Great Big Taters in Sandy Land

DESCRIPTION: "Big yam taters in de sandy lan', Sandy bottom, sandy lan'." "Sift your meal an' save de bran, Mighty good livin' in de sandy lan'." The singer describes farming and courting in "de sandy lan'," and describes some of the local characters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: US(S0)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 69-70, "Raise Big Taters in Sandy Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 236-237, "Sandy Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 3, "Sandy Land" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be composite -- the first verse is "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land," the second is is "Oe more river I'm bound to cross," and the last is a "Sixteen Come Sunday" verse)
Roud #7909
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Sandy Land" (Piotr-Archive #235, recorded 09/05/2022, with a final fragment from "Sixteen Come Sunday," -- derived from the Tobitt version?)
NOTES [111 words]: Alan Lomax says this is the same tune as "Sally Anne," and close to "Sally Goodin." Paul Stamler, who knows all three as fiddle tunes, concedes a relationship to "Sally Anne" but not "Sally Goodin." Based on the versions I've heard, I agree -- but I've only heard bluegrass versions of "Sandy Land," so that proves very little.
The final verse of the American Ballads text is "Sal's Got a Meatskin..." -- but of course this may be a Lomax insertion.... But the number of versions which have a final verse from some other song is very high. It's almost as if there was a songbook out there somewhere that said, "Sing this then stick something else on the end." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA236

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