- Style
- Old-time
- Tradition
- Galax and Round Peak old-time
- Form
- Breakdown
- Key
- A
- Level
- 3
- Played on
- Fiddle, Mandolin, and Banjo
In the public domain. Source
Music
100bpm
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
A Galax area standard, it belongs to a large Blue Ridge family that includes "Pretty Little Miss," "Little Rabbit" and "Stillhouse Branch." Tommy Jarrell learned it from his father Ben and thought it came from "Pretty Little Miss." Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters recorded it in 1927.
West Virginia fiddler Franklin George said the tune was first "Herve Brown's Dream," and that the abolitionist John Brown, hanged in 1859 after the raid on Harpers Ferry, pushed Herve's name out. That story is unconfirmed, though most writers think the tune is older than the raid.
John Brown's dream, John Brown's dream, John Brown's dream, the devil is dead. Come on, Lula, come on, Lula, Come on, Lula, eat your hog and your bread.