"The Arkansas Traveler" was the state song of Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 from 1949 to 1963; it has been the state historical song since 1987. The music was composed in the 19th century by Colonel Sanford C. 'Sandy' Faulkner

Sanford Faulkner

Colonel Sanford C. 'Sandy' Faulkner was an American teller of tall tales, fiddle player, and composer of the popular fiddle tune "The Arkansas Traveler", which was the State song of Arkansas from 1949–1963....

 (1806–1874); the current official lyrics were written by a committee in 1947 in preparation for its naming as the state song.

Arkansas' other official state songs are "Arkansas

Arkansas (song)

"Arkansas", written by Eva Ware Barnett in 1916, is one of the official state songs of Arkansas. It was first adopted as the state song in the early 20th century, but was removed in 1949 due to a copyright dispute...

" (state anthem) as well as "Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)

Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)

"Arkansas " by Wayland Holyfield is one of the official state songs of Arkansas. It was written by Holyfield in 1986 for the state's 150th anniversary celebration, and was named an official "state song" by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1987...

" & "Oh, Arkansas

Oh, Arkansas

"Oh, Arkansas" by Terry Rose and Gary Klaff is one of the official state songs of Arkansas. It was written in 1986 for the state's 150th anniversary celebration, and was named an official "state song" by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1987....

" (both state songs).

The bumble bee verse has become a popular children's song, but has altered lyrics from the original:

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me?
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
Ouch! It stung me!

Lyrics

The song is traditionally known to have had several versions of lyrics, which are much older than the copyrighted song. The official lyrics as the state historical song of Arkansas are copyrighted and can be found on the website of the Arkansas Secretary of State. The words were composed by the Arkansas State Song Selection Committee in 1947:


On a lonely road quite long ago,
A trav'ler trod with fiddle and a bow;
While rambling thru the country rich and grand,
He quickly sensed the magic and the beauty of the land.

Chorus:
For the wonder state we'll sing a song,
And lift our voices loud and long.
For the wonder state we'll shout hurrah!
And praise the opportunities we find in Arkansas.

Many years have passed, the trav'lers gay,
Repeat the tune along the highway;
And every voice that sings the glad refrain
Re-echoes from the mountains to the fields of growing grain.

Repeat: Chorus


The following is a more traditional lyric (the first two stanzas were used on the version recorded on the Peter Pan

Peter Pan

Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...

 label for children. (It had "on" instead of "it's" just before "a rainy day".)


Oh, once upon a time in Arkansas,
An old man sat in his little cabin door
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear,
A jolly old tune that he played by ear.
It was raining hard, but the fiddler didn't care,
He sawed away at the popular air,
Tho' his rooftree leaked like a waterfall,
That didn't seem to bother the man at all.

A traveler was riding by that day,
And stopped to hear him a-practicing away;
The cabin was a-float and his feet were wet,
But still the old man didn't seem to fret.
So the stranger said "Now the way it seems to me,
You'd better mend your roof," said he.
But the old man said as he played away,
"I couldn't mend it now, it's a rainy day."

The traveler replied, "That's all quite true,
But this, I think, is the thing to do;
Get busy on a day that is fair and bright,
Then patch the old roof till it's good and tight."
But the old man kept on a-playing at his reel,
And tapped the ground with his leathery heel.
"Get along," said he, "for you give me a pain;
My cabin never leaks when it doesn't rain."


Another set of lyrics is about the traditional situation of a fiddler who only knows the first part of a two-part tune. This one appears to have been set to a different melody:


Oh, 'twas down in the woods of the Arkansaw,
And the night was cloudy and the wind was raw,
And he didn't have a bed, and he didn't have a bite,
And if he hadn't fiddled, he'd a travelled all night.

But he came to a cabin, and an old gray man,
And says he, "Where am I going? Now tell me if you can."

"Oh, we'll have a little music first and then some supper, too,
But before we have the supper we will play the music through.
You'll forget about your supper, you'll forget about your home,
You'll forget you ever started out in Arkansaw to roam."

