"Get up in the Morning"

Comment by Steven Hedgpeth on October 2, 2009 at 10:20am

Please correct me if I'm wrong about that being Emmett's tune: I'm working from memory from either what Bob Flesher says about it in one of his books or what Bob Carlin says about it in Joel Walker Sweeny and the Birth of Minstrelsy. Whichever source it was said that Emmett wrote the modal version of "The Blue Tail Fly" with lyrics, but that he later moved the lyrics to the tune of "Git up in the Morning" (which he may have written previously), and that that's how the "Jim Crack Corn" version of "The Blue Tail Fly" came about.

Comment by Steven Hedgpeth on October 3, 2009 at 10:24am

Corrections: Bob Flesher's recording Civil War Banjo, Track 7, is a "Briggs Breakdown & Get up in the Morning" medley, and the liner notes report that "Billy Whitlock, student of Joel Sweeney, composed 'Get up in the Morning' with words around 1842 in New York City." So if Flesher's right, then I was way off in my memory of that tune and of what I thought I remembered him saying about it.

Also, the title of the Carlin book I was referring to is actually The Birth of Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy, and quick glance at the index yesterday afternoon suggested that there is nothing at all in it about the composition or adaptation of this tune.

My, how invention creeps into history through the hasty unpuzzling of a piecemeal memory!

Comment by Brian Welch on October 3, 2009 at 11:15am

Steven,

Dan Gellert, on his Waitin' on the Break of Day, says this of his version of Jimmy Crack Corn:

"From Pete Seeger. Not quite the "Blue-Tail Fly", the tune is virtually identical to the minstrel song "Git Up in de Morning." So you aren't completely crazy!

Very nice version by the way and congrats on the new banjo.

--Brian

Comment by Ron Stanfield on October 10, 2009 at 6:55pm

Steven....

Good job on this. Really clean and smooth!

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