Annotation:Carve dat Possum (1)

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 CARVE DAT POSSUM [1]. See "'Possum Pie" and "Bile Them Cabbage Down." Old-Time, Song. USA; Tennessee, Oklahaoma. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Charles Wolfe (1991) identifies this as a piece written and performed by black minstrel Sam Lucas about 1870, that appears in a few collections of minstrel songs. Thede printed the following stanza with the tune, collected from Oklahoma fiddlers: Carve dat 'possum Hannah, Carve dat 'possum soon; For de pan am ready, ''An here am de spoon. '' African-American collector Thomas Talley, in his book Negro Folk Rhymes (reprinted in 1991, edited by Charles Wolfe), gave the title as "An Opossum Hunt" and printed the text: Possum meat is good an' sweet                  Carve him to de heart, I always finds it good to eat,                        Carve him to de heart Cho: Charve dat possum! Charve dat possum! Charve dat possum! Oh charve 'im to de heart! My dog tree, I went to see                          Carve him to de heart, A great big possum up dat tree                   Carve him to de heart, I retch up an' pull him in,                            Carve him to de heart, Dat ol' possum 'gin to grin,                         Carve him to de heart, I tuck him home an' dressed him off           Carve him to de heart, Dat night I laind him in de' fros',                 Carve him to de heart, De way I cooked dat possum sound,         Carve him to de heart, I fust parboiled, den baked him brown        Carve him to de heart, I put sweet taters in de pan,                      Carve him to de heart,  'Twas de bigges' eatin' in de lan'                Carve him to de heart. Source for notated version: Printed sources: Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; p. 69. Recorded sources: Vocalion 5151 (78 RPM), Uncle Dave Macon (1927).

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