"The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" is a popular song written by
Will S. Hays in 1871 for the minstrel trade. Written in dialect, the song tells of an elderly man, presumably a slave or former slave, passing his later years in a broken-down old log cabin. The title is from a refrain: "de little old log cabin in de lane".
The Ballad Index by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle lists more than 20 recordings of the song from 1903 to 1940.
The Metropolitan Quartet recorded the harmonized sentimental minstrel version in 1918, which has been digitized for online listening at the University of California at Santa Barbara..
Performers modified the lyric over the years, eliminating Hays' "darky" dialect along with the original reference to slavery. For example, the "old master and mistress" became the narrator's parents in mid-20th century
Bluegrass versions.
The song itself was popular, resulting in several answer songs, but the melody was even more widely used, including songs set in the cowboy West:
Western songs such as "
The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim
"The Little Old Sod Shanty On The Claim" is an American folk song written by Oliver Edwin Murray (O.E. Murray) of South Dakota. It appeared somewhere around 1880 published in several American newspapers. The printings suggested that it be sung to t ...
" and "Little Joe, The Wrangler"; railroad songs, "Little Red Caboose Behind The Train"; and even hymns, "
The Lily of the Valley
"The Lily of the Valley" ("I've Found a Friend in Jesus") is a Christian hymn written by William Charles Fry (1837–1882) in London for the Salvation Army. Ira D. Sankey arranged the words to the music of "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" ...
".
Fiddlin' John Carson
"Fiddlin'" John Carson (March 23, 1868 – December 11, 1949) was an American old-time fiddler and singer who recorded what is widely considered to be the first country music song featuring vocals and lyrics.
Early life
Carson was born near Mc ...
's recording of "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" was one of the first commercial recordings by a rural white musician.
[Carlin, ''Country Music'', p. x: "One artist whom Brockman recommended was a fifty-plus-year-old fiddler and sometime house painter named Fiddlin' John Carson; the Okeh label dutifully made a custom record of Carson singing the late-nineteenth-century popular song 'The little Old Log Cabin in the Lane' for Brockman to sell, but didn't even bother to assign a master number or affix a label to the 500 records pressed for him. It was only after the record became a regional hit that the light bulb of commerce lit up in the executives' heads, and suddenly they were scouring the countryside for entertainers."] Its popularity ensured that the industry would continue recording rural folk songs. The only known recording of banjo player
Uncle John Scruggs
John H. Scruggs (May 1855 – 5 March 1941), known as Uncle John Scruggs, was an African American banjo player who attracted attention for his singing and playing during the 1920s and '30s.
Career
Scruggs was born to slave parents Henry and ...
was a newsreel film performance of this song.
Lyrics
References
Bibliography
*Carlin, Richard. ''Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary''. New York: Routledge (2002).
* Thorp, N. Howard "Jack". ''Songs of the Cowboys''. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908, 1921.
*Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle.
Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane. ''The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World''. Hosted b
California State University, Fresno, Folklore 2007.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, The
American folk songs
Bluegrass songs
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
1871 songs
1923 singles
.