- Style
- Old-time
- Tradition
- West Virginia old-time, minstrel origin
- Form
- Reel
- Key
- A Mixolydian
- Level
- 2
- Played on
- Fiddle, Mandolin, and Banjo
In the public domain. Source
Music
100bpm
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
It comes into old-time music from Edden Hammons of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, but it is older than his playing. A similar tune, with a different second part, appears in Phil Rice's Correct Method for the Banjo of 1857 and in a minstrel songbook from 1844.
The version heard at festivals and jams today differs from Hammons' tune, and Tune Arch suggests it may go back to Bob Herring learning Hammons' version a little wrong. Gerry Milnes found bawdy words sung to it in West Virginia, and plenty of floating verses fit it too.
Raccoon's got a long bushy tail, Possum's tail is bare. Rabbit's got no tail at all, Just a little bit a bunch of hair. Do come along, Sandy boys, Do come along, oh do; Do come along, Sandy boys, Waiting for the booger-boo.