Lyr Req/Add: Dinah / Save Dinah for the Night

Subject: Help I.D. this song please.
From: GUEST,Pete from York.
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 02:24 PM

I am sure it's a well known song,but I can't locate it. Last verse goes something like:- "It's snowing,It's raining The world is turning white Sun lights up the daytime Save Dinah for the night" Any ideas please.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Help I.D. this song please.
From: MMario
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 07:48 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: GUEST,Rory O'Moore
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:53 PM

As sung on Alan Lomax's Appalachian Journey?, He talks thro most of the song. The singer is Sheilah Barnhill, a'blieve,

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Jul 02 - 09:25 AM

Here's a description of the documentary film, Appalachian Journey. I can't find any other info, not even the title of the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: GUEST,Burke
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 05:23 PM

Sheila Barnhill now uses the name Sheila Kay Adams. She's recorded a song called Dinah on "A spring in the Burton Cove."

(found in searching WorldCat)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 02:56 AM

Sheila Barnhill sang two stanzas on the video. No title or background info is given there.

Raining and pouring
The rain is pouring down
I can't have my Dinah,
I'll have no one in town,
I'll have no one in town.

Raining, pouring
The world is turning white.
Sun lights up the daytime
Save Dinah for the night,
Save Dinah for the night.

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: DINAH (Dwight Diller, Sheila Kay Adams)
From: John Minear
Date: 02 Aug 02 - 01:40 PM

Here are the lyrics from Sheila Kay Adams' version of "Dinah", from A SPRING IN THE BURTON COVE. She learned it from Dwight Diller of West Virginia. The first verse is from Dwight and Sheila wrote the second and third verses.

Dinah, Oh Dinah, please say that you'll be mine
Take you home and love you, and kiss you all the time,
I'll kiss you all the time, I'll kiss you all the time.

It's rainin', it's pourin', the rain is falling down,
If I can't have my Dinah, I'll have no one in town,
I'll have no one in town, I'll have no one in town.

Snowin', it's snowin', the world is turnin' white,
Sun lights up the daytime, save Dinah for the night,
Save Dinah for the night, save Dinah for the night.
---

Here is Dwight Diller's version of "Dinah", from his recording O DEATH.

Dinah, Oh, Dinah, say that you'll be mine.
Take you home and kiss you, well kiss you all the time.
Kiss you all the time, yes, kiss you all the time.

You can ride the old grey horse, and I will ride the roan.
If you get there before we do, leave my Diner alone.
Leave my Diner, alone, yes, leave my Diner alone.

Wisht I had a banjo string made of golden twine,
Every tune I'd pick on it were, "I wisht that gal was mine,"
Wisht that Diner was mine, yes, wisht that Diner was mine.

Rainin' and it's pourin', the creek is raisin' fast,
Thought my Dinah cared for me, but knowed it would not last,
Knowed it would not last, yes, knowed it would not last.

Longest train I ever saw was fourteen coaches long,
Only girl I ever loved is on the train and gone,
On the train and gone, yes, on the train and gone.

Went to town the other day, Dinah passed me by,
Knowed her mind was changin' by the rollin' of her eye,
Rollin' of her eye, yes, the rollin' of her eye.

If I'd known before I courted that love was a killin' thing,
Locked my heart in a box of steel and tied it with a string,
Tied it with a string, yes, tied it with a string.

Rainin' and it's pourin', fallin' from the sky,
My true love went back on me, I will surely die,
I will surely die, yes, I will surely die.

My true love went back on me, I wouldn't last a month,
My true love went back on me, durn her, let her go,
Durn her, let her go, yes, durn her, let her go.

Both Sheila and Dwight do a very nice job on the banjo with this song.

Subject: Lyr Add: DINAH (from Bob Heyer)
From: John Minear
Date: 02 Aug 02 - 01:47 PM

I missed a few page breaks in Dwight's version, between the second and third verses and the fourth and fifth ones. Here's another version of "Dinah" by Bob Heyer, from his recording ROOT THAT MOUNTAIN DOWN. I think that Bob is also from West Virginia.