Now the old man sat a-fiddling by the little cabin door,
And the tune was pretty lively, and he played it o'er and o'er,
And the stranger sat a-list'ning and a-wond'ring what to do,
As he fiddled and he fiddled, but he never played it through.

Then the stranger asked the fiddler, "Won't you play the rest for me?"
"Don't know it," says the fiddler. "Play it for yourself!" says he.

Then the stranger took the fiddle, with a riddy-diddle-diddle,
And the strings began to tingle at the jingle of the bow,
While the old man sat and listened, and his eyes with pleasure glistened,
As he shouted, "Hallelujah! And hurray for Joe!"


The set of traditional lyrics below, about a boy and a fiddling bear, are believed to have inspired Albert Bigelow Paine

Albert Bigelow Paine

Albert Bigelow Paine was an American author and biographer best known for his work with Mark Twain. Paine was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Committee and wrote in several genres, including fiction, humour, and verse....

's two children's novels, The Arkansaw Bear (1898) and The Arkansaw Bear and Elsie.


Oh, there was a little boy and his name was Bo,
Went out into the woods when the moon was low,
And he met an old bear who was hungry for a snack,
And his folks are still a-waiting for Bosephus to come back.

For the boy became the teacher of this kind and gentle creature
Who can play upon the fiddle in a very skillful way.
And they'll never, ever sever, and they'll travel on forever,
Bosephus and the fiddle and the old black bear.


This may have inspired Aurand Harris in the 20th century to write a play about a circus and a child confronting death. His work was also named The Arkansaw Bear (1970s), but it had a much different storyline and portrayal of the bear. The lyrics may also have inspired the nicknaming of the country singer Hank Williams, Jr.

Hank Williams, Jr.

Randall Hank Williams , better known as Hank Williams, Jr. and Bocephus, is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and traditional country...

 as "Bocephus."

Today the best-known lyrics to the melody are probably those of a traditional American children's song; they are sung only to to the first part of the tune. Children learn various gestures to portray the song.


I'm bringin' home a baby bumblebee
Oh, my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringin' home a baby bumblebee—Ow! It stung me!

I'm squishin' up my baby bumblebee (same structure as first verse)
...Yuck! It's dirty!

I'm scraping off my baby bumblebee
...Mmm. I'm hungry!

I'm scooping up my baby bumblebee (gestures show scooping into mouth and eating)
...Ow! My tummy!

I'm throwing up my baby bumblebee
...Yuck. It's messy.

I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee....

A 1957 elementary school song book has a version of the song with the same melody and rhythm as the official state one.

Far and far away down in Arkansas
There lived a squatter with a stubborn jaw.
His nose was ruby red and his whiskers gray
And he would sit and fiddle all the night and all the day.

Came a traveler down the road and asked if he could find a bed
Yes try the road the kindly squatter said.
Then could you point me out the way to find a tavern or an inn.
Down the road a piece I reckon though I've never been.

Then the rain came down on the cabin floor
But the squatter only fiddled all the more.
Why don't you mend your roof said the traveler bold
How can I mend the roof when the rain is wet and cold.

Squatter pick a day with weather bright and fair and nice.
Patch up your roof, that is my advice.
The squatter shook his hoary head and answered with a stubborn air
Cabin never leaks a drop when days are bright and fair.


An instrumental version of the song was recorded as early as 1922 by the fiddlers Eck Robertson

Eck Robertson

Alexander "Eck" Robertson was an American fiddle player, mostly known for commercially recording the first country music songs in 1922 with Henry Gilliland.-Early life:...

 and Henry C. Gilliland. The first known vocal recording of the song was made by Dan Hornsby

Dan Hornsby

Isaac Daniel Hornsby was an American singer, musician, music writer, producer and arranger.-Before career:His father Joseph Todd Hornsby was a contractor and a part time Baptist minister....

 and Clayton McMichen

Clayton McMichen

Clayton McMichen was an American fiddler and country musician.-Biography:Born in Allatoona, Georgia, McMichen learned to play the fiddle from his father and uncle. He moved to Atlanta with his family in 1913, working as an automobile mechanic. While there, he entered and won several competitions...

 on 4/12/1928 and was commercially released as Columbia 15000D Series #W146039 15253 Part 1 & #W146038 15253D part 2.

