Last Possum Up Tthe Tree: Song Lyrics
- Friday, September 01, 2006 -
Introduction
It is sometimes difficult to understand the words of a song when listening to a recording. Therefore, I have listed here verses to each of the songs on the Possum CD. Preceding the lyrics is a brief biography and an overview of my sources for the music on the Possum CD.
Biographical Information
I was born May 14, 1938 on Burgey's Creek in Knott County, Kentucky, in a log cabin built ca. 1900 by James Edward "Uncle Ed" Thomas, the first known dulcimer maker in Kentucky. Burgey's Creek is officially known as Little Carr Creek and is a tributary of Carr Creek, which is a tributary of the Kentucky River. My parents were descendants of some of the earliest pioneers in east Kentucky. Settlers brought banjo songs and frolics into east Kentucky well prior to the Civil War. I have found two references to the banjo in Kentucky prior to 1700. Early settlers in the area were mostly from Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
My father, Mal Gibson (1900-1996), learned to play banjo around 1905-10 along with his older sister Flora (1896-1936) and Mel Amburgey (1893-1972), a neighbor from a very musical family. Mel Amburgey told me that he, my father and my father's sister could play over 100 songs in one tuning of the banjo. This was a remarkable feat, for they used many different tunings. My father's younger brother, Bob Gibson, also learned to play banjo, although I never heard him play. My mother, Tishie Hammons Gibson, had several relatives that played banjo.
My grandfather, George W. Gibson, and his first cousin, Dan Gibson, were playing banjo in Knott County by the 1890s. Dan was a noted banjo player and square dance caller. Dan Gibson is well known in Kentucky for his resistance to strip mining. The Ballad of Dan Gibson is a song that describes Dan's involvement with strip mining. It was written by Gurney Norman and is published in Guy and Candie Carawans' book, Voices from the Mountains.
Dr. Josiah Combs, from Hindman in Knott County, collected early versions of Ground Hog and Poor Ellen Smith from Dan Gibson and Tom Kelley ca.1915. Combs also collected several square dance calls from Dan Gibson.
The banjo tradition and its supporting culture in Knott County began collapsing by World War II. It was difficult to find people who still played the old music in 1950, when I began learning to play banjo. Most of the dances at local schools had ceased during the 1940s. I left Kentucky early in the 1960s with a Kay five-string banjo and a Vega Whyte Laydie guitar banjo. I continued to play some of the old songs, perhaps as a way of connecting with a past that I had glimpsed very briefly. I am the last person playing the traditional banjo music of Burgey's Creek. I am the last possum up the tree.
Notes on Tunings
My father used many different tunings while playing the banjo in a pitch lower than today's standard. I have always done the same. I very seldom had occasion to play with other people; consequently, I never used a capo on the banjo. In 1994, when I was asked to be guest of honor at the Florida Old Time Music Championships, I began to document the tunings I used, and purchased a tuner so I would know the pitch to which I tuned. This is most often two frets below standard. All the tunings below are listed as if I were tuned to standard pitch. To get the actual tunings used, however, strings should be pitched two frets lower. I used a 1924 Gibson guitar-banjo on two of the songs on this CD. I usually tune the guitar-banjo to standard pitch and capo at the second fret.
Track 1; LAST GOLD DOLLAR, g-CGCD: I was playing this song before I heard Gran Hudson (1911-2004) sing it. I only knew one or two verses. Gran sang a version that ended with all of the verses that are commonly sung to Mole in the Ground. When I asked Gran if his version might be two songs, he became a little testy and said "That's the way my daddy sung that song, and that's the way it's supposed to be sung." I didn't sing all those verses here, and I apologized to Gran for not doing so. Gran was a fine banjo player and balladeer, as was his father, Steve Hudson. I believe I was picking a version of Last Gold Dollar without singing when I first met Gran. He said "Son, if you can't sing it don't pick it." I never heard Gran pick a tune without singing.
