7369 old music 2402 - KET

Stay All Night
(Traditional)
In early pioneer days, fiddlers were as plentiful as storekeepers or farmers; and
on a Saturday night, families would gather in someone’s house, roll back the rugs,
and dance all night. As one fiddler tired, another would take his or her place, and
the music and the dancing would go until the wee hours of the morning.
“Stay All Night” recounts this earlier time. The fiddle music that is exchanged
with the lyrics reflects the hoedown style of dance music. The rhythmic shuffling of
the fiddle bow and the clawhammer style (or rapping) of the banjo entice the
listener to dance.
We learned this version of “Stay All Night” from a recording by Bob Wills and his
Texas Playboys of the 1940s and the dance tunes from Guy Blakeman, a Metcalfe
County (KY) native.
We start the tune off with a little bit of “Sally Goodin” and in the middle play
another fiddle tune called “Wake Up Susan.” Following an a cappella chorus of the
song, we lead the children into a simple Appalachian circle dance entitled
“Tennessee Mixer.” It is a mixer because the dance figures include a progressive
changing of partners, thereby “mixing” the dancers—a good way to meet one
another. Other figures are the right and left elbow swing, the two-hand swing, the
do-si-do, and the promenade—all typical beginning square-dance figures.
Chorus:
Stay all night, stay a little longer.
Dance all night, dance a little longer.
Pull off your coat and throw it in the corner.
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer.
Well, you ought to see my blue-eyed Sally
She lives way down on Chinbone Alley.
The number on the gate is the number on the door.
The next house over is a grocery store.
(chorus)
Well, you can’t go home if you are going by the mill
The bridge is washed out at the bottom of the hill.
Big Creek’s up, Big Creek’s level.
I find my field with a double shovel.
(chorus)
Well, I was sitting in the window singing to my love
When the slop bucket fell from the window up above.
A mule and a grasshopper eating ice cream,
The mule got sick and grasshopper screamed.
(chorus)
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