Cotton Eyed Joe

(words collected by Peter Budd)

From Brad Leftwich. Round Peak Style Clawhammer Banjo. Words from Tommy Jarrell. Key A

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty years ago
Daddy had a man called Cotton-Eyed Joe

Chorus: 
where’d you come from, where’d you go? 
Where’d you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?

He made him a fiddle and he made him a bow
And he made a little tune called Cotton-Eyed Joe

Cornstalk fiddle and a shoestring bow
And he played that tune called Cotton-Eyed Joe

You can hang up your fiddle and hang up your bow
Old Joe’s gone where the good folks go.


Cotton Eyed Joe 
From Volo Bogtrotters. Volo Bogtrotters Marimac 9024. Key of G

Structure: Sing verse on first A, then A instrumental, sing chorus on first B, then instrumental B, then AABB between every verse/chorus

Don’t you remember, don’t you ?go?,
Daddy ?wuh? a man called Cotton Eyed Joe

Chorus: 
where’d you come from, where’d you go? 
Where’d you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?

Had not been for the Cotton-Eyed Joe
I’d have been married, some 40 years ago

I fell down stubbed my toe
Call for the doctor, Cotton-Eyed Joe

Cornstalk fiddle and a shoestring bow,
Played a little tune called Cotton-Eyed Joe

Wanted to go to meeting, but I didn’t get to go,
Had to stay home with the Cotton-Eyed Joe

Finish with a sung chorus, then stop (ie no second B part)