Clifton Hicks

"Old Coon Dog" | Performance

Added 2019-01-27 14:30:27 +0000 UTC

gCGCD (relative) AKA "Double C" or "One-Finger C."

I learned this song from the a field recording of J.M. Mullins available from the Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings website: https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1203

Bring me back my old coon dog (x3)

She treed a possum in a hollow log!

Got a damn good rifle and a damn good dog (x3)

I could hit that turkey buzzard!

I could shoot that turkey buzzard (x3)

Shoot him through the gizzard!

Possum in the chopping wood raccoon in the holler,

Old coon dog sitting on a log killing herself for a'bawling!

You can take the old grey mare who will be her rider?

We'll run down to the old still house and get us a jug of cider!

Bring me back my old coon dog (x3)

She treed a possum in a hollow log!

Very little is known about Mullins. Nathan Salsburg told me this: "Born in Wise Co VA, 1861. Came to KY in 1865. Discovered banjo at a tent show in Morgan Co; learned to play and got most of his tunes in Magoffin Co. Says he learned Got A Little Home In Georgia (rough variant of Gate to Go Through) in the Bluegrass, but not from whom."

Wise County is near Knott County, Kentucky where my banjo mentor George Gibson grew up. Also where Dock Boggs was from. When entering Kentucky from southeast one must pass through Wise. There were of course a ton of black musicians in the area, many of whom played banjo before that culture collapsed c. 1920-1940.

According to George Gibson, Cully Williams was the most well-known black banjoist in Knott County (and one of the last). In those days many local banjo contests were determined by popular vote. Williams won the Knott Co. Fair banjo contest so many times that he was banned from competing!