Songnotes

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A Companion to the Old Town School Songbook

Compiled and edited byMark Dvorak.

Oh Mary Don't You Weep

A spiritual out of the African American tradition, “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” pre-dates the Civil War and has been popular for more than a hundred years. The lyrics are right out of the Book of Exodus.

Source: Rise Up Singing, Sing Out! Publications.
Recordings on File by: Lead Belly, Pete Seeger with Willie Dixon, Various artists.

Oh Susannah

In 1846, at age 20, Stephen Foster went to Cincinnati to work for his brother Dunning as a bookkeeper of the firm of Irwin & Foster. This position he held only two years, being very unhappy in this work. As a practical bookkeeper, Stephen Foster was a success; his books were the model of neatness and accuracy. In his heart however, he was a glorious failure. Glorious, to the extent that his distaste for bookkeeping caused him to turn to the one thing he longed to do.
Foster was known to hum tunes and scribble words while perched on his high stool at the office of Irwin & Foster. While Mr. Irwin fretted about “Stephie’s writing another song,” Dunning feared his brother would never make a business man.
Foster finished only two songs during his musical bookkeeping days in Cincinnati. “Down South Where the Cane Grows” was entered in a contest for minstrel songs, but did not win a prize. The second, “Oh Susannah,” was considered a lesser effort and not considered very successful at all. Foster was delighted for eventually receiving $100 for the song.

Source: Stephen Foster page.
Recordings on File by: Douglas Jimmerson, Pete Seeger, James Taylor.

Old Blue

Backwoods folk of the South lived off game, and they thought more of a good hunting dog than they did of most people. They loved and lied about their dogs and as such, a whole body of folklore about hunting dogs and their super-natural abilities materialized. “Old Blue” is the most common of these canine tall tales. It's a quiet song, very serious and genuinely sentimental. “Old Blue” is the “John Henry” of hunting dogs.

Source: Folk Song USA, Alan Lomax, Editor, New American Library.
Recordings on File by: Guy Carawan, Cisco Houston, Art Thieme, Dave Van Ronk

Old Dog Tray

The minstrel show originated about 1830 but it really did not reach its full development until some years later. It was, in those days, the popular form of entertainment and the most popular traveling show was E.P. Christy’s Celebrated Band of Minstrels.
Christy’s troupe, which was formed in 1842, made the greatest contribution to this form of art. Prizes were often offered by publishers to induce the composing of minstrel songs and Stephen Foster’s first direct contribution to this type of music was in 1847 when he sent in as a contribution to one of these contests, “Down South Where the Cane Grows.” The song was not accepted as a prize winner but was of sufficient interest to induce those offering the prize to seek to copyright it.
The first of Foster’s minstrel songs to be published was “Louisiana Belle,” which appeared in 1847 and Stephen Foster was launched on a musical career at the age of twenty two. Most of his songs were sung by the Christy Minstrels for whom, after a time, Foster composed almost exclusively. Christy did much to popularize the songs of Stephen Foster, including the beautifully sentimental “Old Dog Tray.”

Source: Stephen Foster page.
Recordings on File by: Douglas Jimmerson.

Old Time Religion

Some argue that parody is at the very genesis of the folk process. School-aged children are the real masters of the form. Who among us hasn't sung, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school...” to the tune “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”? Or “On top of old Smoky, all covered with cheese...”?
Although parody songs are almost always playful and humorous, not all parodies are limited to the world of children’s music. “Gimme That Old Time Religion” is a shining example of a folk song parody. The original verses to “Old Time Religion” extolled the virtues of faith in the Baptist Church and were once sung throughout the South. Though still sung in earnest in many congregations, its parody of the same title has far outgrown the original in popularity. It's been sung around the world and now has literally hundreds of clever and undocumented verses to accompany the same simple tune. And there's more being improvised all the time.

Recordings on File by: Cisco Houston, Pete Seeger, Joseph Spence, Various artists.

A Final Note…