Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)

Subject: search for lyrics: Minglewood Blues
From: Doug
Date: 19 Feb 99 - 03:52 PM

Thanks to all who replied re: Cannon's Jug Stompers. Anybody know the words to Minglewood Blues? I know the (per)version by the Grateful Dead, am interested in this one. Tha

Subject: RE: search for lyrics: Minglewood Blues
From: Mike Billo
Date: 19 Feb 99 - 09:03 PM

The Dead sang Cannon's lyrics faithfully, and the melody they sang was faithful to the original also. Of course the instrumental accompaniment is a different story.

Subject: Lyr Add: MINGLEWOOD BLUES (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: RWilhelm
Date: 20 Feb 99 - 12:20 AM

MINGLEWOOD BLUES
As recorded by Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)

Don't you never let one woman worry your mind (2)
Then she keep you worried, worried all the time

Don't you wish your Sarah was little & cute like mine (2)
She's a married woman but she comes to see me some time

Don't you never let your woman rule your mind (2)
She keep you troubled, worried all the time

Well I got a letter, lord, you ought to heard it read (2)
If you're coming back baby now be on your way

The liner notes have the first line of the second verse as "Don't you wish your faro was little & cute like mine" but it sounds to me like he's saying "Sarah" and I'm not sure what "faro" would mean.

Subject: RE: search for lyrics: Minglewood Blues
From:
Date: 20 Feb 99 - 03:52 PM

Faro is a card game.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: GUEST,Visitor
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 02:53 PM

Did Gus Cannon include the lyric "I was born in the desert, raised in a lions den; my main occupation is taking women from their men."?
If not, do you know where that verse came from.
My favorite version is any by Geoff Muldaur (before or after his days with Kweskin). Anyone know where to find tabla for his mandolin part?
Sincerely.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: open mike
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 02:58 PM

tab is guitar fingering chart
tabla is an indian drum.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 05:11 PM

The Grateful Dead used the title "New New Minglewood Blues" for their rendition. That's two "news," so I don't think they expected anyone to think they were faithfully duplicating the original ~ and, as seen above, the lyrics transcribed from the Gus Cannon recording are completely different from the Dead's.

A song entitled "New Minglewood Blues" by one Noah Lewis, significantly different from the Gus Cannon song, is what the Dead actually adapted. It's one of three Noah Lewis songs in the GD repertoire, the others being "Viola Lee Blues" and "Big Railroad Blues."

I think I remember reading somwhere that Minglewood was at one time a thriving lumber camp in Tennessee, sort of a "boom town" with a lot of temporaray jobs, barrooms, whorehouses, gambling, etc. It's not even on the map any more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 09:58 PM

I played with a group of bluegrass and old time musicians, and a "new guy" showed up. The new guy had his wife, infant, and 8 year old daughter in tow, and he carried a mandolin case. Younger than the rest of us by probably 20 years, he played a wicked mando, and comped along on several tunes he had never heard of, like Soldier's Joy. When it came his time to suggest a tune, he seemed intimidated at first, then strummed a few chords of Shady Grove, and we all jumped in as he grinned. "Didn't think you guys would any Grateful Dead songs!" he said. Later, someone played Dark Hollow, and he remarked "another Dead song!"
Now, I know a lot of purists look down on Jerry and the Boys as pop perverters of folk music. Bluegrass and Country purists also turn their noses up. But I offer this...here was a young man who might have never encountered these two great traditional songs, had he not been introduced to them by the Grateful Dead. Maybe the New New Minglewood Blues wasn't true to Gus Cannon, but I'll bet you that Garcia knew and loved the original as he did Shady and Hollow, and he helped pass it to a new generation and I raise my glass and say "God Bless ye, ye bunch of addled old hippies. I call ye folkies, and to hell w' those what don't!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 01:16 AM

OCMS Minglewood Blues on Austin City Limits

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 05:45 AM

Thank you, Uncle Phil - I was about to point out the very fine version by Old Crow Medicine Show (who could also be seen accompanying Gillian Welch and David Rawlins singing "The Weight" on BBC 4 last night. Fantastic).

