Liza Up In The 'Simmon Tree: A Song History
The Traditional Ballad Index files "Liza Up In The 'Simmon Tree" under "Liza Jane," a song it traces through many versions in the Appalachians, the Midwest and the South.[1] The Index's editors describe the song as "almost certainly of minstrel origin."[1] W. K. McNeil's anthology Southern Mountain Folksong prints a version under this title, in which the Liza Jane refrain is joined to verses that also wander through other songs.[1]
Sakai Hōitsu, Persimmon Tree, folding screen, ink and color on paper, 1816. A Japanese painting of a persimmon tree, shown for the 'simmon tree of the title; it has no connection to the song.
The earliest recordings under this title in the sources consulted here are by Bradley Kincaid, born in Garrard County, Kentucky, who took up song collecting in earnest while a student at Berea, with a teacher's encouragement, travelling through eastern Kentucky, and who later became a regular on the National Barn Dance over Chicago's WLS.[2] He first recorded it for Gennett in Richmond, Indiana, on July 12, 1928, as "Liza Up The Summer Tree," but the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists no release from that session.[3] He recorded it there again on January 28, 1929, and that take was issued on Gennett 6761, Supertone 9362 and Champion 15687, the Champion disc naming the singer as "Dan Hughey."[4] The Ballad Index dates a later Champion issue to about 1935.[1] In January 1938 George "Shortbuckle" Roark sang it with banjo in Pineville, Kentucky, for a field recording now in Mary Elizabeth Barnicle's Kentucky collection, where "Liza Jane" is given as an alternate title.[5]
Maureen Sellers includes it in My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two, the 56-page second half of her two-book Fingers Of Steel course, which pairs fundamentals and how-to's with a selection of tunes.[6]
Sources
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "Liza Jane".
- Berea College Special Collections & Archives: "Bradley Kincaid Collection".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Gennett matrix 14030. Liza up the summer tree / Bradley Kincaid".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Gennett matrix 14746. Liza up in the 'simmon tree / Bradley Kincaid".
- Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings (Berea College, University of Kentucky, American Folklife Center, Association for Cultural Equity): "Liza Up the 'Simmon Tree".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two".
- Image: Sakai Hōitsu, Persimmon Tree, folding screen, ink and color on paper, 1816. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.