Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos

DESCRIPTION: The singer remarks, "There ain't no more cane on this Brazos, oh-oh-oh; They done ground it all down to molasses, oh-oh-oh." He describes the dreadful conditions faced by the prisoners and wishes he could escape such horrors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (field recording)
KEYWORDS: prison abuse punishment death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 305-306, "No More Cane on this Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 92, "Ain't No Mo' Cane on dis Brazis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 58-59, "Ain' No Mo' Cane on de Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 144, "No More Cane on This Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 132-133, (no title) (1 text, heavily modified to produce a blues feel)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 77-75, "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (1 text, 1 tune; the first verse, about driving women and men alike, is from this song or "Go Down, Old Hannah", but the remainder is a separate piece); pp. 130-132, "No More Cane on the Brazos/Godamighty" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixture of this with another song Jackson calls "Godamighty" though it has almost no lyric elements in common with "Godalmighty Drag")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 326-327, "No More Can on this Brazos" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 65, "Ain't No More Can On This Brazos" (1 text)
DT, CANEBRAZ*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 521, "Big Brazos River" (1 text, with verses related to this althugh possiby a separte song)
Roud #10063
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "No More Cane on the Brazos" (Piotr-Archive #646, recorded 08/16/2023)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Ain' No More Cane on the Brazos" (AFS 2643 B1, 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Down, Old Hannah"
cf. "Oughta Come on the River"
cf. "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: The amount of common material in this song and "Go Down, Old Hannah" makes it certain they have cross-fertilized. They may be descendants of a common ancestor. But the stanzaic forms are different, so I list them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA058

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