Grasshopper-Sitting-on-a-Sweet-Potato-Vine

A few weeks back when our friend David Kaynor was visiting from his home in Massachusetts he taught the girls the fiddle tune “Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine.” Neither the girls nor Paul and I had ever heard it. David got a kick out of telling us it was an old North Carolina fiddle tune.

I filmed the trio playing the song on the back deck on one of the days Spring was teasing us that it was really here. While that day was warm and sunny today feels like old man winter has come back to stay.

I hope you enjoyed the peppy tune. Have a great Sunday!

Tipper

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20 Comments

  1. I found lyrics (https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=6506).

    “Grasshopper a settin’
    on a sweet tater vine,
    ‘Long come a Blackbird
    an’ nab him up behind.

    Blackbird a-settin’
    in a sour apple tree ;
    Hawk grab him up behind;
    he “Chee! Chee! Chee!”

    Big hawk a-settin’
    in de top of dat oak,
    Start to eat dat Blackbird
    an’ he git choke. “

  2. A peppy tune indeed, and the black & white video gives it an old timely look.
    Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer did a fine rendition of this old song. Their lyrics are very fun.

  3. This turns up at Old Time jams in NE Ohio, but I don’t think the Bluegrass crowd play it at all here. Maybe it never caught on with the 3 finger Scruggs banjo crowd? Sounds great!

  4. it’s a rare day that I hear a fiddle tune that I’ve not heard before, but this was one of them. Well done, ladies

  5. Tipper,
    That seems like another George Washington Folk Dance to me, but I like it, a nice way to do a Sunday tune. They all did a fine job cause I could see David smile at the end. …Ken

  6. Thank you, Tipper, girls and David!….I’m going to Google the title to see if I can find the words…..Thoughts and prayers for a Blessed Sunday for all!

  7. I love the fiddles singing two part harmony. Mr. Kaynor is quite a fine fiddle player and Chitter is gaining on him. I like the part when Chatter puts her foot up as if applying the brakes. I don’t know if that was intentional but the song soon ended. That is cool! The videography is cool! The whole thing is cool!

  8. Love it, they were doing good job! And it was a nice day.
    At first I thought they were playing Battle Hymn/ Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.
    How wonderful to be able to play anything as they do.

  9. That was a peppy tune with a lot of foot tapping going on there on your deck and right here under my desk.

  10. Unfortunately the sound has gone bad on my apparatus. I haven’t caught them at it but I suspect I have had some several grasshoppers on the radishes. Unless it was cabbage butterfly worms…….

    I’m guessing those short sleeve days are feeling far away this morning up in Wilson Holler. Spring has surely been teasing us this year. Here where I live we are headed for Suddenly Summer by the end of the week. At least this year the only thing I planted too early is carrots and we did not get the snow at least one weather model showed.

  11. That was really good, some where in the back of my mind seems I heard it before, but not sure, my mind has run out of space and I need an external storage area.

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