RG - Posted - 08/29/2025:  10:32:47

Picked a Hammons Family tune for this week, "Red Rocking Chair" as played by Sherman Hammons (1903-1988), a nephew of legendary West Virginia fiddler Edn (Edden) Hammons.

No study of West Virginia old-time music would be complete without understanding the importance of the Hammons family, and indeed, Dwight Diller's  (and others) importance in preserving it.  It's a long and oft-repeated story which I won't relate here, suffice to say that old-time musician extraordinaire Gerry Milnes covers it all in his great book "Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia", a fascinating and quick read of West Virginia musical traditions stretching back centuries... a highly recommended read.

The tune is a familiar one, although played in a great tuning (eEABD). "Red Rocking Chair", a large family of tunes known by other names (Sugar Babe, Sugar Baby, Honey Babe, Who'll Rock the Cradle, etc.) and usually sung with floating verses among the tunes that also are sung to the other branch of "Red Rocking Chair" played using the melody most associated with "The Crawdad Song." This tune is found throughout old-time circles in Appalachia and the southeast and midwest, as well as among delta, southeast and Texas blues players. Given the tune and use of common floating lyrics, I would suspect an African-American origin for a lot of the tune, with obvious additions by players of other ethnicities, to end up with the large family of "Red Rocking Chair/Sugar Babe" tunes. A true "melting pot" tune. Dock Boggs sang the following lyrics in his 1927 Brunswick 78 release of "Sugar Baby."

Oh I've got no sugar baby now

All I can do is to seek peace with you

And I can't get along this a-way

Can't get along this a-way



All I can do, I've said all I can say

I'll send it to your mama next payday

Send you to your mama next payday



I got no use for the red rockin' chair

I've got no honey baby now

Got no sugar baby now



Who'll rock the cradle, who'll sing the song

Who'll rock the cradle when I'm gone

Who'll rock the cradle when I'm gone?

I'll rock the cradle, I'll sing the song

I'll rock the cradle when you gone

I'll rock the cradle when you gone



All I can do, I've said all I can say

I will send you to your mama next payday



Laid her in the shade, give her every dime I made

What more could a poor boy do

What more could a poor boy do?

I learned the tune years ago from a field recording that I got from someone (can't remember who originally gave it to me, but it's this one recorded by Brad Leftwich in 1973 where Brad listed the tune as "Sugar Babe"), but the Field Recorders Collective release has Sherman playing 2 versions of the tune. Sherman was a fine fiddler and great banjo player who played a wide repertoire of tunes, most in gCGBD or gDGBD, but a couple in f#DADD and of course this one in eEABD. I highly recommend the FRC CD (or any FRC CD for that matter). Played on my resonator 1974 OME, somewhere close to eEABD, hope you enjoy this tune and wishing US hangouters a great Labor Day weekend if you're lucky enough to get Monday off.

Take care!

Edited by - RG on 08/31/2025 14:35:44

Sherman Hammons

Sherman and Lee Hammons

Hammons Family

Red Rocking Chair

JanetB - Posted - 08/30/2025:  18:02:46

You captured Sherman Hammons' banjo all right, RG!  I had to listen carefully, slow it down, and still can't really figure it out.  So I went forward on one of the links to where Sherman sings a bit and that's how I came up with a melodic arrangement, lifting a few of your posted lyrics.  The other Red Rocking Chair I play is more cheerful.  The tune was once a TOTW in 2013 and has some bluegrass samples to hear.  Sherman's is more sad and bluesy -- one verse infers that a young mother died.  The tuning eEABD is new for me and here it is in Anita Kermode's tuning list described on Donald Zepp's site as a Hammons Family "Sugar Babe" tuning in E minor. 

Edited by - JanetB on 08/30/2025 18:18:00

Red Rocking Chair tab

Red Rocking Chair (TOTW)