This is a bluegrass standard, a traditional song that is as well-known among bluegrass musicians as Let it Be and All Along the Watchtower are known among rock and roll musicians. It was composed by Grand Ole Opry fiddler Arthur Smith and recorded by him with the Delmore Brothers in 1937. Since then, everyone else has put a version on vinyl, tape, or CD. Or at least done it live at a hoedown. The verses are highly mutable--in the bluegrass tradition, an artist is usually allowed to add or subtract or completely make up new verses as he or she sees fit. The version from which these lyrics are taken was recorded by Old and In the Way at their San Francisco concert of October 1, 1973.
-Chorus-
I've got a pig at home in a pen,
and corn to feed him on;
all I need's a pretty little girl
to feed him when I'm gone.
Bake those
biscuits, baby,
Bake 'em
good and brown;
when you get them biscuits baked,
we're
Alabammy bound.
chorus
Going on a
mountain,
I saw a little
cane.
Raised a
barrel of sorghum,
sweet as
Liza Jane.
chorus
Dark clouds rising:
sure sign of rain!
Get your old red barn shut up,
sweet little Liza Jane!
chorus,
breakdown, chorus