In the movie, Hell in the Pacific, Lee Marvin uses the following words;



Down by the canebrake
Close by the mill
There lived a colored gal
And her name was Nancy Dill.

I told her that I loved her
And loved her mighty fine
And if she would come with me
I soon would make her mine.

Come along, come won't cha
Come along with me
And I'll take you down to
Ten – nes- see

Come along, come woncha
Come along with me
And I'll take you down to
Ten-nes-see.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 22 Apr 12 - 08:44 PM

My mother and father sang this to me and my brother and sisters in the 1950's. Probably came down on my mother's side--she was born in Selma, Alabama, although my father was from southern Indiana and going "down to Tennessee" might have been something his forebears sang about.

Anyway, here is a link to a nice 1930's version on an old 78 rpm lp by the Pickard family:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICY8yeAj8no

Lovely old song--brings tears to my eyes, and I am a 62 year old man!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Apr 12 - 08:49 PM

PS Here are the words of the 1st verse and chorus as they were sung to us:

Down by the canebrake, close by the mill
Lived a little girl by the name of Nancy Dill
Told her I loved her, loved her ever long
Going to serenade her, this'll be my song

Come my love come, boat lies low
Lies high and dry on the Ohio
Come my love come, come along with me
I'll take you down to Tennessee

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break / Canebrake
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 05:41 PM

I'm coming to this discussion years later--trying to track the song my father sang to me in the 1940s. His version for me was much truncated, nothing about Nancy Dill and cane brakes, but the chorus and the "start my wings a-flappin' and sing to her again" are strong in my memory. I find almost the same chorus in a song with a coal miner narrator. Thanks to all for the information.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break? / ...Canebrake
From: GUEST,Ruth
Date: 16 Sep 16 - 07:33 PM

My father who was born in 1911used to sing this song to me in Cape Town, South Africa, when I was a little girl......I am now 77. I believe his grandmother was American.
It was such a thrill for me to look this up and find it was an old minstrel song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down in the Cane Break? / ...Canebrake
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Feb 19 - 04:02 PM

Here's a bit more on this song, and evidence that some roustabouts adapted minstrel songs for some of what they sang:

Collected by Mary Wheeler in the 1930s from a roustabout by the name of Cliff, from Steamboatin’ Days, ©1944/1966, p. 90-91

Come, Love, Come, de Boat Lies Low

Come, love, come, an’ go with me,
I’ll take you down ‘bout Tennessee
Open up the window, oh love, do
Listen to the music I’m playin’ for you.

Chorus:

Come, love, come, de boat lies low,
She lies high an’ dry on de Ohio.

Come, love, come, an’ go with me,
I’ll take you down ‘bout Tennessee
Next time I come be ready to go
Floatin’ down the rivuh on the Ole Ben Joe.

I bet the last line once ran "Floatin down the rivuh wi' the old banjo."

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar