Brown's Ferry Blues

DESCRIPTION: About a "hard-luck papa," etc.; "Hard-luck papa counting his toes... smell his feet wherever he goes"; "Hard-luck papa standing in the rain/If the world was corn, he couldn't buy grain"; "Refrain: "Lord, lord, got those Brown's Ferry blues."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Delmore Brothers)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 224-225, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 73, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (1 text)
DT, BRWNFERY
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (on FBode1)
Bill Cox, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Melotone 13161/Oriole 8380, 1934)
Delmore Bros., "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Bluebird B-5403Montgomery Ward M-4750. 1934; rec. 1933) (King 592, 1947)
McGee Brothers (Sam, Kirk), "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Decca 5348, 1937); (Champion 45033, 1935; Decca 5373; rec. Aug 14, 1934)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12) (NLCR16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jackhammer John" (tune)
cf. "Dog House Blues" (tune)
cf. "Rubberneck Blues" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Shirt Factory Blues (by Cleda Helton and James Pyle) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 143)
Philyaw Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues, No. 4" (Vocalion 04186, 1938) [that's not a misprint, I said Philyaw - PJS]
Delmore Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues - Part 2" (Bluebird B-5893/Montgomery Ward M-4553, 1935)
Delmore Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues, Part 3" (Bluebird B-8230, 1939)
Callahan Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues - No. 2" (ARC 6-04-59/Conqueror 8627, 1936 [as Walter Callahan]; the ARC master was issued on Melotone, Perfect and other labels owned by ARC, sometimes under the name of Walter Callahan)
Log Cabin Boys, "New Brown's Ferry Blues" (Decca 5103, 1935)
Jackhammer Blues (by Woody Guthrie) (Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. 46; (Woody Guthrie), __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 48-49)
Grand Coulee Powder Monkey (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 46-47)
NOTES [83 words]: Both the McGee Brothers and the Delmore Brothers claim authorship of this piece. The obvious conclusion is that neither actually wrote it.
The success of the Delmore Brothers recording was such that, when station WLW in Cincinnati formed a gospel super-group in 1943 consisting of the Delmores, Merle Travis, and Grandpa Jones, the group decided to take the name the Brown's Ferry Four after the Delmore song (W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 53). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CSW224

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