Library

Rabbit in the Pea Patch

Traditional

Style
Old-time
Tradition
Tennessee and Deep South old-time
Form
Reel
Key
D
Level
2
Played on
Fiddle, Mandolin, and Banjo

In the public domain. Source

Music

100bpm

Click any note to start from there

History

Most modern versions go back to Uncle Dave Macon, who recorded the song and breakdown in 1927 with Kirk McGee and Mazy Todd on fiddles. The piece may be older, possibly from the minstrel stage, but nobody has traced it. A newspaper in Clarke County, Alabama, listed it in 1926 among the old tunes played at a contest in Jackson.

Herbert Halpert recorded Mississippi fiddler W.E. Claunch playing it for the Library of Congress in 1939, and A.B. Moore's 1934 History of Alabama calls it a standard square dance tune.

I'm up on the hillside rakin' up hay, Rabbit in the pea patch eatin' all day.
Traditional

Read more on the Traditional Tune Archive