Louisiana Lowlands

DESCRIPTION: Pompey Snow has "a good stiff glass of rum. So they buried him in the lowlands ...." "The fire bells are ringing boys, ... The steamer she is left behind ... so they ...." "This little boy had an augu-er that bored two holes at once ... so they ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Fred Wilson's Book of Original Songs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous derivative floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 129, "Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1038, p. 71, "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 37, "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ShillingSongBook3, p. 68, "In de Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Wehman's Collection of 104 Songs - No. 8_ (New York:) Henry J. Wehman, 1865 (available on the Internet Archive), p. 26, "In de Louisiana Lowlands" ("'Way down in Louisiana, not many years ago"), with the chorus "In de Louisiana lowlands, lowlands, low, In de Louisiana lowlands low"
Fred Wilson, _Fred Wilson's Book of Original Songs_, (Boston:) John J. Dyer & Co., 1860 (available in the Robert Winslow Gordon Songster collection on the Library of Congress site), p. 22, "in the Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text)
ST CrNS129 (Full)
Roud #1830
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Vanity" [Child 286] (chorus and verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" base for parody)
cf. "A Boy He Had an Auger" (another parody of "The Golden Vanity" verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice")
cf. "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (see notes)
cf. "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (see notes)
NOTES [178 words]: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia may be all floating verses and fragments.
Its first verse, chorus and tunes are derived from the anonymous 1859 minstrel song "In the Louisiana Lowlands" which has nothing but form and, vaguely, melody to relate it to the "Golden Vanity" (see Public Domain Music site Music from 1800-1860). [It also reminds me a bit of songs like "Uncle Ned" and "Pompey Squash." - RBW]
[The third verse of the Creighton version,] "Some were playing cards .." is either from "The Golden Vanity" or some other parody. The [second] verse beginning "The fire-bells are ringing, boys, there is a fire in town" ... is suggested by "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (1877) by Henry Clay Work (Source: Public Domain Music site Henry Clay Work (1832-1884))
The "original" "Louisiana Lowlands" air may be found at: LOCSheet, sm1881 03225, "Then Sing Louisiana Lowlands," unknown (New Orleans), 1881 (tune)
If "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" or "In the Louisiana Lowlands" are ever reported in tradition they should be treated as separate songs from this one. - BS
Last updated in version 7.2
File: CrNS129

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography