Roots
of American Fiddle Music
•"hell,
there ain't no notes to it...you just play it"
Based on W.
C. Handy's 1915 composition Hesitating Blues. Some of
the verses most likely come from a floating core of verses from
the black oral tradition. Poole's rendition may be related to
the one recorded by fellow North Carolina banjoist Fisher Hendley
in 1926 (Okeh 46012) as Let Your Shack Burn Down. The
other side of Hendley's record, Nigger, Will You Work?,
shares some verses with Poole's 1927 recording of Coon from
Tennessee. A1 Bernard, a popular recording artist with a
voice not unlike Poole’s, recorded The Hesitation Blues
for Okeh in 1928 (Rorer 92).
If the River Was Whiskey
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers
If the river was whiskey and
I was a duck
I'd dive to the bottom and I'd never come up.
Oh, tell me how long have I got
to wait
Oh, can't I get you now, must I hesitate?
If the river was whiskey and
the branch was wine
You could see me in bathing just any old time.
Chorus
I was born in England, raised
in France
I ordered a suit of clothes, and they wouldn't send the pants.
Chorus
I was born in Alabama, 's raised
in Tennessee
If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree.
Chorus
I looked down the road just as
far as I could see
A man had my woman and the blues had me.
Chorus
I ain't no doctor but the doctor's
son
I can do the doct'rin' till the doctor comes.
Chorus
Got the hesitating stockings,
the hesitating shoes
Believe to my Lord I've got the hesitating blues.
Chorus