Diner, Oh,Dinah, if you were only mine,
Set you in a corner and kiss you all the time,
Kiss you all the time, kiss you all the time.

Poppa had an old grey horse, 'is name was Charlie Brown,
Every tooth in that horse's head was sixteen inches round.
Sixteen inches round, sixteen inches round.

Rainin' and a hailin', as hard as it can pour,
Can I hitch my old grey horse to your stable door,
To your stable door, to your stable door?

You can ride the old grey horse, I will ride the roan,
You can talk to your true love, do let mine alone.
Do let mine alone, do let mine alone.

Rainin' and a hailin', fallin' from the sky,
My true love goes back on me, I will surely die,
I will surely die, I will surely die.

My true love went back on me, went back on me, you know.
My true love went back on me, durn her, let her go.
Durn her, let her go, durn her, let her go.

Diner, Oh Dinah, if you were only mine,
Set you in a corner, kiss you all the time.
Kiss you all the time, kiss you all the time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: GUEST,BURKE
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:35 AM

Dwight Diller learned it from Aunt Jenny Wilson in West Virginia.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:48 AM

Very good, Turtle Old Man! I haven't seen you around here before, who are you?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:50 AM

Whoops, just checked your posting history and it seems you have been here since the end of June 02. Welcome to the zoo!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: John Minear
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 06:45 AM

GUEST-BURKE, can you say a little more about who Aunt Jenny Wilson is? This is such a nice song, it makes you want to know more about where it came from.

Sorcha, I'm still getting my feet wet, but having a lot of fun. I grew up in East Tennessee, southeastern Iowa, and southern Florida, spent 25 years in Colorado, and just recently moved to the Blue Ridge of central Virginia. I'm an old folkie from the '60's - what's called a "revivalist" now, which I don't much care for - and I'm interested in the old ballads and mysterious little songs like "Buckeye Jim".

"Turtle Old Man" is a my Trail name, from a hike I did on the AT in the spring of '01 from Central Virginia to Georgia. My mother had always wanted to hike the Trail from Maine to Georgia but never did and got too old. She just turned 85. She lives down in Georgia and I told her I would walk down and see her and tell her all about it. My first day out, which was St. Patrick's Day, I had to climb a mountain called "Three Ridges" and I moved like a turtle and felt like an old man, with a pack that was way too heavy. Eight hundred and fifty miles and a little more than a year later, I still feel that way. The hike took me through ballad country all the way and reawakened an active interest in Appalachian music. I have found Mudcat to be a welcome place.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 08:43 AM

(1) On Aunt Jenny Wilson:

"[Billy Edd] Wheeler also helped introduce fully traditional performers to broader audiences. Among West Virginians, none have been aided more than Aunt Jenny Wilson of Lgan County, an old-time banjoist, singer, and storyteller. Aunt Jenny's music goes back to at least to the days of Frank Hutchison and Dick Justice. Since the mid-1960s her music has livened numerous folk festivals through the Appalachian states. Her grandson Roger Bryant has also followed in her footsteps, albeit in a more modern vein. Some of Bryant's material of a satirical nature has been particularly effective, a song entitled "Daytime Television" being a case in point."
--Ivan Tribe, Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia (University Press of Kentucky, 1984, p. 157)

(2) Here's a photo of the plaque dedicated to her (1900-1992).
The inscription reads:
She was a beloved Logan County banjo player and a story teller. Internationally known for her preservation of Applachian culture. She was born in the "Doc Ellis" hollow of what is now Chief Logan State Park.

(3) From her own words (quoted in West Virgina History Volume 49):

In coal camps, houses were assigned to families according to the type of job the miner held.14 Within the camp, the family was not an isolated unit, but part of the social structure of the mining industry. "Aunt Jenny" Wilson described her life in Logan County camps:

"The bigger the job you had, the better the house you got. They had what they called the bosses' camp, and then they had a camp for just the coal miners off away from the bosses' camp. And then on above there was a camp for black people, which was called the colored camp."