I love Gerry and the boys. Not only have they borrowed very successfully from the traditional American folk canon, but Norma Waterson has covered their Black Muddy River, and the Demon Barbers' recent CD, +24DB, includes a version of Friend of the Devil.

I love the folk process... :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 09:24 AM

If you want to get a dirty look at a Bluegrass session, start playing Friend of the Devil. For some reason, that one really pushes the buttons of the traditionalists.
Thanks Uncle Phil for the link. Excellent!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 10:11 AM

And how much do they love Wagon Wheel? :D

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: GUEST,Pedro
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 04:52 PM

"Don't you wish your Sarah was little & cute like mine (2)
She's a married woman but she comes to see me some time"

I may be eleven years late, but I think they say "fairer" and not Sarah. From the Merriam Webster dictionary:

1 : pleasing to the eye or mind especially because of fresh, charming, or flawless quality

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairer

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 06:26 AM

RWilhelm is right in saying the CD liner note transcriptions give "faro". I only know that as a card game so unless it is US slang for a young lady, "Sarah" makes more sense when singing it. Hey, I make up verses & mangle words in blues all the time- it's the folk process!

RtS
"You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog- a-humpin' on mah leg..." (C)RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 08:05 AM

FAROR means "girl friend" or "fair one", it seems, and was used in that sense by the Mississippi Shieks, contemporaries of Gus Cannon. The controversial word also sounds rather like "fair brown", a term used in several songs by Willie McTell

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: Richie
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 08:14 AM

I agree with Bob, it's a slang word for fair brown.

Also the lyrics one the first verse are wrong, at least from what I remember, Should be "rule your mind" and also, "worried, toubled" the second time it's "troubled, worried." I sing it the same both times unlike the original.

Richie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 05:22 PM

Faro is a card game, but in this case it looks like an obvious misspelling of the Southern old time idiom "fair-o", which means "fair one" or is possibly a deconstruction of "favored one."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Minglewood Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers)
From: GUEST,Peter von zur Muehlen
Date: 16 Oct 13 - 12:50 AM

Thanks for all the info here all of y'all. I somehow got onto reading about skiffle music and I went searching on youtube for some original skiffle bands and found the Gus Cannon stuff from the Wikipedia article photo.
After listening to the Gus Cannon and The Noah Lewis versions of Minglewood, I think what the Dead did was base the Lyrics, as least the opening verse on the Lewis version, buy the tune sound closer to the Gus cannon one to me.
The Viola Lee Blues sounds identical to the Gus Cannon version. I haven;t listened yet to the Noah Lewis one. Youtube blows my mind.
The lyrics posted above for the Gus Cannon version seem spot on.
I read along with them while I listened.

Subject: Lyr Add: NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES (Noah Lewis Jug Band
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Oct 13 - 08:48 PM

NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES
As sung by Noah Lewis' Jug Band (Noah Lewis, Sleepy John Estes, & Yank Rachel) (1930)

I was born in the desert; I was raised in the lion's den
I was born in the desert, raised in the lion's den
And my reg'lar occupation, takin' women from their other men.

When you come to Memphis, please stop by Minglewood. (2x)
Says the womens in the camp don't mean no man no good.

Subject: Lyr Add: NEW, NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES (Grateful Dead)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Oct 13 - 10:54 PM

NEW, NEW MINGLEWOOD BLUES
As recorded by the Grateful Dead on "Grateful Dead" (1967)

I was born in a desert, raised in a lion's den. (2x)
Oh, my number one occupation, stealin' women from their men.

If you're ever in Memphis, just stop by Minglewood. (2x)
Oh, now, take a walk downtown there; whoa, the women sure look good.

If you can't believe me, don't make it hard to believe in you. (2x)
'Cause we all need each other, whoa, ah, you know it's true.

I was born in a desert, raised in a lion's den. (2x)
Oh, my number one occupation, stealin' women from their men.