Annotation:Old Granny Blair
X:1 T:Old Granny Blair N:From the playing of fiddler Estill Bingham (Bell County, N:south-eastern Kentucky, 1899-1990) M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel F:https://soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/436 F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/old-granny-blair Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G GG[GB]G A2G2|EDEG [A3A3]A|AAdB A2G2|EDEG G4| GG[GB]G A2G2|EDEG [A3A3]A|AAdB A2G2|EDEG G3+slide+[ee]-|| [ee]egg e2d2|BA Bd[e3e3]e-| efgf e2d2 |BABA G3G-| GAdB A2G2|ED(EG) G4||
OLD GRANNY BLAIR. AKA and see "Old Molly Hare." American, Reel (cut time). USA, Kentucky. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Old Granny Blair" is usually played and sung as a variant of "Old Molly Hare" (a derivative of Nathaniel Gow's "Largo's Fairy Dance") however, source Estill Bingham's (1899-1990) version is distanced. He sang this ditty to the tune:
Old Granny Blair, what're you doing there?
Running through the cotton patch as fast as I can tear.
Legs like a deer and feet like a bear,
Running through the cotton patch as fast as I can tear.
The lyric is shared with Bascon Lamar Lunsford's version of "Old Granny Rattle-Trap (1)." Vance Randolph collected several versions of the song in Missouri, which he published in his wonderful Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore: Roll Me in Your Arms, vol. 1 (1992, No. 118). This from Mr. L.K. of Cyclone, Mo., in 1931, learned around the year 1890:
Old Granny Blair, what you doin' there?--
Settin' on a dog turd pickin' out the hair.
I picked out one, I picked out two,
I picked out another 'un, an' give it to you.
Old Granny Blump, settin' on a stump,
Callin' for a currycomb to curry down her cunt.
Randolph points out the form of the couplets: one person ask a foolish question, and receives an equally foolish nonsensical put-down.
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