As part of its control over the mining community, housing assignments followed the hierarchy of employment. The best houses were reserved for company officials and their families. Many had indoor plumbing and running waster as early as 1895.16 Urban historians of Pittsburgh and the Lower East Side of New York City have noted that working-class neighborhoods often lacked the sewers, paved streets and running water found in sections of the city where middle-class and professional people lived. In similar fashion, the houses built for miners and their families in coal camps did not share the modern conveniences provided for the mine superintendent, the company doctor, store manager, mining engineer and chief electrician.
The housing hierarchy described by "Aunt Jenny" Wilson was typical in the southern coalfields:

"My husband made his mine foreman certificate when he was 22, but he didn't always boss. He was an electrician too, but what he enjoyed most was runnin' a machine because, back then [1918], you made more money doing that than you did anything else. When you was hired as a machine runner, you would live right along just the same as the coal loaders, track men, and motormen. But when you was hired as a key man-as boss-you would stand a show to get a choice house.
The best houses in the camp they called "Silk Stocking Row." That's where the middle class people lived. You'd live right there as long as your husband worked at that company. But you better not let your house get all messed up and dirty around it."

As the wife of a skilled worker, Mrs. Wilson developed a strategy to improve upon her initial housing assignment in the camps:

"You know, if I moved in one of them bad houses, I wouldn't be there very long until I got a good house. If you wasn't a troublesome person . . . why then if a better house came empty, you could go and see about gettin' it.
Some places it was the manager, sometimes you went to the bookkeeper, and if you was liked, you didn't cause much trouble in the camp and your husband was a good worker, nine times out of ten, you would get the house. And that way, I always kept on the good side of the company until I could get the house I was pitchin' for."

This strategy might work for white women whose husbands held skilled jobs, but for black women and for white women like Ethel Brewster, whose husbands were hired at more menial jobs, the options were less flexible.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: GUEST,Burke
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 01:45 PM

Dwight Diller's version is available on his recording Oh Death! You can order it from his Web site

It's listed as a tape, but is also available as a CD. If you buy it, tell him Barbara told you about it.

Now that I'm home from DW's Banjo Retreat, I'll send him this URL & see if he has anything more to say on "Aunt" Jenny.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I.D. this song please-Save Dinah..night?
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 10:09 AM

This song also appears on one of David Holt's albums on the Appalshop Label (I believe)out of Whitesburg, Kentucky. I thought that he collected it from Dellie Norton a close older relative of Sheila Kay Adams. He just calls it Dinah.

Have always enjoyed Sheila's version. It prompted an old folkie multi instrumentalist friend of mine to go and buy a five string when he saw the Patchwork programmes.

Subject: RE: req/add: Dinah / Save Dinah for the Night
From: GUEST,Bob Heyer
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 02:25 PM

My version of the song Dinah that was recorded on "Root That Mountain Down" is acurately transcribed in an earlier post. I heard David Morris of Ivydale, WV sing this version at the 2nd Annual Roane/Calhoun Old Time Music Festival in Chloe, WV on Sept. 8, 1973.
I learned it from this version which I recorded. David's source was indeed Aunt Jennie Wilson from Logan County.

At this time Dwight Diller played with The Morris Brothers, John and David. Dwight also cites Aunt Jennie as his source as do I although in my case it came through David.

Subject: RE: req/add: Dinah / Save Dinah for the Night
From: GUEST,Bob Heyer
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 07:43 AM

The circle is complete if you know that Shelia Kay Adams knew Dwight Diller and the Morris Brothers. The Morris Brothers were putting together festivals in the early 70's and one of the festivals was in the Sodom area of North Carolina which is where Shelia's family was from. In addition, Shelia's Granny, Dellie Chandler Norton ( a great ballad singer in her own right) was at the 1972 Ivydale Festival held on the Morris family farm in Clay County, West Virginia.