Been To The East, Been To The West: A Song History

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The earliest recording of “Been to the East, Been to the West” documented in the sources consulted here is by a Mississippi string band. The Leake County Revelers recorded this G-major reel in New Orleans in April 1928, and Columbia issued it as 15318-D.[1] Most of the band lived in or near Sebastopol in Scott County, Mississippi; Will Gilmer played fiddle, and between 1927 and 1930 the group made records for OKeh and Columbia.[2]

1936 photograph looking down the railroad tracks past the station at Edwards, Mississippi

Walker Evans, “View of railroad station. Edwards, Mississippi,” photograph, 1936. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

The Traditional Tune Archive connects the title line to a stock phrase in older British balladry, citing Child ballad No. 215. It also traces lyrics associated with the tune to a blackface minstrel song published in 1846, and it lists “Going Down to Georgie-O” among several related Southern tunes.[1]

The tune appears in Phillips’s Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (1994) and in the Portland Collection (1997), and the Freight Hoppers recorded it in 2010.[1][3] Stephen Seifert’s mountain dulcimer book Join the Jam II includes it.[4]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Been to the East Been to the West".
  2. Mississippi Encyclopedia: "Leake County Revelers".
  3. The Portland Collection: "Tunes (Vol. 1)".
  4. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam II".