Wasp In The Wagon: A Song History

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"Wasp In The Wagon" appears in John Keane's 15 Originals, a Fingers Of Steel book of mountain dulcimer sheet music; the book's song list groups its fifteen tunes by tuning and places this one thirteenth, the last of three in DAA after "Mule In The Tub" and "Nadine Stole A Goat."[1] Like every title in the book, it is credited to Keane as composer.[1]

Japanese woodblock book page with a small wasp in flight, a caterpillar on leafy vines, and lines of Japanese script

Kitagawa Utamaro, Paper Wasp (Hachi); Hairy Caterpillar (Kemushi), from the Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (Ehon mushi erami), page from woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper, 1788. A wasp but no wagon, shown in fun for the title; it has no connection to the tune.

Keane performs with Karen Keane as a Shreveport, Louisiana, duo whose music takes in Louisiana traditional music, folk, bluegrass, Delta blues and humorous novelties, played on mountain dulcimer, Native American flute, ukulele and cajon.[2] No recording of this tune, on a Keane album or elsewhere, turned up in the sources consulted here, and they offer no account of its writing or its name.[1][2]

Our book that contains the song "Wasp In The Wagon"

Sources

  1. Fingers Of Steel: "John Keane, 15 Originals".
  2. DulcimerDownloads: "John Keane".
  3. Image: Kitagawa Utamaro, Paper Wasp (Hachi); Hairy Caterpillar (Kemushi), from the Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (Ehon mushi erami), page from woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper, 1788. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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