He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame in the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands. After his "rediscovery" during the folk revival of the 1960s, Ashley spent the last years of his life playing at folk music concerts, including appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.
Clarence Ashley was born Clarence Earl McCurry in Bristol, Tennessee in 1895, the only child of George McCurry and Rose-Belle Ashley. Those who knew George McMurry described him variously as a "one-eyed fiddler, hell-raiser, and big talker." Shortly before Clarence was born, Rose-Belle's father, Enoch Ashley, discovered that George was an adulterer, and George was forced to leave town. Rose-Belle moved back in with her father, and around 1900, the family relocated to Shouns, Tennessee, a crossroads just south of Mountain City, where Enoch ran a boarding house. When Clarence was very young, he was nicknamed "Tommy Tiddy Waddy" (after a nursery rhyme) by his grandfather Enoch, and thus became known to friends and acquaintances as 'Tom'. As he was raised by the parents of his mother, the name "McCurry" was dropped in favour of "Ashley".
From his birth, Tom was surrounded by musicians. His grandfather bought him a banjo when he was eight years old, and his mother and aunts taught him to play folk songs and ballads. He also learned a number of songs and techniques from itinerant lumberjacks and railroad workers lodging at his grandfather's boarding house. In 1911, Tom joined a medicine show that happened to be passing through Mountain City. He played banjo and guitar, and also performed blackface comedy. Tom would play with medicine shows every summer until the early 1940s. During winters, he organized local concerts at rural schools. He would also play for money at coal camps and rayon mills, often accompanied by influential Johnson County fiddler G. B. Grayson.
Tom made his first recordings for Gennett Records in February 1928 with the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers, which then consisted of Ashley on banjo or guitar, Garley Foster on harmonica, and Clarence Green on fiddle.[3] Later that year, with the help of Victor producer Ralph Peer, Ashley made several recordings with the Carolina Tar Heels, which consisted of Tom on guitar and vocals, his friend Dock Walsh on banjo, and Gwen or Garley Foster on harmonica. In 1929, Columbia Records recruited Ashley to make his first solo recordings, as will as to record with a trio called "Byrd Moore and His Hot Shots." In the early 1930s, Ashley again recorded with the Blue Ridge Entertainers, this time for the American Record Corporation. The final recordings from his early era were a series of duets with harmonica player Gwen Foster in 1933.
The effects of the Great Depression made money scarce throughout the early 1930s. Not only was Ashley no longer recruited to make records, it was virtually impossible to earn money playing at coal camps or on street corners. The Depression (along with government regulations) also greatly reduced the crowds that showed up at medicine shows. Ashley briefly worked as a coal miner in West Virginia, and did odd jobs back in Shouns to support his wife, Hettie, and their two children. In 1937, he established a trucking business in Mountain City that hauled furniture and crops to various cities around the region. Throughout the following decade, Ashley performed as a comedian with the Stanley Brothers. He also formed a local string band, the Tennessee Merrymakers.
During the folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, urban ethnomusicologists rediscovered Ashley's music. By this time, Ashley was well-known in folk music circles due in large part to Harry Smith's 1951 Anthology of American Folk Music, which included some of Ashley's early recordings. In 1960 Ralph Rinzler met Ashley at the Old Time Fiddler's Convention in Union Grove, North Carolina. He eventually persuaded him to start playing banjo again and to record his repertoire of songs. Over the next few years Ashley and his friends Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price played at numerous urban folk festivals, including the Chicago Folk Festival in 1962 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. They also made two records for Folkways Records. A compilation of the two records plus other recordings are available on Original Folkways Recordings: 1960-1962.
Ashley continued touring the folk circuit throughout the mid-1960s. He appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York and played at dozens of venues in California. In 1966, Ashley and Reidsville, North Carolina guitarist Tex Isley toured England. A second tour of England was planned for 1967, but Ashley grew ill and discovered he had cancer before he departed. He died in 1967, at the Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Ashley learned much of his repertoire from his grandfather and aunts and itinerant musicians lodging at his grandfather's boarding house in the early 1900s. His unique G-modal banjo tuning style, which he called "sawmill" (gDGCD from fifth string to the first), was likely taught to him by family members. He recorded several songs derived from English or Irish ballads that were passed down through generations in Appalachia, the most well-known of which included "Coo Coo Bird" (which he learned from his mother), "House Carpenter", and "Rude and Rambling Man". Other recordings included the murder ballads "Naomi Wise", "Little Sadie", and "John Hardy", and the folk songs "Frankie Silvers" and "Greenback Dollar". A strong African-American influence can be heard on Ashley's renderings of "Dark Holler", "Haunted Road Blues", and "Corrina, Corrina". In 1933, Ashley made the first known recording of "House of the Rising Sun", which he claimed he learned from his grandfather, Enoch. During the folk revival years in the 1960s, Ashley and his band helped to popularize the Southern hymn, "Amazing Grace."
Several notable musicians cite Ashley as an important influence. Country music singer Roy Acuff once toured the medicine show circuit with Ashley, and Ashley probably taught him "House of the Rising Sun" (which Acuff recorded in 1938) and "Greenback Dollar." Folk musician Doc Watson began his recording career with Ashley in 1960 and played in Ashley's band throughout much of the decade. Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia once said in an interview that he learned clawhammer picking from "listening to Clarence Ashley." Other folk musicians influenced by Ashley include Townes Van Zandt, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Jean Ritchie.
