Boatsman, Dance

An Old Time fiddle tune and song derived from “De Boatman’s Dance,” a minstrel song published in 1843 by Dan Emmett, though the underlying melody almost certainly predates him. It appeared as “Ohio River” in George P. Knauff’s Virginia Reels, Vol. IV (≈1839) before Emmett advertised the piece as his own composition. Musicologist Hans Nathan and, later, folklorist Joyce Cauthen (1989) each concluded that the melody was in folk circulation before the minstrel era and cycled back into the fiddle tradition after its popularization on the minstrel stage.

The tune survives in two branches: song-linked versions carrying Emmett’s “dance, boatman, dance” chorus, as played by Melvin Wine of Braxton County, WV, in A in standard tuning, and related cross-tuned instrumental settings from Ed Haley of the eastern KY/WV border region (AEae) and Marcus Martin of Swannanoa, NC (DDad), whose settings dominate the modern revival. Haley’s home recordings from 1946–47 were released on Grey Eagle (Rounder CD 1133/1134, 1997). Martin’s 1942 field recording by Artus Moser appeared on When I Get My New House Done (UNC Southern Folklife Collection CD 100, 2007). Wine’s version is on Hannah at the Springhouse (Marimac AHS2 cassette, 1989). Mike Seeger recorded it on Fresh Oldtime String Band Music (Rounder CD 0262, 1988).

Notes: Hans Nathan (1910–1989) was a musicologist whose Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy (University of Oklahoma Press, 1962) remains the standard scholarly study of Emmett and the early minstrel stage. Joyce H. Cauthen is an Alabama folklorist, author of With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: A History of Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama (University of Alabama Press, 1989).