Uses in film

"The Arkansas Traveler" was frequently featured in animated cartoon

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

s in the 1930s and 1940s, most prolifically by Carl Stalling

Carl Stalling

Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...

 in music he composed for the Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...

 and Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

 series. It usually was played, sloppily, when a yokel

Yokel

Yokel is a derogatory term referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people.-Stereotype:In the US, it is used to describe someone living in rural areas...

, hillbilly

Hillbilly

Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...

, or "country bumpkin" character would appear on screen.

A slow version of the "Bringing home a baby bumble-bee" version is sung by Beaky Buzzard in some of his Looney Tunes appearances, notably "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid

Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid

Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid is a 1942 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres by Warner Bros. Pictures. It marks the first appearance of Beaky Buzzard in a Warner Bros...

". This probably use the same yokel image that the tune evokes elsewhere in the Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Cartoons

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...

 cartoon series.

The popularity and joyfulness of "The Arkansas Traveler" was attested to in the 1932 Academy Award-winning Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

 short, The Music Box. In this film, the boys labored to haul a player piano up a long flight of stairs and into a house through a bedroom window. Near the conclusion of their adventure, as they are starting to clean up their mess surrounding the newly installed piano, Stan and Ollie play a roll of "Patriotic Melodies". They dance with much grace and amusement to "The Arkansas Traveler", followed briefly by "Dixie

Dixie (song)

Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular. Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point...

". Marvin Hatley

Marvin Hatley

Thomas Marvin Hatley , professionally known simply as Marvin Hatley, was an American film composer and musical director, best known for his work for the Hal Roach studio from 1929 until 1940....

, who composed Laurel and Hardy's "Cuckoo" theme song, was the pianist for this sequence; the player piano was not real.

Vaudeville

"The Arkansas Traveler" was a popular comedy sketch on the vaudeville circuit. It revolved around the encounter of a (usually lost) traveling city person with a local, wise-cracking fiddle player. Various jokes at the expense of the "city slicker" were interspersed with instrumental versions of the song. In many versions, the city person is also a fiddle player, and as the sketch progresses, eventually learns the tune and plays along with the country bumpkin.

The contemporary singer Michelle Shocked

Michelle Shocked

Michelle Shocked is the stage name of Michelle Karen Johnston, an American singer-songwriter.-History:Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes .Her first U.S...

 includes a Vaudville-style version of "Arkansas Traveler" on her 1992 album

Arkansas Traveler (Michelle Shocked album)

Arkansas Traveler is an alternative folk album released by American singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked in 1992. Her fourth album for Mercury Records, the songs focused around the roots of her music...

 of the same name. Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...

 and David Grisman

David Grisman

David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...

 also do a version on their 1993 album Not for Kids Only

Not for Kids Only

Not for Kids Only is the name of an album of children's songs released by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. Most of the songs come from the Southeast region of the United States...

.

In other media

The song is the centerpiece of The Legend of the Arkansas Traveler, a short "Concert Paraphrase on an Old American Fiddle Tune" for orchestra composed by Harl McDonald

Harl McDonald

Harl McDonald was an American composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. McDonald studied at the University of California, the University of Redlands, and the Leipzig Conservatory...

in 1939.

External links

• "The Arkansas Traveler", plot summary of a play from the 1850s based on the story.
• Lyrics and audio of "The Arkansas Traveler", Arkansas Secretary of State website
• Arkansas Code Section 1-4-116 (State songs and anthem)
• "Arkansas Traveler", 1956 Florida Folk Festival (Music from the Florida Folklife Collection CD, available for public use from the Florida State Archives.)
• "The Arkansas Traveler sketch in Vaudeville", America's Library