Little Old Cabin In The Lane: A Song History
"Little Old Cabin In The Lane" is an 1871 song with words and music by Will S. Hays, published by J. L. Peters; the copy in the University of South Florida's Black American Sheet Music Collection says it was sung by Manning's Minstrels.[1] Hays (1837–1907) was a Louisville man who wrote for that city's newspapers, spent time as a steamboat captain on the Mississippi and Ohio, and produced about 350 songs.[2] The Traditional Tune Archive says he wrote this one for the minstrel trade, and that its narrator is an elderly Black man who looks back on his years in slavery as contented ones.[3] Hays followed it with sequels in 1875 and 1880, and the Archive notes that the song was also well known in Britain in the later 19th century, where James S. Kerr printed it in his Merry Melodies as "Cabin Down the Lane."[3] Its melody had a long second life in church: Hymnary.org says C. W. Fry adapted it for his hymn "The Lily of the Valley."[2]
J. J. Lankes, In Virginia, wood engraving, 1928. A plain country house, shown for the cabin of the title; it has no connection to the song.
The song reached records early; the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists a Berliner cornet duet made before April 1899 and 1901 Victor discs by Vess Ossman and Len Spencer, a vocal with banjo.[4] In June 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recorded it in Atlanta, fiddling and singing, and OKeh issued it as 4890.[5] The New Georgia Encyclopedia says it was one of two songs Carson cut at a makeshift studio on Nassau Street after OKeh's Ralph Peer reluctantly agreed to record him, that the first 500 copies sold out within days, and, in a picture caption, that the session launched the country-music recording industry.[6] The Archive calls Carson's disc the second best-selling country record of 1923.[3] Victor recorded Fiddlin' Powers & Family playing it in August 1924 and Ernest V. Stoneman with the Dixie Mountaineers in September 1926.[4] It also passed into oral tradition: the I. G. Greer collection at Appalachian State University, gathered mainly in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties of North Carolina, holds a sung variant credited to Hays.[7]
Dulcimer players will find it in the second volume of Maureen Sellers's My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, a 56-page Fingers Of Steel book that mixes basic how-to lessons with a selection of songs.[8]
Sources
- University of South Florida Digital Commons, Black American Sheet Music: "The Little Old Cabin in the Lane".
- Hymnary.org: "Will S. Hays".
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Little Old Log Cabin".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Will. S. Hays".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix 8374. The little old log cabin in the lane / Fiddlin' John Carson".
- New Georgia Encyclopedia: "Fiddlin' John Carson (ca. 1868-1949)".
- Appalachian State University, W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection: "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, Lyric Variant 01".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two".
- Image: J. J. Lankes, In Virginia, wood engraving, 1928. The Cleveland Museum of Art.