Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the first verse: "Hand me down my walkin' cane (x3), I'm gonna catch the midnight train, All my sins been taken away, taken away." Remaining verses involve traveling, prison, food, where the singer wants to be buried, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recordings, Kelly Harrell, Gid Tanner, Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe)
KEYWORDS: rambling food prison death burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 363, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 95, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 53, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 21, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 14, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (1 text)
DT, WALKCANE
Roud #11733
RECORDINGS:
Boswell Sisters, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (Brunswick 6335, 1932)
Vernon Dalhart, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (Durium [UK] 9-3, 1933)
Durium Dance Band w. Carson Robison & his Pioneers, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (Durium [UK] EN-27, 1932)
Sid Harkreader w. Grady Moore, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Paramount 3022, 1927; Broadway 8055 [as "Harkins and Moran"], c. 1930)
Kelly Harrell, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Victor 20103, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4330, 1933; on KHarrell02)
Sim Harris, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Oriole 916, 1927)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Brunswick 107/Vocalion 5028, 1927)
Claude Moye, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Champion 15688 [as Asparagus Joe]/Supertone 9363 [as Pie Plant Pete], 1929)
North Carolina Hawaiians, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (OKeh 45297, 1929; rec. 1928)
Carson Robison w. his Pleasant Valley Boys, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (MGM 12266, 1956)
Carson Robison [Trio], "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Crown 3027, c. 1930)
Short Creek Trio, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Gennett 6272/Challenge 398 [as Logan County Trio], 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Edison 51938, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5297, 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Banner 1993, 1927/Domino 3964/Regal 8324/Oriole 916 [as by Sim Harris]/Homestead 16490 [as by Harris], c. 1929)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Columbia 15091-D, 1926)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (on DownYonder)
Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (OKen 45061, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Sins Been Taken Away"
cf. "Heaven and Hell" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Free at Last" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Dawsonville Jail" (lyrics)
cf. "Herlong's Train" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Ballad of Blue Bell Jail (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 143)
NOTES [32 words]: It is possible (perhaps even likely) that the song filed as "All My Sins Been Taken Away" is a worn-down version of this piece, but it is known in enough versions that I finally split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB053

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