Little Sadie
Clarence Ashley Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I met little Sadie and I shot her down
Went back home and I got in my bed
Forty four pistol under my head
Wake up next morning 'bout a half past nine
The hacks and the buggies all standing in line
Gents and the gamblers standing all round
Then I begin to think what a deed I'd done
I grabbed my hat and away I run
Made a good run but a little too slow
They overtook me in Jericho
I was standing on the corner, reading the bill
When up stepped the sheriff from Thomasville
He said, young man, ain't your name Brown?
Remember the night you shot Sadie down?
I said, yes, sir, my name is Lee
I murdered little Sadie in the first degree
And first degree and the second degree
If you got any papers, won't you read 'em to me?
They took me downtown and dressed me in black
Put me on the train and started me back
They crammed me back in that Thomasville jail
And I had no money for to go my bail
That judge and the jury, they took their stand
The judge had the papers in his right hand
Forty one days and forty one nights
Forty one years to wear the ball and the stripes
The lyrics of Clarence Ashley's "Little Sadie" tell a chilling story of a man who killed a woman he met one night, and the regret and punishment he faces after the act. The song starts with the singer going out for a little round and meeting a woman named Sadie, who he shoots down. He then returns home and places his pistol under his head. The next morning, he wakes up and realizes the gravity of his actions when he sees the hacks and buggies lining up to take Sadie to the burying ground. He then flees, but gets caught by the law.
As the song progresses, the singer reveals his guilt and soberly confesses to the murder in the first and second degrees, asking the sheriff to read him the papers that incriminate him. He is taken to jail, where he spends forty-one days and forty-one nights awaiting his trial, and he is subsequently sentenced to forty-one years in prison, hinted by the line "forty-one years to wear the ball and the stripes."
The song conveys a strong sense of regret and consequences that come with making a grave mistake. The singer faces punishment for his crime, which serves as a warning against murder and impulsive actions.
Line by Line Meaning
Went out one night for to make a little round
I went out for a leisurely walk one evening.
I met little Sadie and I shot her down
I met a woman named Sadie and fatally shot her.
Went back home and I got in my bed
I returned home and went to bed.
Forty four pistol under my head
I slept with a loaded forty-four pistol under my head.
Wake up next morning 'bout a half past nine
I woke up the next morning around 9:30.
The hacks and the buggies all standing in line
A procession of carriages and buggies were lined up.
Gents and the gamblers standing all round
Well-dressed men and gamblers were standing around.
Taking little Sadie to her burying ground
They were taking the body of the deceased Sadie to her grave.
Then I begin to think what a deed I'd done
I started to reflect on the heinous act I had committed.
I grabbed my hat and away I run
I quickly grabbed my hat and ran away.
Made a good run but a little too slow
My escape was decent but not fast enough.
They overtook me in Jericho
I was caught and apprehended in Jericho.
I was standing on the corner, reading the bill
I was reading a poster on the street corner.
When up stepped the sheriff from Thomasville
The sheriff from Thomasville stepped up to me.
He said, young man, ain't your name Brown?
The sheriff asked me if my name was Brown.
Remember the night you shot Sadie down?
He reminded me of the night I killed Sadie.
I said, yes, sir, my name is Lee
I admitted that my name was Lee.
I murdered little Sadie in the first degree
I confessed to murdering Sadie in the first degree.
And first degree and the second degree
I admitted to committing both first and second-degree murder.
If you got any papers, won't you read 'em to me?
I requested the sheriff to read any documents he may have.
They took me downtown and dressed me in black
They took me to the city and put me in black clothing.
Put me on the train and started me back
They put me on a train and sent me back to my hometown.
They crammed me back in that Thomasville jail
They put me back in jail in Thomasville.
And I had no money for to go my bail
I had no money to pay my bail to be released from jail.
That judge and the jury, they took their stand
Both the judge and jury took their positions.
The judge had the papers in his right hand
The judge held legal papers in his right hand.
Forty one days and forty one nights
I spent forty-one days and nights in jail.
Forty one years to wear the ball and the stripes
I was sentenced to forty-one years of hard labor in prison.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: DOC WATSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
banjopiano1
A Forty-four smokeless under my head! What an awesome song! It's truly amazing how many people don't realize how many musical treasures are hidden in the old 78's from the 1920's and 30's. They ought to have an XM satellite station called 1920's American Music and play Clarence Ashley, Dock Boggs, Charlie Poole, Buell Kazee, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Land Norris, Samantha Bumgartner, Wade Ward, Uncle Dave Macon all day long!!
wickedmrpickett
Someone got in my car one time and asked why I was listening to the 40's station on XM. I said it was because they didn't have a 30's station. I would superglue my dial to a station that focused on pre-war records.
Tony Thomas
the wonderful thing is that all this music is now available to anyone with a computer. Back in the 1960s when I started out, only collectors had these records, and there were few reissues, It was like getting an audience with the Queen to be invited to gatherings where the collectors who had these recordings would play them and you could here the real McCoy
Sherrard
Tony Thomas Thanks to Harry Smith, as a high school student in the sixties, the record collection of the Anaheim Public Library gave me an introduction to what I didn’t yet know I was missing. Thank you, Harry for offering me that back-row seat at the table.
Joanne Hack
Please don’t forget Mississippi John Hurt. 💜
Gary Morris
Clarence Ashley can do no wrong. Wonderful version.
Sammy V
I discovered this song through the 'theme time radio hour' broadcasts by Bob Dylan. Great tune, so pure! Thanks for posting
rockartistet
Probably the best version . Just amazing. I’m a Brit listening to American folk
VloggerJohnson
I'm from upstate New York and being from the northern Appalachian region I really appreciate this! I love old-time music, bluegrass, and any American folk music
Rohan The Rock With The Rocket HandsRichardson
I need to learn more of these songs and get the sheet music so I can get the practice on singing them!