Violin My Great Grand-Daddy Made

Transcript

In our family there has been for many years a violin, it hangs in our front room upon the walls. Now it's not much on looks or strings, but when it comes to music things, that fiddle there has got it on them all. And though it's worn and old, it's worth its weight in gold.

My great granddaddy, when he was a laddie, Lady Yankee Doodle came to town upon that violin, and my own daddy's dad made my grandmammy glad. With way down south in the land of cotton, best tune that he had, now my dad takes that fiddle, and he'd think a page so soft and low, a rag, a rag, I love to hear it played. Then he hands that fiddle to me, and I play him at his melody, ti-a-dee-ah,

ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, on the violin my great granddaddy made. Many times that violin upon that wall just seems to grin, and play so soft and sweetly to its foe. As years roll on, the fashions change, the tunes today are mighty strange.

Twas not this way a hundred years ago, I realize it too, the tunes today are new. My great granddaddy, when he was a laddie, Lady Yankee Doodle came to town upon that violin, and my own daddy's dad made my grandmammy glad. With way down south in the land of cotton, best tune that he had, now my dad takes that bow, and he'd think a page so soft and low, a rag, a rag, I love to hear it played.

Then he hands the fiddle to me, and I play him at his melody, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, on the violin my great granddaddy made. Now my dad takes that bow, and he'd think a page so soft and low, a rag, a rag, I love to hear it played. Then he hands the fiddle to me, and I play him at his melody, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, ti-a-dee-ah, on the violin my great granddaddy made.

Transcribed by AI from the recording above. These are noisy hundred-year-old cylinders, so expect misheard words and the occasional invented line — trust your ears over the text.