"Ole Pee Dee"

[Tim Twiss]

Does any body use this in their performance? Or, has anybody played it?
If we revive the "Friday Post" I would like to hear some versions of this popular, but scarcely heard tune. I am referring to the version from the Hans Nathan Book. I had never even played through it until tonight. It would work as a vocal/Minstrel tune, or a "Briggs'" type instrumental.
It is also in Levy's ....same thing. It is like "Walk Jawbone"....the rest of the story.

[John Masciale]

Tim,

I never really considered this one because of the language. However, it looks like it could be fun. I was thinking of retranscribing it and replacing the n word with slave boy, which should keep the context of the song. I could probably get this posted by tomorrow. What do you think?

[Carl Anderton]

I think Chris Ownby plays this one.

[John Masciale]

Here is something I transcribed from Hans Nathan's Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy. This is not a banjo part, but the treble part of a piano score.

[Tim Twiss]

Hey John...nice clean transcription. You know, there are very few tunes that need no editing (for lyrics). I guess it is a matter of how far you can go to sanitize it, and yet not turn it into something totally ridiculous, drawing even more attention to the content.
Well, I'm working on it.

[John Masciale]

I discovered I managed to leave out a line. Here is the correction

[Tim Twiss]

The tune is actually credited to "J.P. Carter".
Who was that?

[Trapdoor2]

I dunno who he is. A.P Carter's grandfather? ;-)

The "Ole Pee Dee" is a river in South Carolina. Stephen Foster evidently had it in his original lyrics for "Old Folks At Home" but switched to the "Suwanee" at the last minute. "Way down upon de Pee Dee ribber..." doesn't seem to have the ring that "Suwanee" does, now do it?

Oh, and Mr. Carter is listed as the writer of "Lucy Neal" too...

[John Masciale]

Could it be Jim Carter? According to Monarchs of Minstrelsy,

"Jim Carter, one of the earliest of black face performers ... was also one of the original Campbell's Minstrels, organized June, 1847."

I also found a reference for him with the Virginia Serenaders.

[Tim Twiss]

Ah, thanks John. Any more information about him? What did he play?

[John Masciale]

From the sheet music cover referenced here, he was a banjo player.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virginia_Serenaders.jpg

The same picture is shown in Monarchs of Minstrelsy, and there he is referred to as Jim Carter, so I think they are one and the same person.

[Tim Twiss]

Oh yes...seen that cover a lot, but never read the name. I wonder how it ended up in the Emmett book.
How's the tune coming along for you?
I'm going to use a "hip" reference instead of "lip", like in "Walk Jawbone".

[John Masciale]

I have to agree with you on using hip. The song is very playable, and I am pleased with the way it is coming along. There is room for some variation on this one, so Friday should be interesting.

I think Emmett liked this one. The intro is similar to some of the intros that he did, and there is a feel to the song that is not all that different from some of Emmetts'.